Modern Wood - a starter home

[witch]

Another starter home. This one is §19,790. It is a more modern open plan home with lots of wood and glass. Two double bedrooms, two full bathrooms.

Per Pescado advice, both of the showers are good quality. The second bedroom has two cribs so that awesomemod will use the house.

The house was about §20,300 odd, so I had to delete the desk and the bookcase. Then when I exported it, it dropped to the above price. Go figure. I used the lattice foundation, so no wall coverings there, and only three shrubs. I also used wandhere to drop the price.

Anyway, here 'tis.

Long shot



Front



Back



Cool roof



Floor plan



Inside main living area



Download lot.

Also available at Laverwinklesims..

[rosess]

Snagged! 

I haven't caught the building bug for TS3 yet, and don't like building with budgets anyway, so a cute, well-organized starter is much appreciated. 

[OpiumGirl]

I don't usually download lots but this is great. Thanks for putting it out here for non-house-builders like me.

[witch]

Thanks. I'm trying a few tricks. pbox tells me it's better to build in live mode with sims in residence and Pescado has provided the 'wandhere' command. Between these two means of depreciation I can make better houses for under §20K. I may even try for some under §16k, once I get the feel for Sims 3 lots.

I'm hoping to do a series of starters as I find the time.

[OpiumGirl]

I am looking forward to your series.  I hope you'll continue.
I never did understand what the "wandhere" was for, even in Sims 2.  Now that it's for Sims 3, I'm more confused.  How does that help you with the cost of the lots?

[witch]

Wandhere depreciates the value of the contents of the lot. So it's like the used price instead of the new price. It means you can put more stuff in. 

[Hrnac]

I tried this in the empty version of Riverview last night. Had to delete a few items to reduce the price below 16,000, but otherwise the house was pretty good. One minor suggestion would be to move the house back from the street a bit so that it will fit better on some of the medium size lots. I hope you make a few more of these lower price houses.

[witch]

Thanks for the suggestion, I hadn't thought of that. The practice of putting houses near the front of the lot is a hangover from TS2 building. It used to make it closer for sims to go to work and allow more space in the back for activities. This is no longer really necessary. I've been building on 20x30 lots so I can see this would look quite exaggerated on larger lots.

One thing I did think of, was putting the main entrance nearer a corner, so that if it is placed on the wide shallow 20x30 lot, instead of the narrower deeper one I am designing on, then at least it would be easier to pathway to an entrance.

Just a note - most people on the forum don't sign their names on their posts, we figure we can see the poster's name right there, so it isn't necessary.

As for the §16k limit, that's really quite hard. Someone said you can't even search on TS3 for houses under §16k, only under §20k. I'm probably not going there with building, there would be little scope for innovation.

[Hrnac]

What about doing both furnished and unfurnished versions? That would allow you to be creative and also make the houses easier to use with the 16K limit for those who do not give their sims additional funds to start out with.  I am not sure if one can opt to purchase a given house without furnishings if it comes with them. I recently purchased the sims 3, so I am still in the fledgling learning process.

[chaos]

I'm pretty sure that the game already allows sims to purchase lots either furnished or unfurnished, but this is only when moving in a sim from the bin, not when the game decides to move homeless sims into houses on its own.

[witch]

I will experiment with that. It would be easy enough to get some sims to move in unfurnished, then export that to the lot bin.

Oh and yes, usually sims are offered the option furnished or unfurnished, I think even when moving house to house. I don't know what the deal is for homeless sims. I know the homeless won't move in unless there are enough bed slots, so the house would have to have beds, at least.

Note: The bed slots are require by Awesomemod, not EAxis.

[J. M. Pescado]

It looks like you've used crap, substandard beds and stoves, too. Kinda renders the house pointless to use as a result. You must not cut corners on beds, stoves, or showers, as using substandard parts is worse than nothing at all!

[Motoki]

It looks like you've used crap, substandard beds and stoves, too. Kinda renders the house pointless to use as a result. You must not cut corners on beds, stoves, or showers, as using substandard parts is worse than nothing at all!

Meh, screw that. I have the socialized energy xml mod from MTS.

I got tired of always feeling forced to use the same damned bed and sometimes that bed does not match the type of house I am building. Also, he has a good point that a bed doesn't make you magically sleep longer (or shorter).

The beds still will give positive or negative moodlets based on their comfort so a cheap bed will still give you a sore back.

[witch]

I'm using a bed mod that gives the same energy, just varying comfort, it might be the same as yours Motoki.

JM, I didn't know I should be putting expensive beds and stoves in, I thought it was just showers. I certainly can upgrade for the next starter.

[Hrnac]

One would think that creating a "starter house" would imply a similar "starter" level of furnishings. The goal would be to get a house on a lot for at or below 16K. After that is done, the interior furnishings can be upgraded as funds allow. I also agree that variety with regards to furnishings is nice so one does not end up using the same five or six 'best items" for every house.

[Scroll]

One would think that creating a "starter house" would imply a similar "starter" level of furnishings. The goal would be to get a house on a lot for at or below 16K. After that is done, the interior furnishings can be upgraded as funds allow. I also agree that variety with regards to furnishings is nice so one does not end up using the same five or six 'best items" for every house.

I think I might agree with this.
What would the reason be to furnish with the better utilities from start when you will quite quickly be able to replace the crap once your sim gets "started"?
I am a builder and mostly do starters (below 16.000), I would like to know why this would be important for you guys. 

[Roflganger]

I also agree with low end furniture for starter homes.  Part of the fun for me is slowly upgrading stuff to more expensive, more attractive things as my Sims earn money.  When they've worked their asses off enough, I grant them little remodeling projects, much like those in real life, where I'll redo their bathroom or kit out their kitchen.    Otherwise, what's there to do with all that money?

[witch]

True, I enjoy playing that way too. In fact I've been enjoying remodelling the EAxis houses in the game as well as building new ones.

The more expensive stoves/showers/terlets/whatever, probably give good buffs (moodlets). Awesomemod makes full use of buffs when sims are being run by the Supreme Commander. There were some early reports of sims running to the gym to shower because the showers there were better quality.

I don't say I agree with this in terms of new, poor sims. I would rather they worked themselves up from nothing too - but - I play with Awesomemod so for one thing, if I want AM to use my lots and move families in, I have to have at least enough beds and 2 cots.

So I don't know if the showers etc will affect suitability for AM moving sims in. I'll have to wait and see what happens.

[J. M. Pescado]

One would think that creating a "starter house" would imply a similar "starter" level of furnishings. The goal would be to get a house on a lot for at or below 16K. After that is done, the interior furnishings can be upgraded as funds allow. I also agree that variety with regards to furnishings is nice so one does not end up using the same five or six 'best items" for every house.

Except that in TS3, certain low-level items are, in fact, less than useless, meaning you are paying money for something that is HARMFUL. Throw on the fact that the depreciation charges destroy the money you put into buying HARMFUL items, and it is clear that this is entirely contrary to the MATY ethos: Accept no Kewian-based substitutes!

There are thus things, just like in TS2, that you do not cut: Beds, as always, and in TS3, the stove and fridge are things you either get high-end, or don't get at all. Most of these items are not survival necessities and if you cannot afford to get one that will actually help, you may as well not get at all. Accept no Kewian-based substitutes!

[Scroll]

True, I enjoy playing that way too. In fact I've been enjoying remodelling the EAxis houses in the game as well as building new ones.

The more expensive stoves/showers/terlets/whatever, probably give good buffs (moodlets). Awesomemod makes full use of buffs when sims are being run by the Supreme Commander. There were some early reports of sims running to the gym to shower because the showers there were better quality.

I don't say I agree with this in terms of new, poor sims. I would rather they worked themselves up from nothing too - but - I play with Awesomemod so for one thing, if I want AM to use my lots and move families in, I have to have at least enough beds and 2 cots.

So I don't know if the showers etc will affect suitability for AM moving sims in. I'll have to wait and see what happens.

So if I want to create an awesome starter with the awesomemod in mind hoping the mod moves familys in, what would the rules be?
Is there a difference between the houses the townies will move into and the starter houses your active families will start with? Do you care if the townies get cold showers and less sleep?

High end: showers/tubs, beds, stoves and fridges. Anything else?
Number of beds and cots?
Anything extra?

This would be a great challenge for me! Not only do I have the 16K for single sim and 20K for couple sim budget but I need to make sure stuff is up to standard if I create "awesome starters".

[cuthbert]

Thank you for uploading this. I have downloaded lots of houses since TS2, and hardly ever used any of them. I like the various ideas of the uploaders (especially houses made by plasticbox - they're amazingly pretty,) but always end up building the house myself because while the downloaded houses are pleasing to the eye, they are rarely good at playing in them. Your house looks very good AND funtional. I really like it. 

[J. M. Pescado]

So if I want to create an awesome starter with the awesomemod in mind hoping the mod moves familys in, what would the rules be?
Is there a difference between the houses the townies will move into and the starter houses your active families will start with? Do you care if the townies get cold showers and less sleep?

Townies don't actually care about any of these things and do not TRULY use their furniture except when you really look, so no, they don't care. However, it's best to design houses you will actually USE!

High end: showers/tubs, beds, stoves and fridges. Anything else?

For PLAYABLE usage, you need high-end showers (tubs and showertubs are luxury items of low utility), beds (There's a huge 3 hour difference between them!), and fridges (at least middle-class, the cheapest is right out). Everything else, you can slash corners on ruthlessly. Quality of chairs is irrelevant, for instance, as chairs are only used to read from (you don't read at home) or watch TV (you can't afford one worth watching), or other very short-duration tasks. Plus the moodlet only stick as long as you sit in it, which is, really, not very long. The highest quality terlet is indestructible, but this isn't necessarily an asset when you want to grind the repair skill up.