Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Suburban Blues (Download available at MTS)

Suburban Blues is a fairly simple sim house with a comfortable interior and plenty of space for a small family.

This home has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, and it has enough room to sleep four sims and one baby or toddler. 

Front view

 1st Floor

2nd Floor

 Back of lot (tree removed for photos)

 Dining Room

Garage
Kitchen
 Living room and access to the sunporch

 Outdoor dining and play area


Sunporch

Suburban Blues contains a minimal amount of CC -
Scalloped roof by QBUILDERZ: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=373803
OMSP by granthes: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=428179

The lot can be downloaded here.

A Modern Mistake (No Download)

Modern homes seem to be an absolute favorite of TS3 lot builders, and I can see why. It's easy to make a modern house look dramatic, and it allows the builder to utilize an open floor plan (a touch easier than trying to balance interior and exterior layout). Not to mention, you can use a flat roof without guilt. Dear god how I hate fiddling with roofing. I'm not criticizing the people who build these lots. They look lovely, and they're super popular.

But I have a terrible confession to make: I know less than nothing about building modern houses. This style simple isn't present in my area. The buildings I grew up around are more likely to be Victorian, built during the civil war, or newer prefabs. We just don't do modern in this corner of Ohio. Sure, I've seen modern homes on television and on the net, but it isn't a style that I feel very confident in replicating. But I was feeling gutsy, and I wanted to try to experiment with getting more familiar with it.

But I cocked it up in more than a few places.
I scoured the internet looking for good pictures of modern houses, but I couldn't find one that I really like (or felt that I could duplicate), so I just started building with no particular plan in mind.
In case you're saying, "Well, that's a dumbass move," let me assure you that I agree.

I don't always have a solid plan when I'm building, but I really patched this thing together. I pretty much built a box, and I added wings for interest and to accommodate rooms. All the while, I was singing, "I don't know what the fuck I'm doing!"

Yep, I sing self-deprecating songs while I'm building. My favorite tunes include: "Colors: How do they work," "What the hell do you mean I can't do that," and "I can hide this fuck-up with moar deco."

Here is a weirdo room that I stuck on the roof. The cool thing is that it affords access to that awesome flat roof. In my actual game. I placed a couple of telescopes up there to encourage some probing.

So what are the consequences of building with absolutely no plan? You end up with a giant mansion that only has 2 bedrooms and 3 1/2 bathrooms. Yep - that's it. It does have three bars, so my sims can get hammered enough to sleep on the floor.

The second floor has one bedroom, an office, two bathrooms, a bizarre sitting area, a bar area with karaoke machine, a few indoor and outdoor seating areas, and a pool table/rec area.
Besides lacking a satisfying number of bedrooms, there is a lot of wasted space. Yes, a modern house should be open, but this thing is a sprawling behemoth.

The ground floor contains a second bedroom, sunken living room, dining room, kitchen, access to the basement, and a gym. The outdoor area has a full kitchen with a bar, pool, hot tub, and a car port.
Front entrance
Sunken living room

Tamika could not be convinced to leave the television for five minutes. So I offed her in the backyard moments after this shot was taken.


Dining room and kitchen area

 This house was another victim of my disappearing items. There used to be a really nice painting on the wall here, but it has left for greener pastures.
Outdoor dining
 Guest bedroom
 Gym
Office

 Again, I'm a geek for balconies and walls full of windows.
 The upstairs party area
 This is the bizarre seating area that I mentioned before. There must be a better way to use this space, but I squandered it on a giant couch.
 A balcony with more room for drinking
There are actually a number of small hiding spots in the balcony areas of this house. I thought they may be fun for sims who want to sneak away from the main party for a little more privacy.
 The master bedroom
The master bath


I certainly like some parts of this house, but it still needs work. However, it has given me some ideas and a little more experience for my next attempt.

The Old Victorian (No Download)

I based this house on some of the places in my hometown and some great online pics of Victorian homes. It's also where I learned that you absolutely must have testing sims on property during a build, or you'll end up cursing your existence and knocking out walls. Yeah, I totally wanted to rebuild that roof 6 more times. (Fuck roofing)  The house still needs some work (especially after I had some items randomly disappear from my downloads), but I figured my sims could continue to improve it as they started their new family.

The Old Victorian
 The house has 3 bedrooms, but it sleeps six comfortably. It also has 4 bathrooms (each bedroom has its own attached bath). There are two main living floors, but there is also a full basement and an attic that could be arranged as an extra bedroom.

 The great wraparound porch was one of the main reasons I wanted to try building this house. I love that it has little nooks and crannies for socializing and enjoying the outdoors. The backyard needs some more landscaping. I can't seem to settle on the right trees for the place.
 This house was created for another member of my gardening legacy, but I have yet to send him out to plant all of the starters that his parents gave him. I imagine it's only a matter of time before it, too, is fertilized with townies.
 The first floor contains the living room, dining room, bathroom, study, and kitchen with breakfast bar.
 The second floor has a large master suite with room for a baby. The parents of this sim were rolling wishes for grandchildren so frantically, that I hoped this might give them some ideas. I have also included a child's bedroom, fully decorated, and an incomplete spare bedroom.

 Finally, the third floor attic. I'm mostly using it as storage for seasonal decorations, but it could be easily converted to an extra bedroom.
 This fucking roof.... I must have redone it 20 times, and it is still not right. I swear, I'm going back to building boxes.
 A shot of the living room with a nifty little window alcove. My sim is proper, so I wanted a sort of classic feel for the room.
 A small coat area near the front door. It happened by accident, but I think it turned out cute.
 The formal dining room. I've left the shelves empty for the gem and trophy collection that he is bringing with him.

 The kitchen with an island breakfast bar. This room was the main victim of my disappearing items. I had to replace all of the cabinets, and I can't get it back to its former glory. Eh, the idiot sims will probably burn it down in a day or two anyhow.

 The study. I'm sure my evil sims will be planning their world domination from here. Then again, they'll probably just be engaging in a lot of cyber sex.
 The master bedroom. It looked much cooler until I realized that nobody could access the bed. STFU you don't need to sleep! You're screwing up my design!
 Master bath
 One of the kids' bathrooms.
One of the additional bedrooms

Check back for a list of CC