House 005 House Tour < | > House 006 Chapter 2

First stop - checking on the new goals:

House 006 Building Goals:
350,000 value home (8 beds, one of them a double minimum) -
I chose the extreme challenge and started with 0 simoleons.
House 006 Generational Goals:
One sim to Level Mansion Baron Aspiration
Young adult heir
Other Info:
After Mansion Baron aspiration is achieved, build a night club
on the blue velvet lot in willow creek.

Second stop - checking on where our heir from house 005 is:

Wasn't much to change on her. I didn't notice until this picture how much she looks like her mama at her age.

Traits designed for writing...

Skills she got on her own in the last house..

Yep.. there's that 0 simoleons again. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment.

At least her stats started well!

I included both pictures because .. well why not. She'll be working on both aspirations (as long as I remember to switch back and forth). Also - don't forget, she's destined to marry Taylor. I know, arranged marriages.. an old custom. They'll be okay with it, I promise.

Third stop - making a new sim:

Meet Trace's intended... Again, I started with a random sim and went from there. She wants to be a painter, hence why she's colorful.

And Now... We can begin.

With such a big challenge I have a few priorities....

First order of business... moving in Taylor for Mika. That way he can get working on his job.. and one more hand fishing. (And yes, that's Zachary Drifter in the background. I don't know how he's still alive, but aparently he is!)

Of note: after I already moved in Taylor I found out the rules had been changed from the last time I read them.. moving in past siblings is now not ok. But since I'd already moved him in, and I had plans to move in at least Trace, as well.. I voted for allowing them to stay. It used to be okay .. but a new rule - "Note:  This Challenge is not intended to Move In prior mini-challenge Household Members.  Doing so may greatly impact the challenge in negative ways" makes it not so.  My second challenge will follow this rule, this save.. will not. (But then, I'm already using a modified version of the rules - a combination of the new ones and the old ones - so I vote it's okay. Author's stubborn choice or something like that.

I immediately send Jennie off to collect anything that's possible to collect this early...

.. and she finds at least a few things.

After that.. the three of them spend quite a bit of time fishing.. to lesser and greater degrees of success. Grim was with them for a while, as well, but he got bored and left by the time I thought to take a picture.

Photo spam: the first night.

Don't they all look so cute!?! (Oh yeah, Trace isn't moved in right away because he's still a teen and I can't afford another bed just yet.)

With all the sims on the lot.. one of my highest priorities (after the garden) was to enclose the bathroom. Before that, I was having to juggle which sim was allowed on the lot to use the bathroom.

Woohoo was also making things awkward, so enclosing the bedrooms came next... as well as getting rid of the revolving cooler seat. I didn't bother with an oven just yet because .. reasons. (Read: I'm scared of them setting themselves on fire.. lol)

Oh yeah.. and speaking of woohoo... I finally got Mika and Taylor hitched. It was appropriately romantic in front of the log couch and "in" the makeshift kitchen. (laughs)

House version 2.0.. they even have their fancy front door. Gardening is taking up most of Mika's time, as opposed to her writing.. I need to get someone else in to work on the gardening after the plants get grafted to make them dragonfruitys.

Invited over the siblings (Since Trace is finally all grown up and ready to marry Jennie.) Aren't they a cute couple? I have the hardest time getting blond sims in my game, so here they are. Melany is behind Jennie in the photo, but I still hadn't decided whether to bring both her and Kelsie in yet. Their same hairstyle was getting on my nerves, though, and eventually tipped the balance in favor of moving them in so I could fix Melany and "un-twin" them.

Oh.. and I also finally was able to afford something important.

They are officially allowed to have a stove now. (laughs!)

And here.. is where I decided I'd gone completely crazy. I forgot how much work this many CONTROLLABLE sims is. But I was so worried at how slow things are happening, I wanted the insurance of extra sims. It's still really not an advantage.. at least not yet.. because they all have so far to go to really be making decent money.. and one is still a teen. (Couldn't move in Melany without Kelsie since she is just a teen... so we brought her along. She can help garden.)

Next: a series of photos to show the house's growing. I rearranged things quite a bit as soon as I had money after moving in the other two siblings. No windows yet.. but getting the furnishings on the inside that they need to make money and live well is a higher priority.

(This just reminds me how crappy their beds still are.. that's gotta be a top priority...)

... Does anyone else have the problem with their sims where they won't sit down to watch TV unless you specifically tell them to? It's really annoying. I hate seeing them just standing there when there's perfectly good sofas available. GRR. I know they USED to sit down just fine.. but lately.. they never do.

Sitting.. because I made them. Notice the starter TV still .. they live like poor people!

The "Inspiration corner" as I like to call it. It's a place for doing things that need inspiration!

Kelsie doing her homework all by herself. I put the "focusing corner" (although it's not really a corner) near the dining table for now, so it reminded her to do her homework (something I tend to forget.. I usually have her out working on the gardening instead.)

The last surviving Drifter other than the two in this household... and it looks like Grim is stalking him. Poor Addison.. I wonder if aliens get a longer life than normal sims, because he's been around for AGES.

Another house shot.. this one with some outside decor... and finally, a foundation.

A quick shot of the value/aspiration. I feel like things are moving SOOOO slow in this house! Most of their cash is still going for living upgrades and random work to the outside of the house.

Breakfast time. Note the new TV and the "focusing corner" in the background. Off to the right (out of shot) is the downstairs bathroom.

Kelsie dancing for her dance machine trait. She kept getting bored without getting her dance on, so I bought her a stereo. In the background is Trace skilling guitar and Mika writing her newest novel.

Melany, our athletic sim out jogging yet again. I really need to buy her some athletic skilling objects back at home.

The minuscule focusing corner and Taylor doing his best to hack funds into the bank.

The seemingly never ending job of gardening/evolving plants is finally starting to net some money.

In progress house shot. It was at about this point that I got fed up with piecemeal-ing the house together and "borrowed" 20k from the "bank" to finish getting the house into "shell" form. Basically, I used 20 "kaching" cheats with the intention of paying the bank back once they had 20k cash on hand. I *think* there's enough time to pay back the bank as well as furnish the house in what they have left. Mika and Taylor are 8 days from adult at this point.

Here's the result. I wasn't altogether sure how it would turn out.. but it looks pretty cool even without painting. I know we don't have cars in sims 4, but I just wanted to give them a driveway (partly for the basketball goal there in the front right of the picture).. and partly because there was so much room on the lot, it seemed a good idea to use some space up.

Yep.. I'm still sending random sims out to grab the local collectibles. Melany or Trace seem to be the usual victims since their career skills don't make money. (Melany is in the body building career, Trace in entertainment.)

A rare shot with most of the Drifter's and Sherwood's in the same area of the house. Shortly after this shot, the stairs (cutaway on the left by the bathroom) were moved in favor of a door to the back patio. The stairs were put into the front "foyer" room.. which I need to get a shot of, it's pretty impressive.

The outside of the house. Loan is now paid off, and the bonus was I had enough left over to "finish" the outside shell of the house with decor items. The inside is still very bare, but at least the outside is looking like a real home. Next on the list is some landscaping (which I am really quite terrible at) for the aspiration.

The new "playful corner" for Trace's comedy work. (See? No wallpaper.. lol.)

Yet another shot of Jennie painting.. but this one was taken for a reason...

Yay Jennie! I've been keeping all the masterpieces no matter what they look like and just haphazardly throwing them up on the bare walls. Eventually, they'll be distributed throughout the house... if I ever get the wallpaper/painting done.

And now, I'll leave this first post with some house shots.

The first floor (can be clicked on for a bigger pic)

Second floor (clickable, too)

The promised shot of the front foyer

And a shot of the back. The pool will (hopefully) be bigger, and I'll probably also add a "poolhouse" with a sauna in the "back" of the house.

Lot value check... doing ok. Mika and Taylor are 2 days from adult, and Kelsie finally aged to young adult. To get this house done, I will probably be waiting until very late to have the heir.. or at least, until I can see probably getting it done. I have no idea how I'm going to get 350k value (I've NEVER had a house worth that much that I built.. so this could get interesting..) A good half of that value is probably the masterpieces that are rambling over the walls inside the house. And yes.. I just now noticed I never set lot traits. Oops.

House 005 House Tour < | > House 006 Chapter 2