Lot tour: Single Storey Remodel Challenge

So this lot tour is a little different from the vast majority of my other lot tours, because no one is living here yet! I did it for a challenge and it's still sitting empty in my hood. I have vague designs of moving one of my playable NPC couples in here...but I also really like it and maybe want my playables to live here? Except it's probably too expensive for any of the ones who will need to move soon!

Shall I stop rambling now so we can start?

The house was built by one of the members in my Sims 2 group on FB and the challenge was simply to decorate it, the only real rule being that we could not change any of the exterior walls.

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Lot tour: Tim and Marius's house

The other day, I put up a post explaining my absence and I said I'd "finished" Tim and Marius's house. There was a reason for those quotes! They went into a fair bit of debt to buy this place, so their garden is completely bare, as are all the spare bedrooms. So it's "finished" in that it's playable but it's a little bare bones, so this is a relatively short tour! 

But let's get started anyway!

The house is one I probably downloaded from MTS a long time ago. It's been sitting in the hood for ages, so it would be literal years ago at this point! I changed all the exterior fittings, apart from the stairs. 

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Lot tour: Mitchell and Caitlin set up house!

I have a very short lot tours for you today! I finished Caitlin and Mitchell's house a little while ago but it's taken me this long to get the tour up! They had quite a bit of money left over when I finished, so I was able to pay off a decent chunk of their mortgage as well. 

So this house started its life as a house built by Starr, over at Apple Valley. You can see the original in its pixelated, neighbouring lot form to the left in this pic. 

Quite a while ago, I saw this house on one of those house design shows. It's in Sydney, not far from the part of the city where I grew up and it used to be a small carpark until an architect converted it into a house. And for some reason, it always stuck in my head and one day, I decided I'd try to recreate it in the game, using Starr's house as a base. And this is the result. I took it as a very loose inspiration, so it's not an exact recreation! It sat in my hood empty for a couple of years until about a month ago.

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Lot tour: New Draper house

I mentioned in the comments on my last post that my next update would be delayed because I needed to decorate a huge house. I thought it would take me a long time to finish but I got into a bit of a groove with it and basically finished it the same day I started, apart from a couple of minor finishing touches. The backyard still isn't done and I will need that for the update too...but I'm not planning on going crazy with it and don't anticipate it taking too long!

So here is the house! It's been sitting empty in my hood for ages and I no longer remember where I downloaded it. I changed the doors and windows (still might change the roof colour) and made some changes to the layout inside as well. It is now the new home of Lake, Kendal, Rose, Joanna and their sons Levi and Will. 

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The (new) Kirby farm house

As you'd know if you've read August birthdays, the Kirby family has a new house! I decided they needed a new one in the middle of my last play session with them. As you would also know, this house basically resulted in poor Trent's death!

But let's work through our grief with a house tour!

So this is the house. I don't think I changed a ton on the outside, apart from the siding and roof colour. It took me ages to decide what roof colour to use with this siding but as soon as I landed on this one, I knew it was the right one! 

I changed quite a lot on the inside, particularly upstairs. The layout wasn't working for me, so I got knocked down a lot of walls and redid them to suit. 

The house is by melethana at MTS.

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Lot tour: Miles and Matilda's new place

For those who don't know, we had a huge storm in Sydney last Tuesday. Many lost power, including me. It took four days for it to be restored and then another four to get the internet up and running again. So I wanted to get this up earlier and I also wanted to get started on Anthony's update earlier but that was unfortunately not possible. I'm going to try to visit Anthony on the weekend but in the meantime, I thought I'd share Miles and Matilda's new place with you.

This is a TS2 rebuild of a TS3 house from (I think?) Sunset Valley by Danie. I'm still not totally pleased with the window placement at the front but it's okay inside, so I'm living with it!

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Lot tour: the new Moretti Hall

After I played my last two uni sessions, I decided I hated my dorms. I've had them for a loooong time now and they've served me well but I'm sick of them. So I started picking away at a replacement for Moretti Hall. 

So here is the new Moretti Hall! It's a redo of an EA dorm. In the bin, it has the imaginative name of Small Dorm with 6 Rooms but it also shows up in Académie Le Tour as Lam Plaza Dormitory. I decided to go with an EA base over a custom one because it's been many years since I've played an EA dorm and seeing my decorating has improved since then, I figured I could make something decent out of one now!

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Lot tour: New house for my roomies

I still haven't had a chance to sit down and play the Romilly family! It's a Christmas update, so I would very much like to get it out before Christmas in real life. But before I can play them, Caitlin needed a place to live, so I decorated this place for her and Brendan. Annabel and Caitlin will join them once they graduate in January birthdays. 

So this is the house! It's one of Honeywell's Bespoke houses, which make use of the Bespoke build set, the very first time I've used any of it in my hood. 

I wanted this to be a rental house but to cut a long story short, I had a glitch with the kitchen when I did that, which I could not fix, despite trying everything I could think of. The glitch does not exist when the house is just a regular residential lot, so that's what this is. 

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Lot tour: The Bentons' new place

Yet another lot tour for you today! I've been in a real decorating mood lately. I did Chris and Veronica's house pretty quickly, I picked away a little at my long-neglected primary school, I'm working on a share house for Brendan, Caitlin, Georgina and Annabel and I now have this house ready for the Bentons!

The house is Park Hill, which I grabbed from MTS. I actually downloaded a couple of new houses, intending them for this family but when I put them in game, they didn't feel right. They were large and had enough rooms but they didn't feel like an upgrade on their old place. This one has been sitting in my hood for who knows how long but I think it really suits the Bentons.

I will probably change that roof colour. It looked good with the original white windows but now that I have the darker wood Torrox windows, it doesn't look quite right any more. 

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Lot tour: Chris and Veronica's house

I got the decorating bug over the last few days and finished off this place for Chris and Veronica in one evening, which is much, much faster than I tend to decorate these days, even for a relatively small house!

Anyway, this little place was built as a gift for me by Starr! If you saw my WIP pic on Tumblr, you'll notice I've changed the roof colour!

Outside, I added a fence all around the lot (but there's really nothing in the garden except Clancy's dog bowl at the moment, so no pics), changed the walls, floors, windows and doors. Inside, I think I left the layout has mostly as Starr built it, other than moving the second bathroom to the back of the house and adding some half walls to block off the kitchen.

Let's go inside!

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Lot tour: Josh and Elspeth's house

Okay, so here is the requested lot tour of Josh and Elspeth's house. I was sick this week, then busy with work and other things and didn't end up getting a chance to play, so there was no story update on Thursday. I prefer lot tours to be extras rather than in place of story updates but I figure a tour is better than nothing!

Anyway, it's going to be a short one, as it's a pretty small place, really. There is an empty bedroom and an extra bathroom that I haven't shown off. There is also a sizeable backyard but there's nothing in it, so no pics of that either!

Here's the exterior. Normally, I'm pretty good with links but I don't have one for this house! It's from MTS and that's all I can tell you! I'll keep looking and add the link if I find it. 

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Lot tour: Malcolm and Hope's new house

Okay, so here is the promised lot tour! I meant to have it up yesterday but got caught up with a few other things before I could get it ready. The house is this one from Mod the Sims. 

I didn't change much at all about the exterior - the windows and doors were it, I think. 

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Lot tour: Hubris Games

I've had Hubris Games (named after Hubris Comics, from the Fallout series) sitting around my hood for more than six months now. I started it, went full bore for a while and then lost steam for months. Last night, I had a sudden flash of motivation and decided to finish it. 

I'm intending this as a career lot for both the Gaming and the Game Development careers, so both Troy and Elspeth will work here. It's inspired by the Life Invader offices in GTA5, as well as various photos I've seen of Facebook and Google offices over the world. I still want to add/fix up a bit of the deco and I may turn the roof into *something* but for all intents and purposes, it's done. 

So here is the exterior. It was originally three storeys but I brought it down to two, because having all that space to fill was part of what made me lose steam with it to begin with. 

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Lot tour: Declan, Xavier and Austin's place

Remember that lot tour I was supposed to put up before Christmas? Um, well, here it is!

It feels like forever since I've played these guys and they have actually been sitting in an undecorated apartment all this time. I was on a bit of a roll with my game before Christmas though and finally went in and finished it.

The guys live in this building, which is another one of Starr's lots. I always think of it as Rob and Patience's place, even though they haven't lived in it since before they got married!

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Lot tour: Daniel and Susannah's new place

I wanted to get another story update out this weekend but then I realised that a) this weekend was Christmas and I wouldn't get the time and b) a lot of you would probably be busy as well! So instead, I've got this lot tour for you today and another coming up hopefully in a few days. 

As those of you who are caught up would know, Daniel and Susannah got married recently. They're keen to have a baby but for that, they needed more space. I found this house for them and then proceeded to spend basically all their money decorating it. They have just $313 left!

The new house is this one from MTS.

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Lot tour: The Claudette

A little while back, there was a project at N99 where we made and fulfilled requests. At the time, I'd just realised that The Claudette, Adam Gottlieb's restaurant, was from the Exchange and now that it was closed, I had no hope of getting it back for Sullivan 2.0. So I asked if anyone would be willing to build a new version of The Claudette for me, with the same sort of style as the old one. I specified that I'd decorate the interior myself, so I wasn't too fussed about what it looked like inside. The lovely Tanja (blogger for SimsVille and now Linfort) took me up on it and built me a fantastic new restaurant. I excitedly downloaded it and then it sat in my hood for...probably two years?

But I was hit by some inspiration this weekend and finally decided to decorate it.

Tanja did an awesome job recreating the exterior (the original is here) and I changed very little. I just moved the phone outside and changed the wallpaper and some of the tiling. Although, looking at the original wallpaper, I might change it again. 

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Lot tour: Justin and Louisa's house

I finished decorating this place ages ago and sort of sat on this tour, saving it for a rainy day when I couldn't get a story update out. That rainy day has come (in game too, lol!). I'm dogsitting a 3-year-old beagle right now and she's so much more work than my elderly fluffy white things! I haven't had much time at all to play. 

So instead, here's a lot tour!

No idea where I downloaded this house. When I moved Justin and Louisa in, it had been sitting in my hood for ages. I changed the walls and the front door. The front door was previously the door that matches the windows, but I find those doors really hard to work with. They never seem to match well with anything on the inside of the house. 

Note to self: fix the upper part of that wall!

Layout, which I don't think I changed. 

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Lot tour: Sam and Julia's new house

This week has been a bit crazy and I didn't get the chance to play and write an update for Charlie and Camilla's family like I wanted to. So instead, I bring you a lot tour. Some of you may have already seen this at N99.

Last time I played Sam and Julia, he got quite lucky with the chance cards. Seeing I had also noticed their apartment lot getting buggy, it was the perfect time to move them. Once I moved them to the bin, they had over $100,000 and I immediately thought of Bramble Cottage, which has been sitting in my hood - empty - for over a year. 

I was happy with how I'd decorated it before (which you can see here) but it didn't suit Sam and Julia. So I got to work redecorating. It was so nice to work with no real worry about budget! I'm in the middle of two other decorating projects right now and don't have nearly as much cash to work with as I did here. 

If you haven't read Sam and Julia's latest update, there is a spoiler for it at the end of this tour, if that sort of thing bothers you.

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Lot tour: Sullivan Library

Today, I bring you a lot tour! I was planning on getting Rebecca and Nathan's update up first but I had an unexpected burst of motivation last night and just went in and finished this place. 

This is Sullivan Library, which is my makeover of Nexus Library (thanks to laurelcrossing for posting the link at N99 for me), from the Tumbleton hood on Tumblr. It's a great lot as is but as you all know, all Maxis is not my style! So I changed things up a bit. I can't wait to see Lia, Ione and Daniel working here in the future.

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Lot tour: Jade's Exclusive Villas

I'll warn you now that there is a spoiler for the last update included in this tour. So you might want to go and read that now, if that sort of thing bothers you.

Anyway, I did this lot fairly quickly over a few days (that's quick for me, for anything that's not a house!). Shannon asked in a comment if there was a Takemizu Village lot I wanted to make over. Yes, all of them! I think the EA vacation lots are so dire and they pretty much all need a makeover. But Takemizu Village is the weakest of the destinations, in my opinion, so I was never particularly inspired to work on any of those lots. Shannon's comment gave me a little prod though and I got to work!

A picture of the original lot is here. I had taken my own before pics but in my longstanding tradition of completely failing at before pics, I accidentally deleted them. Oops! So that one will have to do.

This is what the lot looked like after I was done with it. The first thing to go was that hideous green picket fence. 

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