This is the part where I have to admit that I blew my entire Sims-playing time budget on painstakingly recreating my grandmother’s house. And it’s not actually finished (the basement remains a big empty space).
A lot of this time was spent getting the slope of the terrain exactly right. There is no “gentle grade” tool; you have to push the terrain up and down, and then level it out with the leveling tool. This requires a deft touch.
(I took this picture after dark, because I liked the way the windows light up from outside.)
It’s funny the tricks your memory plays. You think “Oh I remember every last detail.” But I had to rearrange the interior walls several times, because the ratios just weren’t right. And the bathroom still isn’t the right shape.
The new Create A Style tool lets you customize the color and surface texture of any given object. But there are still points where the in-game objects failed me. For example, there is no shag carpeting. Also, I need a big honkin’ triptych photograph of Mount Rainier to go above this couch. I had to fake it with a big painting, flanked by two smaller paintings.
Even looking at these pictures, I find things that need the tiniest tweak. That couch should be a bit more red, and the carpet should be more orange.
And this table needs a tablecloth, which is also not an available item.
And WHY IS ISABEAU EATING DINNER AT THE FANCY TABLE? Without a tablecloth! I about had a stroke just watching her.
Speaking of Isabeau, she grew up while I was toggling in and out of Live mode to get the furniture textures just right.
She became a teenager alone, in the dark, in the unfinished basement. I felt briefly guilty about this. Then I returned to making minute adjustments to the pattern of the couch in the TV room.
hahaha that last bit had me laughing. Recreating real life homes with Sims is equally addicting and frustrating. Although I will say, it’s much less frustrating with 3 than it was with 1.
When I was in elementary school we played a computer game called Oregon Trail – maybe you know it? You pick an occupation, create a family, and head across the country on the Oregon Trail, trying to cross rivers, shoot buffalo, and avoid dysentery. I used to name the people in my families after my own family and friends and then get creeped out when they would die. And yet I continue to creep myself out by doing the same with my Sims!
Oh, where was I going with this? Anyway, I think I will recreate my house in Sims 3 when I have time to play, and then get freaked out when I have a kitchen fire.
Good choice on the shunting aside of guilt in favor of fabric-obsessive-disorder.
(hee-hee)
I want to know why there is a trapezoidal swimming (wading?) pool in the middle of your grandmother’s house. Not that there is anything wrong with that, you understand.
Oh, isn’t that funny? That’s what I had to do to work around the way staircases behave with walls. The angled wall I felt was very important to the final design, but I couldn’t get it to angle over the staircase (like it does in real life). What looks like a swimming pool is actually a funny wedge of blue carpet beside the staircase.
Katy Perry hair FTW