already was working on a dorm. resumed working on it this morning.

I mostly use Maxis houses, tweaked for playability, or I build my own, which tend to be square and boring, but very playable and with lots of bathrooms. The one I use most often is a modified Bonny Bungalow, with a spiral staircase in the back corner and three bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs. It's boring, but it's both cheap enough and big enough for the Ottomas family and other over-breeders. I also have a couple of small one-bedroom starter homes that I use a lot.

I find it rather sad that Sims don't appreciate a balcony overlooking the river, or can't distinguish between an indoor meal and an outdoor one ("Tank, why are you serving two plates of spaghetti outside in the snow when there's plenty of room at the main dining table for everyone?!"), but since they don't have that ability I see little point in building them nice balconies or patios. I don't really see the need for closets when Sims don't change their clothes very often and just spin to change between types, so most houses will only have a small wardrobe in the master bedroom or on the landing, for seasonal clothing changes or when a Sim needs to dress in hurry. Likewise with basements: Sims don't do laundry and can't use the basement as a potting shed over winter, so I see no need for one (especially as I never figured out how to build one anyway!).

The way I see it, Sim needs aren't the same as human needs, and I like to be able to see the whole floor with cutaway walls, so that's what I build for.

With house building I like to build my own usually, I sometime have some kind of concept of what I wanted, especially if you have a Custom neighborhood (My is Asian ) so I knew exactly the look I wanted.
I had to think how to build carefully because I took BV out of my game years ago so I had to learn to build an Asian architect I learn through making errors along the way.

I also like to download certain creators houses, but you have to be "careful" because I once downloaded a home with a Sims in it, from that point I really began to learn to build my own lots and really it is fun to do.
Another reason why I like to build my own Sims home is to have a floor plan that is "functionally" and having more than one bathroom I love two lever homes.

I remember many year ago I build a home and uploaded it here on MTS and got "Turn down" because I had too many level like 3 ) I was told by a moderator at the time, that Sims really don't like long pathways.
So I cut out the third level and my home lot was accepted and out of all my homes I created that home was the most downloaded lot and it became a "Top Pick" that made me happy And encourage me to build more.
Here is the lot that I once had too many level of floors but did over http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=293501

I used to be really terrible at building houses, but since I've been trying to build my own lately... those are all I use! I just trust mine more for whatever reason, I guess? Because I know what's in my game. I always make really small Victorian houses.

I build all my houses. Usually I use house plan sites. I learn towards realism in terms of the floorplans, with Sims functionality- like switching out a laundry room for another bathroom, removing storage space that sims don't need, leaving space for skill objects that normal people don't have in their homes (who owns a chess set these days?). I build lots before I'll need them and leave them neutral (beige walls, beige floors, no furniture, minimal landscaping). My sims move in and make it their own.

If I like a lot someone else has uploaded, I sometimes look at the pictures and rebuild it in my game to suit my hood and my preferences. Usually it's apartments; I'm always looking for good ideas that fit my hoods.

I've downloaded maybe 3 lots ever, all CC-free, and most of them were to inspect the building and techniques more thoroughly for my own use. Only one is actually being used.

Good points-and in fact, I wonder why we bother to build non-transparent walls for a house anyway? They can't really tell the difference between transparent & non, so it would be just as well if we did use transparent walls. As long as the environment score is decent, and the lighting is acceptable we could just build literal glass houses and they'd be happy-and we'd be able to see everything without using 'walls down'.

I might even attempt one myself, as an experiment. It'll be interesting to see how the pixels like it..

How about an object - based perhaps on the daffodils - that boosts the mood of a sim standing nearby? You could then place it in places where they should respond positively, like a lovely view over the gasworks shoreline. That's doable I think.

I build most of my lots myself, whether they're houses or community lots. I generally start with an empty neighborhood and try to build it up from scratch, so downloading lots sort of defeats the purpose. When I'm building, I usually have a specific feature in my head that I wanna incorporate in the house, like a double staircase entrance, a basement pool, a double garage on the first floor, etc. and I start building from that point and imagine the house around it. I don't plan that much, sometimes I might do a little sketch to figure out the look I'm going for or to work out the floor planning if I wanna incorporate a specific architectural feature. It's pretty important to me that the lot matches the neighborhood so I'll sacrifice a unique look for neighborhood unity unless the family that lives there can get away with it, story-wise. I try to go for a realistic look but everything has to be functional and not-annoying-to-play 'cause I do play the houses for a long time and I hate it if parts of the house are unusable just for the aesthetic.

@BlueAlien Your comment about Sims not appreciation a balcony in my game I have a few balcony and my Sims use it with their own free will.
My Sims love to sat out there on balcony during the day time and night talking to each other, I sometime have to make them go back inside.

The ultimate solution for a horrible Maxis house

I love that house! *Cries*

Love it? For it's ease of navigation? It's consistent theme? You jest?

I also like the Beaker's house; not sure why.

what do you dislike/hate/etc about it?

It's iconic- I made a replica of it as a Secret Society in a Uni (Starrybeach) I made .


But, I always approve of a good fire in Sims 2- and the way the Beaker's house went up was certainly impressive! Incendiary bomb?

Yup I dropped bombs. I do like Medieval, and suppose some of it's Gothic style would be believable, but Victorian and 20th century furniture? Modern plumbing? OK, so Maxis was limited in it's choices. But what about those stairs, and that out-side walkway above the door? Sims can't take a direct route anywhere. And a living room without walls - why? Like the Spector "Gothic" house; wrong styles, and poorly done at that. It doesn't look "rich" it looks like a dump

The Beaker House--you can't lock the doors. Same problem as the Monty house. How the heck do you put characters in this situation (feuds) and then not make their houses reasonable for it?

High fence topped with barbed wire or wall topped with broken glass. Clearly after-build installed heavy, metal doors. Bars on windows.

Not "Everyone loves everyone in our neighborhood and we must let the air flow because it is hot" houses. Put those in Pleasantview, where at least there's no implication of gang wars and serial killers.

about not able to lock doors; replacing the doors might be one possible solution.

The Beakers are modern sims living in a modern neighborhood. Why wouldn't they have modern plumbing installed?

I see the Beaker mansion as something similar to the Frankenstein castle. It's an ancestral homestead full of antiques, but modernized to make it comfortable for modern sims (electricity, internet, modern plumbing, etc.). Behind the AL secret bookcase door in the parlor, there is a laboratory full of the latest in high tech equipment. (I also added exterior doors from University's Medieval collection. I agree that it's WEIRD for the house not to have any. )

The family fortune has mostly been spent to equip the lab. Possibly some of the more valuable antiques and family heirlooms were sold off for the same reason. The "look and feel" of the place is inconsistent because the Beakers aren't decorators and have more important things to occupy their attention. ("Oh, I like this piece! Just dump it in the house somewhere. We'll find a better place for it later.")

Alternatively, the Beakers moved (or were moved by the military) into the area to investigate and reverse engineer the wrecked UFO in the crater. The house was was bought or commandeered and the Beakers have been upgrading and equipping it as time and money allow.

About the Monty Ranch - I distinctly remember seeing early pre-release screenshots somewhere that appeared to show at least some members of the Monty family living in what is now known as 111 Stratford Street. It's not much more defensible against feuding enemies than the ranch house, but at least this place has DOORs on the outside!

Roxellen - I see your point, and agree!
Working on a Greek Revival, looking for a typical door, with strips of windows across top & on sides.

Maybe something like phoenix_phaerie's Modern Georgian Manor set? Not exactly Greek Revival, but they do resemble some of the photos Google coughed up.
http://www.modthesims.info/browse.p...&u=295417&f=380

EDIT: Two sets of "Pedimentary, My Dear!" doors near the bottom of the page.

EDIT2: I was trying to find the mesh that goes with these recolors. That door is in the Modern Georgian Manor set, not the Pedimentary, My Dear! doors. Sorry for the confusion.

I've been building my own homes from existing floor plans and then using them for my very leisure play. On my profile I have ten homes and one community lot uploaded (that community lot was built from scratch by memory). I don't try to follow floor plans completely because they will have rooms that are considered useless in Sims 2, such as pantries, storage, utility, etc. Whenever there are obstacles in the floor plan as those, I have to put my thinking cap on and let my creativity shine to find alternatives. Hence, I find this to be quite fun and enticing.

I once downloaded a couple restaurant lots but didn't find them very appealing as I tried them out. That was honestly the last time I downloaded any lots, and that was some time ago.

i build shacks

Thanks Roxellen, I do have the Georgian set (a style that was just prior to Greek revival, very similar). The windows in my pic are HERS)

I enjoy building interiors but not exteriors (roofing especially has so far seemed more trouble than it's worth to me to learn; I love lot builders who can roof well!). To me, the interior is where I spend most of my time with my sims anyway, so I especially want it to look good, or at least realistic to how those sims would have it. Plus, usually, building the inside myself means I can get it done quite a bit more cheaply with perhaps an extra bath or bedroom; that's important in my hoods, which tend to have many mods to make sim life more expensive. So to get a good-looking hood, I often download a home whose exterior works with the subhood aesthetic and whose interior I can visualize my own floorplan onto, then install it without furniture and completely tear down and rebuild the inside.

More power to you, Calibrat, with being patient enough to figure out ductwork!

For me, as far as realism, I agree that BlueAlien has a point. To me, most extra touches of "realism" have to be "sim-realistic," in the sense that it needs to fit the way they live, not the way actual humans live.

Sometimes, if there's useful and sensible (not too cheaty) cc available, that can motivate me to build more realistically. Like, I'm thinking that I might start adding laundry rooms now that gummilutt has a version of laundry machines that build cleaning skill (but don't have other benefits that I find less realistic). But there again, I have to have a sim-oriented reason why I'd put something like that in; I won't add them just because human houses have them, if I have no reason to have my sims ever use those areas. Makes more sense in that case, to me, to keep it as living space for when the residents have parties and guests, for example.

Similarly, because I *do* have play-necessary clutter (Pescado's batbox, the Inventory Transfer Vase, the Daysetter, boxes of MogHughson's greeting cards as well as cards received from other sims, MogHughson's Desk Locators for kids that have left for college---they make for scenic clutter from that point until they inevitably go blank again at some point, sigh), I am a big fan of mustluvcatz's Under the Stairs Storage (there's also a part 2 that's equally awesome) and her Uncloset---the Uncloset especially goes into most interiors I build, to hold the hack items at least. (To get extra slots if I have more card boxes or other clutter related to the family, like smaller career rewards or treasures found when digging, I usually use the woven baskets or even the big usable armoire, with something like 15 slots, that can be crafted using Sun and Moon's Basket Weaver Set. The baskets fit nicely in some of the slots of the Uncloset and Under Stairs shapes.)

Realism is also welcome in my homes when it adds gameplay. So although I probably will never use ductwork just because human houses have it, I am excitedly watching to see what comes of Lamare's project to have an electrical box that actually brings power problems to home lots.

I almost always am doing a custom build with a particular existing family in mind, and I find it really rewarding to build "their" house---down to choosing colors and furniture that I think they'd choose, based on the household members' Interest levels in Fashion and whether anyone has the Art hobby. (If no one's much interested in those things and I see them as a family that also isn't much interested in status or having a showpiece house, the house, no matter how big, ends up decorated and furnished in a mostly basic way, because that's how they'd probably do it.)

Each family's house, even if basic, usually gets built with a little something for as many family members' hobbies as the budget will allow. I love putting in a bay window for the eating area and expanding the kitchen, for example, when there are Cuisine sims (even adding nicer counters if they can afford it), or walling in a former balcony with greenhouse walls for a Nature sim so they can have a few plants year round (using Honeywell's planters set so that gardening above the ground level works well). Other areas of the home might end up being extra-basic to pay for these things, like the baths or even the bedrooms---though I love a fancy bath (I have a thing for cc glass block and well-done tile or stone walls and floors) and will eventually upgrade to one, if the family cares about appearances. Sometimes all there's room for in the budget is an extra window on a side of the house that has a good view, so the Arts sim has something inspiring to "look at" while they paint. Or even just a couple of the posters that increase Film and Lit enthusiasm...and a nook or just empty spot where they can someday place an extra desk and computer, for the aspiring novelist to work.

Views are important to me, so I like to zoom to sim eye-level and adjust floor plans, window placement, and later, decor from there to make sure it would truly be as livable as I think those sims would have it. I do also put one shared clothes-changing item (usually a one-tile thing and often cc, because as Calibrat said at the start, most Maxis dressers are so big!) in a hall near an entry door rather than build closets---and I take out closets otherwise and especially the sliding AL doors because they add so much cost to a home and for no real game purpose.

(By the way, @BlueAlien and others, for the problem of sims not eating where you want them to, I highly recommend Inge Jones' excellent Eating and Serving Control vase. Every sim household of mine has these since I got the UC and thus Seasons. It's great---so many options, so you can decide at what table/counter, in or out, the family eats at each time of day. I usually change the settings with each season and perhaps for the afternoon/evening if they're having a party. So for example, in summer usually I set households to eat at their outside table in the morning and evening but might just grab snacks at the counter inside in the afternoon. Then in winter, they eat all their meals inside, but maybe breakfast is at the counter and lunch and dinner are at the kitchen or indoor dining table. You need one controller for every room you have dining surfaces in [plus the outside], and then you set them all in sync so that sims only have your preferred dining location available for each time of day---like, my summer mornings are disallow inside table, disallow inside counter, allow outside table)



I believe that this happens on that lot, but I also suspect it has less to do with the fact it's a balcony and more to do with the Environment/Comfort score and cost of the furniture you have placed on the balcony---Sims 2 sims use those ratings to make many locating decisions, especially if the indoor seating options are of lower perceived quality. As one example, if you've got the basegame expensive chaise (or something cloned from it) out there, it will beat out most other living-type furniture, so out toward it they will go...usually unless there is a Seasons event that strongly changes their preference for being outdoors.

It really would be great if sims had some kind of coding to enjoy balconies themselves, including enjoying them more when they have a good view or whatever. (Like in Sims 3, they at least can recognize when a lot is supposed to be in a nicer location, such as waterfront.)

Thanks for reminding me of the eating/serving controller nat! I downloaded it ages ago but forgot to use it. Now breakfast nooks actually make sense.

Same as nat I find the interior element of building the most fun. I don't have the eye for exteriors, and I don't really care to learn either because I just don't find it fun. But I love shaping the inside to fit the Sims that live there, and the story I have in mind. So I too download a lot of lots with an exterior that I like, but then re-do the interior. Sometimes total makeovers, sometimes more fine-tuning. I like inspiration in terms of wallpapers/flooring, choosing those is always my least favorite part, so I try to find lots with wallpapers/floorings that I like, and then re-do the furniture and move around walls to better suit my playstyle.

Because of this, I don't like to download lots that are only a shell. Yes I'll probably re-do it and remove most of it, but half the purpose of downloading one is to be inspired by a style/mix that I wouldn't have thought of. Maybe it used a sofa I would never use, but that looks great there, so I keep the sofa but revamp the rest. Or it has a wallpaper that really fits in, that makes me try different furniture that I wouldn't normally use. I need that something that gets the juices flowing, and an empty shell doesn't do it for me. So I go for fully decorated lots, and then adapt to my preferences.

I do a mix of realism and functionality. I like to clutter and give my lots elements that make it feel lived in, even though they serve no purpose for the Sims. But not in ways that make the lot less playable. So for example, while a stair with landings feels more real to me, the warped walls complicate the playing by obscuring view in weird ways and looking wonky in screenshots. So I avoid them. Same with corridors. Two tile corridors look less natural than one tile, in some places, but one tile is a PITA to play so no thank you. But countless deco items on a bathroom counter to make it feel used? Sure! Usable washing machines even though they don't technically need to wash their clothes? Sure!