I've been playing in my prosperity neighborhood while I wait for my writing brain to come back from vacation (I think it's on its way - I felt it stirring a bit last night), and decided to go ahead and add my Simself's house to the regular rotation. I had placed the Simselves of me and my fiance in the neighborhood right after I created it, but they were going to be there in some story telling capacity, to help with the prosperity challenge.  Only now I'm not writing about the challenge, and there was no longer any reason for us to just sit there, unplayed. So I popped into the Victorian house I had built for us, and I'm playing us through a couple of seasons to sort of catch us up to the rest of the neighborhood.  From here on out, I'll play them once per seasonal rotation, and any future kids they have will have the chance to mingle with the rest of the 'hoods' kids.

While I was playing them, I realized how proud I am of this house I have us in. It's not finished, by any means - I cheated enough to get it built, but I'm not motherloding them anymore to finish furnishing/decorating/landscaping it.  They're going to have to earn the money to do that on their own.  But I thought you might like to see pictures anyway, and I just wanted to show it off.  (And they're working on the money thing - Jim is working in oceanography, climbing the career ladder pretty quickly, while I work on finding a job in journalism.  It's taking forever to show up, though, so in the meantime I'm sitting at home, skilling and taking care of our four dogs and one cat.)





Oops!  You caught me in the front yard in my bathrobe, my wet hair still up in a towel.  :)  My Simself is the first one I've taken shopping for clothes since I got the Kitchens and Baths stuff pack, so she gets to be the first to wear a robe, and of course I had to do the towel hair thing to go with it.  Oh, and the white dog in front of my Sim is the Sim of my real life dog, Willow.  I'm not sure who she's sniffing, and I can't see the animal well enough to tell for sure.  (Also, I need to go and download the versions of the K&B clothes that Ndainye made for use by elders. Why shouldn't they get to wear robes, too?  And all of the other clothes, of course.)

Anyway, so this is the front of the house!  There are still some windows missing, but like I said - they have to earn everything that's done from here on out, so it'll be a while before they have them all.  The Victorian style porch railing is from Holy Simoly - I love it on this house, and I've used it in a couple of other houses, too.  Speaking of Holy Simoly, I saw in the latest Piratical update (I think, or was it Sim Spade?) that there was a lounge chair in the Arizona set now, so I went to Holy Simoly to download it.  Somehow while I was there I took a bunch of other stuff, too, and now my desktop is filled with custom content files to add to the game.  Oops?  I just love their furniture, though, and couldn't help myself.





Here's the front left side of the house.  I had to show off the other turret.  





The back of the house.  It's not that interesting yet, but it will be better once we get some landscaping going back here.  They also need a back door and patio or porch area.

Oh, and I tried out the individualRoofSlopeAngle cheat on a couple of houses in this neighborhood, and it's so great!  I used it on the porch roofs and on this little first floor roof, so that they don't block the windows above them anymore.  I have a really hard time with roofs - they're the hardest part of building, for me (you should see the right front porch roof - it's not real pretty) - so any little trick like that helps me a lot when building a nice house.





Here is an aerial view of the first floor. You can see how large the front porch is - even though the Sims don't really seem to use it, I love a large porch.  You enter the house directly across from the front steps, into the foyer.  I used the spiral staircases from MTS2 (I think) in this house, to save space, and will probably replace them with the Maxis ones when I get Apartment Life.  The stairs are in the foyer.  Turn right from the foyer, and you're in a little TV viewing room.  Go through that and you're in the front turret, where there is a sofa, an easel, a bookcase and a couple of small tables for mail, newspapers and magazines.  Leave these rooms through the TV room, and you're in the dog room.  There are four dogs and one cat living in this house with us, so they need a bit of space.  This room has the pet food and some beds, and that's all.  (The animal rooms could easily become bedrooms someday, if needed, or study rooms for the children when we have them.)

Leave the pet room and you walk right into the kitchen, which has been newly decorated with some of the stuff from the new pack.  I really like the stuff that came with that one.  I don't have much interest in owning the Ikea pack, but this one is great for me.

Directly across from the kitchen is a small living area, where Sim Denise and Sim Jim like to sit and study, and snuggle on the couch (as you can see in the first picture).  It has a fireplace for ambiance and optimal romance, and of course bookcases for study opportunities.  

Walk out of the living area towards the back of the house, and you go past a small table holding the house phone, and then you're in the dining room, which is in the back turret.  I love an airy, light dining room.

To the right off the dining room, behind the kitchen, is a study, with desk and computer, plus chess table.  There is a small bath attached to the study, and then to the right of it are the cat room (not that she hangs out in there, really - she usually sleeps in the dog beds, which is very much like real life), and behind it is a party room, where I can layout a buffet table and have music playing, with plenty of room for Sims to gather and dance.





Take either of the two spiral staircases upstairs, and you'll find a few rooms that are unfurnished and undecorated - part of what they still need to do to the house.  There is a master bedroom in the front, which you can see is where Sim Denise and Sim Jim sleep.  I love the idea of couches in a bedroom, especially when there is a section with that much light.  Attached to the master bedroom is a nursery.   We don't have any Sim kids in this neighborhood yet, but it's only a matter of time, really.  Next to the nursery is the only fully furnished bathroom on the second floor.  Across the hall from the master bedroom is a skilling room, which currently holds a robot station (Sim Jim rolled the want for one) and an exercise bike.  I'm also going to be buying them a sewing table.  Sim Denise's favored hobby in this neighborhood is arts and crafts, which is pretty perfect for me.  I want her to get a gold sewing badge at some point. As soon as they can afford the sewing machine, she'll start working on it.

Behind the skilling room is a second master bedroom - they'll both be in use once there are multiple generations in this house.  There is also another bedroom in the very back, a small rectangular bathroom on the right side, and another space that could be another bathroom, or could be a small bedroom.

One of the things that makes me love this house so much is the twisty layout.  You go through rooms to get to other rooms, and hallways aren't just straight.  It seems like an authentic old house layout, and it's more interesting, to me.





A close-up of the front living area, where Sim Denise and Sim Jim are cuddling on the sofa.





The TV area and the turret area behind it.





The sitting area in the master bedroom upstairs.





The master bed.  I love beds with posters, and if they have drapes on them?  All the better.





I decorated the upstairs bath last night, so it got the Kitchens and Baths treatment.  I love the new tubs and the rubby ducky picture.





While I was playing our house the night before last, I had something happen that I have never seen in my game.  The Sim version of Jim's dog, McDuff, ran away!  I was very sad.  They had all only been in the house for part of one season, and so much had been going on, that they hadn't made friends with all the animals yet.  McDuff apparently felt neglected, so he ran off.  While he was gone, I made sure that we made friends with the rest of the animals (or at least we got closer).  Sim Denise is now master of Willow, and friends with two others, and Jim is working on being friends with Rosebud.  McDuff was brought back by Meadow Thayer, earning her an automatic pass for any annoying stuff she may do in the future.  I may even marry her in if anyone ends up liking her in future generations.  I'm happy that McDuff is back, and believe me, they'll be showering attention on him from now on .





While they were cuddling on the couch for this photo shoot, Sim Denise and Sim Jim fell in love.  Aww!  Next up - engagement, and then a small wedding by the pond (which they don't yet have, but will by then).

And okay, I wrote way more about this house than you probably wanted to know, right?  Hee.  Sorry about that.  I had fun talking about it, though.  And I may do some more updates about my Sim family in the future, as they grow.  I hope you won't mind.  :)

Edited to add: I'm just reading through this for typos, and I noticed how oddly shaped the back turret is.  Oops!  Now I'm going to have to fix that tonight.  Why one window on one side, and two on the other?  Duh.