165 Sim Lane makeover - The Goth Mansion

It's been awhile since I posted anything new, but I've been in the mood for simming again lately.  It makes some of the best stress relief. :) This is my makeover of the Goth mansion. I really love how it turned out.  I had made some of the changes when I was last playing my Uberhood, but I just ran across it again and decided to finish it.  From what I remember about the original floor plan, I didn't change it a lot.  I added on to provide a downstairs nursery and an upstairs gym/game room.  Mortimer's bedroom was made smaller for a separate office/study.  I also added the garage, which has an upstairs room.  I figured that could be of some use for storing career rewards or something.  

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55 Woodland Drive Makeover

After moving in her fiance Drake, Brandi was able to remodel her house with his money. The furnishings are still cheap, but the place is now bigger and more comfortable. And, if they can ever afford a car, there's now a place to park it.

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1055 East Leisure Lane - Jocque House Makover

This is my second Maxis makeover home from Desiderata Valley.  This is the Jocque home.

If you've ever played Desiderata Valley, then you will probably remember this house.  I really don't like how it looks.  The obvious idea would have been to use the humongous attic area for more living space, but I just really don't like that roof, and the front of the house is very plain and flat.  Then there's the other problem of the uneven lot edges which I flattened using the Lot Adjuster.

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250 Main Street - Aspir House Makover

I thought I'd take a short break from Apple Grove and my UGG Legacy to play in Desiderata Valley.  I decided to start with the Aspir family, who live at 250 Main Street.

This is the original house.  I detest most of the pre-built houses that come with the game, although admittedly, this is one of the better ones.  Because of my dislike for the houses, I usually don't play the pre-made families.  But, I do really like the Desiderata Valley families, so I thought I'd try playing them while remodeling.

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102 Firefly Pass

This is my version.

I volunteered to makeover this house for Nikki who commented on my blog. It's a house that came with Seasons that is located in Riverblossom Hills. It's a pretty nice house, but needed a bit of help. I didn't change as much as I usually do, but I knocked out all the inside walls and rearranged them. I redid the roof, decorated the lot a little, and I fixed the silly deck on the back of the house that had a weird slot in it for the tree. That didn't make sense - it's not like a gardener needs to get in there to water the tree. 

This is the original house.

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Hearty Home - a requested Maxis makeover

My version.

I received a request to rebuild Hearty Home about a week ago.  It came in the lot bin with the Seasons EP.  I had a lot of fun doing a makeover on it. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, although I did forget to add all the light fixtures I meant to, oops. I kept all the outside walls intact, but knocked out and rebuilt all the interior walls. I changed the windows, doors and decor, although I did stick with mostly Seasons stuff. I changed the roof and added a loft bedroom and bathroom that is weatherproof for Seasons. I expanded the porches and added a sun porch to the front of the house. I also added a deck to the back and a greenhouse. I knocked out the bathroom wall in the separate building and added on a bathroom, making it a bigger building which will be a nice home business, or could be used for something else. I kept the ponds as they are and changed the fencing and flooring on the bridge and added a little arch to it..

I did briefly playtest a copy of the lot, and didn't find any problems.

The original lot.

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Watervista Palace

I haven't posted anything in a few months, but I thought I would give it a try today. Part of the reason I haven't posted is the frustration I feel with my dial-up internet. My satellite internet equipment got fried this summer by lightning, which was in a way a blessing. It was overpriced, and we didn't feel it was worth replacing. Dial-up is terrible, but much cheaper. It just makes it difficult to blog anything with pictures, but I'll survive.

Watervista Palace is a semi-secret lot in Belladonna Cove - the neighborhood that came with the Apartment Life expansion pack. I say it's semi-secret because you can actually see it. It's by itself over by some rocks and has its own little stretch of road. The lot is supposed to be Baba Yaga's hut, a witch of Russian folklore that lived in a hut on chicken legs with no windows or doors. Well, it's of little use to me in it's original state.

I remodeled this house for a MATY House of Fail/Phail challenge for November 2009. As you can see, it's a residential lighthouse. It has 5 bedrooms - each with its own bathroom plus an additional full bath by the nursery and 2 half baths. The double nursery is on the second floor. There are a lot of doors that can be locked to keep visitors somewhat contained. I have thoroughly playtested it for over a week, and it wasn't too bad to play with all the floors, IMO. With a few exceptions, most of the interesting stuff should happen on the bottom two floors. The cost is $72,195. I have all the EPs, M&G, Celebration, and Family Fun.

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74 Gondola Way

I built this house for another MATY House of Fail/Phail challenge for March 2009, but never ended up entering it there. This is a remake of Malcolm Landgraab's mansion. I turned it into a home business venue, blocking off access to the inside of the house by locking the doors to all areas except for the pool area and the garage which has been converted to a gym. This house has been playtested.

My Version

The original Landgraab mansion.

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10 Oak Street

Before

This is the MATY House of Fail/Phail house for February '09. I'm sure you've seen it lurking in Pleasantview, looking tiny and unpleasant. I rebuilt this cottage with the restriction of not moving trees or shrubs, which was a challenge. I plan to use it as a vacation home in the Mountain vacation area.

After

Back

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1097 West Dreaming Drive

There is a monthly building challenge on MATY in Planet K 20X6 called "EAxis House of Fail." Basically, every month a house that came with the game is chosen for its crappiness, and people rebuild it, keeping the original outside walls. Sometimes there are other rules - this time the path had to remain as well. The idea is to take an ugly and/or unplayable house and turn it into a nice looking, playable home. Make sure you check out the above link on MATY to see what others have done with the "EAxis House of Fail" houses.

Before

This is the original 1097 West Dreaming Drive.

After

And this is what I chose to do with it.

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111 Stratford Street

For the last several months there has been a challenge on MATY in Planet K 20X6 called "EAxis House of Fail." Basically, every month a house that came with the game is chosen for its crappiness, and people rebuild it, keeping the original outside walls. The idea is to turn it into a nice looking, playable home.  December's House of Fail is this one in Veronaville.

Before

After

Here is my remodel of this useless house. As you can see, I decided to go with a castle theme. My version of this house is probably still useless, but I think mine has more style.

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130 Sim Lane

The date is actually August 23, 2010, but I entered this house in MATY's House of Fail back on November 24, 2008.  I just want to archive this house on my blog without pushing out the newer lots.

This is the original lot from Pleasantview.

And this is what I did to it.

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73 Road to Nowhere - Rebuilt

For the last few months there has been a challenge on MATY in Planet K 20X6 called "EAxis House of Fail." Basically, every month a house that came with the game is chosen for its crappiness, and people rebuild it, keeping the original outside walls. The idea is to turn it into a nice looking, playable home.

So here is August's challenge house. If you've ever played Strangetown, you may have seen this little vacant house. It is a little piece of crap. The long, narrow entrance is a death trap for your sims, and everything is all ugly on the inside with a bad floor plan. To top it all off, the edges of the lot are not even level.

And this is my version of the same lot. Well, I actually took a lot of pictures of the original lot and rebuilt it just like the original, only I used a flat lot. Then I added on and changed it until I got this.

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Harmonious Haven

Here is another house I remodeled for MATY's EAxis House of Fail for July 2008.  Today's date is actually August 20, 2010, but I just don't want to push out my newer posts with my older stuff. I'm just trying to archive all my lots in my blog.

Here is the original lot that came in the lot bin with Seasons.  Like most of the pre-built homes in the Sims 2, it is not a house I would ever use for my sims.  It is not a harmonious haven at all to me.

This to me...

...is a little more harmonious.

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190 Sim Lane

Original

My version

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