How do you build lots?

[therebel292004]

Okay seems like a silly question, right? Not really. What I want to know, is how do you start building your lots? Do you plot and plan, do you make scetches, or do you just start throwing up walls in whatever way speaks to you? Have you studied architecture? Is there TRUELY a method to your madness?

Myself, lol. Honestly, it all depends. Most of the time, I'll get the idea, and then I grab graph pad and pencil. Once I have a basic floorplan, then I startup the game, and start to build. But there are some times when I just start building with no real idea of what I'm building.

[SimMegaptera]

I just build. The only method to my madness is that I like the houses to be ergonomical and usable. I might start with a foyer, then add a kitchen, then add a living room, then a bathroom -- just one room at a time. If I want it to look rich and classy I'll make it symmetrical. That's about it.

[dandello]

I just build whatever I'm in the mood for. I like to build houses and apartments. I just start throwing up walls and go from there.
I do make smaller bathrooms than most people though and have at least 3 in the house or apartment. lol

[tizerist]

I'm terrified of building on a blank lot. For me, to bring it from blank to beautiful is gonna cause me sweat and grey hairs.

But - try and start in the middle. A central structure, like a show-peice furnishing can disguise bad building skills. And clutter, with moveobjects on.
Some people say I'm a good builder, but I'm thinking to myself "Yeah, but it took me 50 hours, and three times I started from scratch."

[Arisuka]

I've used to building epic town apartment homes, for my epic town which will probably never be finished. :lol:
I go to a lot, measure it a bit and usually some kind of idea pops in my head and I'll start building with fast clicks from there onwards. The best ideas come as I'm rolling or by accident something cool looking might happen!

[FranH]

I don't like to build very much-more like taking a pre-made house and then redesigning it to fit my tastes and the hood itself. I've tried the MATY style of building, and it wasn't too bad, but the house tended to be too large. Hate large houses-they're just so tiresome. More like small and navigable; but it also depends on how many sims are going to inhabit it.

[Nahishooka]

Usually i just build, although in the last apartments building i designed, i googled "loft plans" and took some inspiration from those,
in order to make the apartments and loft more realistic...
It turned out great eventually.

[rome_raven]

I generally prefer using floorplans. I make a quick sketch, trying to resize it to reasonable sim dimensions and work from there. A couple times, I've had dreams about a living space. When that happens, I try to sketch it out when I wake up and work out the dimensions from that. Came up with a cute little apartment that way.

I use the build-whatever-method when I'm building a Legacy-type house or putting on extensions on a house I've previously built.

[ForeverCamp]

I'm with rome_raven on this one. I tend to adapt floor plans for houses (although I don't think I do it very well, they end up GINORMOUS!)

[SimMegaptera]

I should also mention two strategies that we used with TS1 and that I should try here:

1) My sister used to drag a big book of house floorplans off the shelf (our parents had it because they built their own house) and use those to build sim houses.

2) I used to buy furniture first, lay everything out the way I wanted it, and then build walls and floors. This way I wouldn't make a room bigger or smaller than it needed to be.

[Sims2Storywriter]

I know how you feel. It terrifies me, sometimes, because I can't build a simple house. I just go and take a shower (something between showers and thinking is connected!!!)

[Nalia]

I usually start building with a clear idea of what a specific room is going to look like. When I finish the room the rest of the house is built around it. This room might be a room in the house or a small feature of it, like an inner garden or a small pond with a bridge. I don't build much but when I do it is for the sake of a favourite Sim and the begining of a very important chapter in his/her life.

[kattenijin]

I'm with rome_raven on this one. I tend to adapt floor plans for houses (although I don't think I do it very well, they end up GINORMOUS!)

Tip: In Sims 2 one square is 2 1/2 to 3 feet, so if a room is 13x18 for example, it would be 4x6 or 5x7 squares. I tend to use 1 square =3 feet in a smaller home, and 1 square = 2.5 feet in a larger or mansion style home.

[AgeMarkus]

I just randomly make a square or two with walls, and lay out furniture as it fits... I am not very good at building...

[thegamefan]

I just build. I probably don't worry about a plan or thems as much as I should.
For the most part, I build a small box to start with and as my sim gets more money, I expand until eventually there's nothing original left. I don't think I ever go more than 2-3 sim days without remodeling something. Even if I buy a pre-made house, I still fiind a need a bigger living room, an additional bedroom, etc. at some point.

[Tenielle]

With residential lots, I generally use house plans. I often alter the interior layout, though, to make it more 'Sim' friendly.
With community lots, I take a lot of inspiration from other people's pics, or buildings I have seen in RL. Occasionally, I get an idea in my head, and am able to build from there.

[thegamefan]

With residential lots, I generally use house plans. I often alter the interior layout, though, to make it more 'Sim' friendly.
With community lots, I take a lot of inspiration from other people's pics, or buildings I have seen in RL. Occasionally, I get an idea in my head, and am able to build from there.

So, do you use actual house plans? It might be cool to go to one of the companies that do tract houses and use one of their floor plans.

[Kjsdx3]

Me, I do house plans, then try to make the recolors and build away, too bad I lost my best house and cannot upload to MTS2. :(

[aaries16]

I usually want to have some kind of key feature in the house (side entry garage, open floorplan downstairs, etc.) and from there I make a house based on that feature.

[perihelion]

I usually just start with a blank lot and build according to purpose. My last build actually consisted of rotating between three lots, building each a little at a time: a towering apartment block, a row of townhouses and a shopping mall. The first two are done and the mall is shaping up nicely. I like the challenge of building huge shopping malls but the main problem is deciding what kind of shops to have and what spots to put them in. ;)

[cheshirekat]

In the tv show Heroes, they had the painters that could paint something and not really knowing what they were painting because something else takes over to give them inspiration. That is how I am with my houses and some of my comm lots.

I may think of general must-haves, like a garage and a garden, and the number of bedrooms. But the rest just comes as I imagine my sim moving in, walking through the house, eating meals, etc. If I can't imagine the sim living there, then I end up drawing a blank and can't build the house. It's like the story can't continue without a main character when I am building.

I never use a floor plan or sketch out the ideas in my head because I don't have pre-conceived houses in my head. I know the room sizes that I prefer, I like entranceways and foyers. I like to have a large restroom on the main floor. I like to have a a master bedroom with an adjoining study and bathroom. Or sometimes a fireplace and inner bathroom. I like my garages to be workplaces, so I make them a little bigger for the robot crafting and things. There has to be a computer/desk just inside the front entry so my sims can study, but there may be others. Lately, I've been putting small study/quiet room in the lift so they can take naps there.

Some houses have hallways and they tend to be my favorite houses, especially if the hallways aren't straight. I like some houses with the kitchen and dining on the second floor so my sims can eat there overlooking their garden.

It is always amazing to me that I use the same room sizes for most of my houses, but the shapes and locations can really make all the difference. Even placing the doorways takes me a while because I have to consider each doorway of nearby rooms so there isn't congestion at any doorway.

I love large dining-rooms and kitchens that a sim can have room to bake and cook up group meals. My favorite dining rooms have double-door entries and I use archways to the kitchen. I almost always have my kitchens towards the rear of the house because I don't like visitors going in my kitchens. I usually have an extra table and set of chairs to allow visitors to eat in the garden and not have to come into the house. I've even pulled a counter or two and the fridge to the garden so my sim can grill outside ant not walk far to serve the meal if the kitchen isn't located close to the garden area I want to use. Lately, I enjoy my gardens so much that my sims rarely eat indoors.

I've been thinking of designing a house where there isn't a dining room indoors, they always have to eat in their beautiful gardens. But I don't know yet how I will pull it off until I have the right sim. Even when I get ideas like second-floor entrances and a wraparound balcony, I can't see the house until I have a sim I need to build a house for - I build impulsively but don't have to re-model much these days as I usually love the house. I remodeled a lot in the days I just put some rooms together and used auto-roof.

I try to build sim-friendly because the sims are too stupid to build all the features I would love to have in their houses. I love walk-in closets, but they are useless, taking up space, for sims that take all day to walk anywhere. I love large kitchens with pantries and double appliances because any serious baker won't have a single stove and two tiny counters when creating desserts and entertaining guests frequently. But I've never been able to get two sims coordinated to cook/bake in the kitchen simultaneously. My husband and I cooked/baked side-by-side in a tiny kitchen, but sims can't do it even in a large kitchen without me fretting because something always goes wrong and food is burnt and wasted.

I hate when my rich sims ask for a microwave. Then I have a fit when I see them making a fancy meal in the microwave or steak in the cheap toaster oven. Too bad I can't have them use more specialized appliances like pasta machines, old-fashioned waffle irons, dehydrators, jams, then I'd build much different kitchens, especially with the produce from the gardens. My houses are never complete if the kitchen isn't right because for me, that is the most important room in the house. I may not start with building the kitchen first, but if it doesn't come out right, I have scrapped the entire house. Not fun when the kitchen is not on the main floor.

[Tenielle]

So, do you use actual house plans? It might be cool to go to one of the companies that do tract houses and use one of their floor plans.

I usually visit these sites, and base my houses off their plans:

Drummond House Plans (http://www.drummondhouseplans.com/)
House Plans.Com (http://www.houseplans.com/)

The following houses were all built from house plans found on these sites.

http://i451.photobucket.com/albums/qq239/tenielle84/S2C%20Sims%20Real%20Estate-%20Cycle%202/Sims2ep92009-06-0400-43-31-81.jpg
http://i451.photobucket.com/albums/qq239/tenielle84/S2C%20Sims%20Real%20Estate-%20Cycle%202/Sims2ep92009-05-3121-13-26-61.jpg
http://i451.photobucket.com/albums/qq239/tenielle84/S2C%20Sims%20Real%20Estate-%20Cycle%202/Sims2ep92009-05-2223-10-44-68.jpg
http://i451.photobucket.com/albums/qq239/tenielle84/S2C%20Sims%20Real%20Estate-%20Cycle%202/Sims2ep92009-05-1520-18-01-33.jpg
http://i451.photobucket.com/albums/qq239/tenielle84/S2C%20Sims%20Real%20Estate-%20Cycle%202/Sims2ep92009-05-0618-23-05-47.jpg

[rome_raven]

Tenielle, I tried the 2nd one too but the front of mine turned out differently

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y287/cassie341/Winchester/Sims/Sims-091014-201149001.png

[ForeverCamp]

Tip: In Sims 2 one square is 2 1/2 to 3 feet, so if a room is 13x18 for example, it would be 4x6 or 5x7 squares. I tend to use 1 square =3 feet in a smaller home, and 1 square = 2.5 feet in a larger or mansion style home.

Hey, thanks for the tips! I found a conversion table somewhere online (for the life of me, can't remember where), but it's installed on the same comp as the game, so I don't use it while building (my comp tends to whine and cry and throw fits about going back and forth from the game to desktop, because I play full-screen.)

EDIT:
Actually, I think it went bye-byes when I took out all the Sims 2 stuff in an effort to try and make my Sims 3 work. Stupid EAxis technicians - didn't even work... So I'm going to take your tips, write 'em down in my simming book of yummies (yeah, that's almost totally nonsensical - but isn't the Sim world, too?) and make sure I use it!

[therebel292004]

Wow, so many responses, lol.
Tenielle, those are some pretty nice houses.
I already mentioned a bit about my ways of building, but lately I been dabbling with houses I've lived in. Alot of times, I just have one central idea like some of you others have mentioned, and it just sprouts from there. I had built a Jetson's style home for some futuristic sims, but recently revisited the design when I discovered the cheat for adding additional levels. Now the home is 9 stories tall, with 2 "liveable" stories.
Sometimes, I get the proverbial "wild hair" up my,,, and I wind up building some wild crazy lots. Others I go for a very realistic look.
recently, I started building my dream town,,, an Alaskan town. But it's a slow process since I was doin actual research of such towns for realism. In the process I found one site the had concept art, and the floor plans for some interesting houses. Needless to say, my folder for building ideas got bigger, lol. Sometimes I'll DL a house from here, like the theme of it, and start building one myself. Example, the Modern Tr-level house. Course, I went with a mountain retreat type look. Came out quite nicely. Maybe I'll see about posting some of my more interesting houses, or at least pics of them..

[Tanly]

I've always just started to build. Sometimes it turns out good but sometimes it gets....stupid and messy XD.
I've made some sketches but recently I find it more convenient to use http://www.houseplans.com/ . You just have to find a good looking house and look at the floor plan. Helps a lot to get an idea for what you are going to make and if something doesn't work out (because this is after all a game) then you just change it a little but you still might have a beautiful house. I've now made two houses and they look pretty good :D

[therebel292004]

HOLY SMOKES! Dude, thanks for the linkage. That does look like a pretty nice site.
Here's a site I found, http://arctic-house.ru
Some pretty nice floorplans, just a pain since it's in Russian.

[thegamefan]

Nice ones here too:
http://www.amazingplans.com

[therebel292004]

What are you people doin to ME!!!!!! AAAAH! Why supply links to a build crazed person???? LOL

[ForeverCamp]

I've always just started to build. Sometimes it turns out good but sometimes it gets....stupid and messy XD.
I've made some sketches but recently I find it more convenient to use http://www.houseplans.com/ . You just have to find a good looking house and look at the floor plan. Helps a lot to get an idea for what you are going to make and if something doesn't work out (because this is after all a game) then you just change it a little but you still might have a beautiful house. I've now made two houses and they look pretty good :D

True, dat. I usually end up having to mirror houseplans or alter them, because I try to use little-to-no cheats when building, and real-life floor plans like to put garages on the RIGHT side of the house, and the smaller lot sizes that I tend to favour just can't fit an entire house with a garage on the right side.

[therebel292004]

I hear ya there. Course, only have my houses even bother with driveways. Pretty much anywhere I have to go, I either walk or ride a bike, so I make alot of houses where they have to walk or take a cab, lol. If I have to walk, so should my sims, LOL.
For the most part, I been tryin to avoid cheats too. But after awhile, I've just gotten tired of being so limited in my building. I like havin different slopes on a roof, and such. Guess mainly just wanting more of a challenge.

[ForeverCamp]

One of the last EP/SPs (can't remember if it was AL or M&G) has roof angle adjustment built in. I remember going to build something, and shrieking "OMG! There's a new tab! OMG! That's the roof angle tab! Ye-ah! Covered porches, here I come!"

As you can tell, I have no life.

[Ghost sdoj]

Mostly I'm the opposite of this, but there was one house I built where I deliberately tried to make a reasonable looking house that would trigger all the silly route failures I had seen. Like going out one door and through a maze, then back in another door instead of 3 steps straight down a hall, or getting blocked by absolutely nothing.

I even put a "drowning pool" in. Yes it had a ladder. They just had trouble finding it unless I directed them to it. I never actually killed a sim, but there were some close calls.

[therebel292004]

Mostly I'm the opposite of this, but there was one house I built where I deliberately tried to make a reasonable looking house that would trigger all the silly route failures I had seen. Like going out one door and through a maze, then back in another door instead of 3 steps straight down a hall, or getting blocked by absolutely nothing.

I even put a "drowning pool" in. Yes it had a ladder. They just had trouble finding it unless I directed them to it. I never actually killed a sim, but there were some close calls.
Close calls, lol. At first, I couldn't get my cheat window to even open, so I had to "incourage" a quick passing of some strange sim I dumped into the lot just so a family could get enough money to move to a different house.
Maze? How did that work out??

[Ghost sdoj]

They would find the way through the maze, although it wasn't a short route. They even had to change levels, but that didn't seem to bother them. There was a door along the route, so they had to go through it.

If you make the maze too long they do recalculate the route, but they don't seem to include modular stairs in the distance calculation.

[therebel292004]

I think I might try a maze in a college lot.

[Astrognash]

They would find the way through the maze, although it wasn't a short route. They even had to change levels, but that didn't seem to bother them. There was a door along the route, so they had to go through it.

If you make the maze too long they do recalculate the route, but they don't seem to include modular stairs in the distance calculation.

How big did you make the maze? I've made a couple, but it's no fun, they always get it right away. The only time I have fun is if I didn't make them, so I guide them through manually.

[kayleigh83]

:lol: Whew!! I saw the title of this thread and I admit, I was scared!! Thinking to myself, oh man not one of THESE threads! "How do I play The Sims 2? Help!!" type of things. :rofl:

I usually like getting inspiration by checking out a floorplan magazine or using one of a few floorplan websites like globalhouseplans.com, architecturaldesigns.com or houseplans.com. That way I find I get more styles of house and more unique and realistic floorplans and exteriors. The more I build houses based on real floorplans, the more confident I feel starting to make my own, or adding on to houses I've already built in a natural way.

[KittyKuba]

Okay seems like a silly question, right? Not really. What I want to know, is how do you start building your lots? Do you plot and plan, do you make scetches, or do you just start throwing up walls in whatever way speaks to you? Have you studied architecture? Is there TRUELY a method to your madness?



Not really, I just get in there and do stuff. Then I realize I suck and need more practice. I keep telling myself I'll practice but I come to this site instead. After looking at people's pictures for about an hour I'm off to go practice building.

[therebel292004]

Not really, I just get in there and do stuff. Then I realize I suck and need more practice. I keep telling myself I'll practice but I come to this site instead. After looking at people's pictures for about an hour I'm off to go practice building.
I've done that more then a few times myself. I'll be checkin out some house someone made on here, and realize I like the look, but already have downloaded a ton of houses from here, so I'll copy the pics of it, build the base version, tweak it to my idea of the final version. Othertime, I just get a specific idea,,,, like an indoor garden and then run from there. I guess for the most part,,, my building style is eratic at best, lol.

[Elvie]

When I was less experience in building I always made sketches before starting to build, and big lots were kind of a problem. Now I rarely do this; however, I must have a general idea of what a house, an apartmen block or a community lot should look like before proceeding to building, otherwise I make sth. I am not satisfied with, and buldoze the building ... after an hour or so of hard work. I plan myNH carefully, so, neighbouring buildings should match in style, there can't be a Victorian and a Hi-tech house standing next to each other. If I build a house< i also decide first, whom I build it for. The future inhabitants, be it a family or a single sim, must be already in the sim bin waiting.

It may sound boring, but I like flat lots and flat NHs (Now I play on the Beladonna Cove template, though it's not the original BC), which is very convenient for building. I tried to build on hills or slopes several times, but I didn't manage to create anything good.

Sometimes I run out of ideas, so I look at real houses or search some houseplans in the Internet; looking at buildings created by other simmers is also a good idea, sometimes I do it.

[Kailacat]

Hmm... lots of people using floor plans... I design a neighborhood and how the houses will fit together, and a central theme (eg. suburbs, magic, urban, island, historic, rural, etc.) Then I'll make some similar looking houses without furniture and copy them around. The family will furnish them as they need. I like building, not furnishing, and I'm terrible at both, as most of my houses are boxes or have the same walls all around. And square rooms. I can't do an open floorplan. Yez... I know. Oh, and everything MUST be absolutely symmetrical. (Aka... why I don't upload buildings.)

[jooxis]

Concerning residential lots, it takes a lot of time and effort for me.

* I look in the picture threads sometimes to get inspired.
* I prefer building on smaller lots because it's easier, looks nicer and I want to use all the given space.
* I tend to struggle a bit with the exteriors, to make it look like a real house, like something you might actually see in real life - this is where looking at pictures and photos helps me.
* I often furnish at the same time while building walls to make sure all the space is used up. I don't like having pointless empty spaces in rooms - if I can't find something to fill it up, I have to make the room smaller. I hate the look of excess space.
* I have to have a consistent "theme" going through each home. I won't have darkwood furniture in one room and then lightwood furniture in the other.
* I tend to build two-storey houses. I make sure the kitchen, dining room, living room and at least one bathroom is on ground level, and all the bedrooms, office and another bathroom is on the upper level. I also always try to create an outdoor dining area with a barbecue.
* The thing is that each house is always a work-in-progress no matter how satisfied I am with it at one point. Sooner or later I'll figure out a way to improve the space or I'll find more CC that fits well into the home and I'll re-organize everything. :)

[Kimiko-Chan]

Usually, I just build. The initial layouts (having a foundation or not, the shape and size of the house) usually define what I am going to do with the finished look and feel of the place. Most of the time, if the house has a foundation, I build a basement. But that has lost favor with me, because I can rarely see what is going on in the basements. ;_;

[therebel292004]

So true about the basements. That's why I rarely use them.
I also agree with the excessive space comment. I hate when they have a huge room and everything is around the edge of the room with the center WIDE open. That's probably why my bedrooms are 4-6, and living rooms are maybe 6-7.
Most of the time, I do have some theme in mind, or build "sim specific" housing. Houses are easier then tryin to do a Whole town though. I been workin on an "Alaskan" town, but it's slow going.
I do tend to favor the trusty graphpad though. Especially for the larger builds like museums, malls, and stuff like that.