The Smiths were extremely pleased to find this house when they moved to Sunset Valley after finishing university. The house needed some work doing to it, but their budget meant they'd have to do it themselves. The house and lot was $91,091 and they had $55,000 saved up for furnishing, decorating, etc. They had $19 left after the work! Luckily, they had their old bikes that Jenny had painted up while they were at uni, and John's parents had given them a car as a wedding present; also Lulu, his old dog refused to leave her biscuit ball behind. John promised Jenny it would be done by Snowflake Day... Maybe she should have got him to specify which Snowflake Day, as the work took longer than they'd hoped, and they ended up celebrating in the middle of summer! But they knew that by Snowflake Day, they would have a wonderful gift of a new child, so enjoyed meeting new neighbours and exchanging gifts.
They both loved the traditional, cosy feel of the house, but their challenge was to make good use of all the rooms, as it was a bigger house than they initially thought of choosing.
They put a telescope and chair in the eyrie with just an end table and lamp for illumination - the widow's walk was unusual in being too far away from the chimney to help in any fire fighting needed if it got set alight. Planning regulations meant that they could swap the original arches alongside the stairwell for windows, and they ended up blocking another arch with the telescope. The other 3 arches would let all the winter winds howl through though, so they did think about how they could tackle that in the future.
The windowless room below the eyrie would be Jenny's office as well as a store for suitcases and un-needed clutter.
Choosing from the three bedrooms was not easy as they all had doors onto the balcony, but the stairs up to the office leading from one, made it the best choice for their bedroom. John choose to put his easel in there as a reminder of their uni days when they had lived in one room for almost everything.
Their new bathroom was about the same size as the old bedsit!
Jenny had a wonderful time, finding various cute materials in the local haberdashery to make up for the soft furnishings in the nursery! They chose not to find out if baby would be a boy or girl, and chose pastel shades that would suit either, and picked up toys that would be 'just right' for a boy or girl... when the baby was older!
Having an ensuite bathroom for the nursery gave Jenny the idea of using some charming sailing themed stencils on the walls and blinds.
They both knew their mothers would be rushing to come and stay once the baby (first grandchild on both sides!) was here, so the guest room was a priority! They debated twin single beds so both Grannies could stay at the same time, but decided a double bed would be more flexible. "After all," Jenny pointed out as she placed a cookie jar beside the bed for late night snacking, "The granddads will want to come and see baby too!"
The landing seemed a good place for various mementos of their time at uni. Though there were no windows on the landing itself, it led down to the sunny hallway, and Jenny had John put a mirror above the stairwell to help reflect the light back about the landing. They made a decision to keep the hallway quite uncluttered for now, realising that as baby grew up, toys, bikes and school bags would be thrown down so leaving room for them might help containing them in one place (the Grannies laughed at this idea).
John used the same stain for the wooden floors throughout the ground floor to enhance the open plan feel given by the arches separating each room. Old Lulu's bed had a prime place where she could see who was coming in from any door, but a little bit away from the dining and seating areas to discourage her from begging for bits of food.
They did plan to eat in the kitchen when it was just family for ease of cleaning up as well as being more companionable while one of them was cooking or washing up.
The last room downstairs was the toilet and laundry - they hoped to get planning permission to divide this into two separate rooms in the future, but for now used some fencing to screen off the toilet.
Practical John in particular, was very pleased with the size of the garage, as they could not only store the car and wood for the open fire in it, but their windsurfing boards and snowboards, still leaving room for a workbench for John. They chose to fix the bike racks just outside the garage, deciding that the overhang from the roof would be enough to keep the worst of the rain off the bikes.
The garden even had a charming little waterfall and stream, that then disappeared into the ground before feeding into the ocean below the cliff. They added planting around it as well as a picnic area, vegetable garden and fixing up the battered tree-house in a well established old tree.
Some other new familes to Sunset Valley came to their Giftgiving party (because Kasandro inspired me )
Seeing that Blake prefers lots without, I have tried to avoid it up till now... But I never think my lots are good enough to upload (plus I forget to keep a list of which EP/SP I've used items from, or which Store item is which.... So I used some CC for this . Thanks to:
Armiel for traditional piano
cmomoney for delightful daisies
daluved1 for little bath boat
granthes for one more slot please!
Lisen801 for the cookie rack and simplified hopscotch
velocitygrass for remove stencils (all at Mod the Sims)
and Nona Mena for the super hamper (at Simlogical and the Dead End Nights)
I was going to put the Smiths in Round 2, as they only needed a small house for the two (plus one!) of them. And I did do a version of Cosy Craftman for them. But for me, what I'd done didn't feel interesting or exciting. So I put them on hold, hoping for Wagner's Repose for them. One thing I'd thought from the beginning about them though was that they probably love Christmas. That tree's been in their inventory for a long time! Cosy Craftsman was too small for the tree really, but Wagner's Repose for the Smiths - well - my challenge here was making it look as though they are not rattling round like peas in an empty bottle! Then I saw kasandro's party and just knew I had to throw a gift giving party for the families!
Money wasn't as much of an issue as I'd worried, though I still had to have enough stuff to make it look liveable in - I think I have and got both my sons (both sims players as well) to look at the house and my screenshots to say if they thought I'd got it looking cosy. One of my screenshots for the master bathroom was taken from inside the shower but showing the cabinet and I gave younger son the choice of which I used - he picked the one above as the shower blocked your view of the plants behind the bath.
Making sure the house looks right for a couple of soulmates who just want to be together wasn't easy (because of my choice to leave them till last ) but I made the design decision to not use sofas - all the loveseats are two seaters for the lovebirds to cuddle up in.
I'd have like to have taken a separate screenshot of the hallway, but as I had to have the landing in shot (to avoid showing the sky), the ceiling went black. I felt that looking into the hallway from the lounge and from the landing was the best way round it!
I've underlined where I've said what I did in the eyrie as Blake said we could swap the arches for windows and I've knowingly blocked one of the (excessive?!) arches from being functional.
Thank you, Blake for this fun competition! And thank you judges for your well thought out criticism - I really have tried to make it better this time! And of course, thank you other competitors for sharing your work with us!
8th Aug 2014 at 6:09 PM
Seaholme - The Smiths' new house
)
. Thanks to: