I might actually find time to start mine in the next few days.. I have been too busy working on the performing arts theme thing it is out for final testing now so hopefully with it done I can get it started later this week! Everybody is going to beat me to the good stuff.

Well, I finished mine a few days ago but hadn't got around to uploading, so here we go.
I present Rookton Community Centre



The left building houses the library, art gallery and small studio. The right building houses a restaurant, dance floor, and at the top, spa pools (with toilets and showers).



Now floor plans



Not sure if price pic is required. My lot's the most expensive so far.


I created the brick recolours, mural, "picnic blanket" and two paintings.

I've definitely overdone it. As gazania said, there was a bit of elegance about my lot, but then I added all that elevated playground! But it did say, "Build something here for your Sims to enjoy," and enjoying it they certainly are! I started off by sending cycling web designer Joe Elliott and his boy Trevor there. When they arrived, just before 10 o'clock on Saturday morning, Alice Kraemer, one of Trevor's friends from school was there, and the two kids met up and had a whale of a time. They had a long pillow fight, chasing each other all over the park. They finished that with a hug and a kiss, and then Trevor climbed up to the top of the tower while Alice started to play on the big slide, where Trevor soon joined her. After that they both went to the toilet. (Trevor went to the boys' room and Alice to the girls' -- so I could see that both worked.) Then they both got into the pool and started to swim. Meantime Trevor's dad Joe found the electric guitar on the bandstand, and started to practice on it. Actually he's quite good. Trevor and Alice were still happily messing around in the pool, but Joe was getting hungry. Instead of having a restaurant meal with Trevor as I had originally intended, he grilled hamburgers and handed them out free in the restaurant! Nobody complained or tried to stop him -- it's amazing what Sims can sometimes get away with! Trevor wasn't hungry and went on swimming with Alice.

Even after eating though, Joe had another problem: he had meant to take a shower before leaving home, but the taxi came. Now he was regretting not getting that shower. He went into the parenting room (thus testing for me that it was accessible) and washed his hands, but it clearly wasn't enough. So much to Trevor's disappointment, he had to say goodbye to Alice and go home with his dad.

So my Sims' verdict on the lot: Trevor loved it and wants to go back. He wants to dance on that dance floor. Joe liked it too, but thinks it would be better if it had showers. Trevor agrees, because, if his dad hadn't had to go home, he could have stayed playing with Alice much longer. Well, I pay attention to my Sims, and I started thinking about how to add showers to the lot. I thought about replacing a stall or urinal in the female and male toilets with a shower, but using the communal shower (which seemed most appropriate) would mean having naked and clothed Sims together in the same public room, and I somehow thought thy wouldn't like that. Then I remembered these communal beach showers which allow Sims to shower in their swimwear, so I downloaded and installed them. I've placed two of them at the poolside so Sims can shower before they get in. Today I'll send Joe and Trevor back to try them out, and also see if I can get Trevor to dance while his dad plays on the bandstand. After that I'll test sending Sims with toddlers to make sure the toddler facilities work. I don't have the Pets, so I can't use dickhurt's mod to actually send the toddlers to the lot with their parents or siblings, so I'll have to try and teleport them in. For that reason I've put Inge's teleporter shrubs (not the cats -- they need Pets too) in the front corners near the portals, so teleported-in Sims will appear in the same part of the lot as Sims who just walk in.

All told, provided there are no problems with the toddlers, I'm quite happy with the lot, over-the-top though it undoubtedly is.

Peni, I wonder if you could give me a link to those "Pride" flags, as I think Andrew and his friends might like to have them in Veronaville. I don't think they'll be needed in Elswyn (my contest 'hood) though, as it seems all the Sims there are straight, which may be a "first" in my game! Well, maybe not Trevor Elliott, but I think for the moment he's quite content to be a boy who likes pink, and flowers, and butterflies, and dancing, and (it seems) playing with girls. It's one of the things I love about the Sims. In real life a child like him would likely end up bullied and miserable, but in The Sims, he can just be himself, and be a happy and quite delightful child.
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Sweet Mystre and yavannatw I like your lots. Of course yours is expensive, yavannatw! It's all those valuable works of art in the gallery! And, Sweet Mystre, please don't make too many changes to your petting zoo -- it's a wonderful place as it is!
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Here's another "taster" pic of mine:

Looking good guys.
Judge two who has computer issues had to redo her entire score sheet but I have those now safe and sound. I will get judge 3 scores across to my sheet tomorrow, but scores probably won't go up until the day after.

@AndrewGloria: The specific flags I was looking for in the dream (which turned out to be on curtains) can be downloaded here:
http://twofingerswhiskey.tumblr.com...gs-by-2fw-hello

The Totally Maxis tumblr (http://totallymaxis.tumblr.com/) is doing a Pride Month theme, asking for submissions of Pride-themed content and pictures of premades celebrating. So far they have four different flag meshes, including a hand-held accessory flag (which, alas, is not available for children, so Jonathan Elliot's dad had to carry his for him), with slightly different sets of flags. Also some other themed accessories, t-shirts, and some face paint.

If you search for "wireless guy pride" in the downloads here at MTS, too, you should find a variety of rainbow recolors of Maxis items, some of which I've also used on the Crooked Beach Community Center. If you ever feel you need a sparkly rainbow-colored grill, hot tub, or piano, wireless guy has you covered.

Technically, I think I have all the pics I need, but I'm torn. I have a couple of spots that I particularly want to show being used, and though the build mode shots I took of them are all right, I messed up the live mode shots. (Damn OMSPs.) So I can do one more picture session and maybe get exactly what I want or maybe screw up again, or I can take the perfectly good but less interesting pictures I've got and probably post today. And I'm having health crap, so the effort involved in loading up the game and sending the Newmans out for the third time in one of their days seems monumental. But dammit, showing the dogs using the bathing fountain would be so cool! Experience tells me that you get better scores if you make the person judging laugh or squee. (Learned this in high school. Making the teacher laugh, so long as it was done without introducing inaccuracies, was worth a whole grade step on the paper. Most high school papers are dull as dirt and teachers need a break.)

Well I have no idea what has gone wrong with my game but I can't load a lot with sims in it. I can build all I want but no playing hence no pics with sims. It was fine two days ago when I tested the lot in my test hood, but I didn't take any pics as I wanted to use the Wee Toon sims. This is happening in a clean folder and after a repair of the game as well as my normal folder. I just don't have the heart for the 12 hour download to reinstall the UC with no guarantee that it would work. The game crashed during taking the pics so at this stage I'll just have to make do with what I did manage to get. My SimPE has also stopped working. Something really weird is going on but I have no clue as to what or how to fix it.

History of the lot (more of my ramblings hence spoilered)



Front of lot

Required pics


Pics of the individual areas
For skilling there is a bookcase in the Feather cafe, exercise equipment in the gym and the childrens/toddler areas have toys. There are easels and pottery wheels for both adults and kids in the art studio and of course the pool.
For fun there are all of the above plus, for the daring, the rooftop rink.
Giovanni's, the Bower and, for those inclined that way, the photo booth fulfill the romantic/flirty requirement.



I've enjoyed the comp and learned so much. I just wish I'd been able to get better pics and especially of the signs I made as I've never seen brailled signs for sims anywhere else lol. For this lot I made my first wallpaper and recoloured my first rug (all mister men). Thanks to Jo for hosting the competition and good luck to all the participants.
Now me and Plumpy are off the fermented juice bar

Scottiedoag

Right, I think I'm done! May I present the Community Garden:

Hi, everyone
Lovely lots posted while I was gone.
Thank you, @Goldenbtrfly for taking care of the fermented fruit juice bar.
Now for the good news: no more veggie juice! Let's fire up this juice bar....

I'm glad you're back, Justpetro. I had a bad few days and was just not feeling well. I should have passed the torch myself.

I thought: Where would you see three generations of a family on an outing together? Ikea of course! - Or possibly on a fine Sunday morning they might have a wander round the local garden centre, buy a few extra things for the garden and have brunch at the cafe.

So I present to you the Growing Green Plant Nursery and Garden Centre, at Contestville. This is a small community, so it is only a small lot (3x3).



The other compulsory shots are here


There is a dedicated family room for parents with young Sims, conveniently located in the same block as the toilets. There sleepy tykes can take a nap, be changed or cleaned up and there is an activity table to keep them amused. There is even a plumbed in toddler toilet, so potty trainees are catered for without any need for emptying. Thank you, Rebecah!



Toddler mealtimes are catered for with the rest of the family, in the on site cafe. The cafe is only small, so no hot meals are available. The cakes are very popular, though, and so are the friendly staff. There is a large terrace out back so Sims can enjoy the garden while eating.



Of course, shopping is the main purpose of a garden centre. The central building holds the tills and the main shop displays, although Sims can also pick up plants in pots as they wander round the grounds. There is a small administrative office in the back of the shop. Sims can also learn flower arranging here.



As well as the facilities in the family room, there is a playground outside for the young in years and the young at heart.



The greenhouse contains the more exotic plants. Bananas anyone? The garden around it shows how the plants on sale should look in a permanent setting. See it, like it, buy it.



Growing Green also sells pond plants, and the pond display is considered particularly pretty, not to say, romantic. Gilly Walters proposed to her husband right beside the pond bench. They like to come back and visit it on the anniversary of the proposal,



Orris go away. They don't want to listen to a dirty joke.

Aysarth- Beautiful lot! :lovestruc I love the humor in the last picture. And, of course, WCIF that beautiful trellis that is over the happy couple?

Thank you. The trellis with the clematis is by Shakeshaft at TSR - I have a lot of her stuff on the lot. https://www.thesimsresource.com/art...ge/19/cnt/1093/

It is from the Trellis Garden set.

Wow! I like the idea of not only a garden, but the ability to learn how to arrange the flowers from the plants you buy! That's so cool! Every small section of space has something interesting going on, and I really like the use of the dummy roof and CFE.

One thing, though, and I hate to sound like I'm nitpicking with such a gorgeous lot ... some of the pictures have grid lines.

Y'know, though, with all the use of great CC in all these entries ... there might be a subsection of this contest forum JUST for WCIFs at the end. I see myself thinking, "Oooh ... cool ... want that." "Oh! Where did that person get THAT?". etc.

Yay plants There will be plenty on my lot when I finish it too

I found some time to build yesterday and the main components of my lot are ready (unless I decide to change something), but I need to properly decorate everything, make a garden, put go through/around blocks under decorations that could block the way, lamps, and play test everything. I’ll have plenty of time soon so I’ll definitely manage to finish my lot before the deadline And it will be more expensive than I thought, it already costs over 200k.

Gazania, you can always send a PM to someone and ask.

I should get the scores up today (my today) it's currently morning over here. I know the table needs updating and stuff but I figure you are all more interested in scores-yes?

I admit that with the utter RL chaos that went on with my life in the last round and the nasty builder's block I had before I finally found the house I wanted to inspire me, I'm actually afraid to see my scores this time. I can only hope I didn't bomb that much. And this round might not be faring much better RL-wise, apparently (another family member is really ill, though with another malady, and I'm really concerned about how this will be treated), though I at least have time to post my entry and will have a day or two to make any last-minute corrections I need to make, unlike last round, where I had to pretty much post and go. So honestly ... I'm good with the score posting however you want to handle it.

Hugs gazania hope things are better soon. You've not been having a great time of things.

Aysarth I love your garden centre it looks great!
Scottiedoag

Thank you, scottiedoag! Reading several of these posts, it seems like a bunch of us had a lot of stress and trouble in our lives throughout this contest period. I think it would be amazing if all 15 of the final round entrants and the 6 play-alongs manage to put out anything at all, and I find all the previous entries pretty darn amazing so far. It hasn't been an easy ride for many of us over the last couple of months. I almost imagine this as the end of a marathon!

It definitely is for me as it’s the end of the semester, I have the last test tomorrow and I’ll be finally free Provided I do well enough of course, otherwise I’d have to take a second attempt. I wish my semesters were shorter though, 15 weeks seems like a lot, and classes last 1.5h each (with a few exceptions of some labs that lasted 2 and 3h). It’s also 5 years for master’s instead of 4 like in lots of different countries.

Scores soon guys, I'm just going over all the entries. Also sorry about the scary triangles showing up when I hail on the thread-I know I use to hate getting a triangle pm.

*Note from me: Well from busyness to score sheets being eaten by cantankerous computers and now Word doing a bit of a number on the punctuation (I did my best to clean up all the weird symbols it shoved in) It is now finally here, round 4 scores!



Judge 1 Note to contestants: I loved all of your entries this time around, you have all upped your game tremendously, well done!

@Aysarth - I love your lot. I could not help remembering us moving into a house without any garden at all, (a long time ago) but a rather big yard - and we would go to the nursery on Saturdays for months on end to buy plants and had lunch in their deli After lunch at the deli we went back home and dug holes and planted all our new stuff, and the kids and the dogs all helped with the digging One day I bought and planted a baby monkey puzzle tree in a corner. Years later, after we have moved, I passed by that house and could not see much, since the new owners had high walls around it, but I did see one huge, magnificent-looking monkey puzzle tree standing much higher than the walls) .

I’m happy with my score I understand the dislike to those lamps in the conservatory, they do see a bit too big, but they’re one of those rare lights that actually give warm light, so I decided to use them (I hate white light and I only use it if I can’t afford the porch light hidden in walls that give the warmest light in the game).

My score could have been worse, so I'm relieved. I'm confused about the requirement score on the first evaluation, however, since the requirements were "A good size fruit and veg garden. A place to sew, paint and make pottery", and they have an entire grain bin for the painting and the pottery and a nook for sewing, as well as four fruit trees and fourteen plots for the veggies. I thought I made sure that they had plenty of room and opportunity to do their things. Maybe I didn't make the fruit and veggie portion large enough? Dunno. All I know is that given the circumstances, plus that I had to post several days earlier and could not fix anything significant once I submitted my entry and had to hope I nailed everything, my score could have been far worse. I honestly thought I'd bomb big-time this round because emotionally and physically, I was all over the place. So I'm thankful for that.

Also, I'm going to have an even worse problem with the overheads in this build. I have five or six buildings on a 4x4 lot (depends if you count the attached lecture hall as a building)! Egads. If I were to make shots of each floor plan, it would take up a good chunk of my entry! However, I'm thinking my original idea to at least break it up into two or three overheads might be a better idea than trying to do a larger overhead. I'm taking pictures now, and even though I'm making the pictures larger (still fitting within screenshot guidelines), I'm squinting when I look at them! Just as long as I don't get points deducted for breaking up the floor shots. I have a small building in the back, a two-story separate building, and a whole bunch of buildings in one cluster. If I do left side/right side, and/or add the building in the back as its own shot, that might work better. One more reason why I'd like to post a little earlier ... I'd like to make sure this entry is easier to see, because as it stands now, even I admit it really isn't. I'll plan my pictures as if I'm going to put in the two or three extra layout shots and work things that way. So instead of 8 + 16 (three floors), I'll do 10 + 14 or 11 + 13? Or are the floor shots going to be part of the essential shots and I still have 16 extra shots? Any of those ways are fine. I just want to get the show on the road.

Wow, my highest score yet! I was expecting a lower one this time, since it got a lot fewer "loves" than earlier houses, but judges and the general public do not always see eye-to-eye and I'm happy to be surprised. I knew I was taking a chance with all those colors and that linoleum all over; but I expected the intense pinkness of certain parts of the house to be the main problem. Once again proving that I have no idea how to pander and am wise not to try. The bird garden came naturally to me, as I'm a frustrated birdwatcher who hasn't been able to bird properly very often for a few years now. Bear this in mind when you see how many birds I put into the Crooked Beach Community Center.

I have all my pictures taken, edited where necessary, and winnowed down to 21, but if we could get floor plans of each individual building added to the "required" count without reducing the 16 optional ones, I have some I'd be happy to put back in. Naw, didn't think so. I think Jo will like the parenting set-up. I'll try to get the pics up today but at this point I've been awake for a little over 24 hours. My BFF was in the ICU (his own damn fault and he's doing well) and we stayed visiting him late enough that we decided to eat out instead of cooking, and I carelessly ordered ice tea even though it wasn't decaf. My husband refers to caffeine, when I consume it, as "speed." I expect every moment to collapse and do not trust myself to post pictures in this state. But if the inevitable nap restores my coherence and leaves me enough time before visiting hours I'll get right on it.

And I'm babbling, a good sign that sleep may be finally approaching. Good morning, y'all. Have lots of pictures for me to look at when I wake up.