It does look like a fun lot! The reason no one made any money on the bandstand may be that you didn't leave enough room for listeners to get to the tip jar.

I feel like a dummy. I just spent the last twenty minutes loading different TS2 folders, trying to figure out why the last few items I need to furnish my entry weren't showing up in the catalog. Finally I realized it's because the items only show up on residential lots. Sigh. At least I figured it out. Now to finish and take pictures.

Ok. I think I'm finally happy enough with it. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate taking pics? lol. But it's done.

Everything has been thoroughly tested. Everything that should work does. The shooting gallery and bottle toss game are purely deco, but the dart game does work. Well, sims can throw darts at least, no prizes. Cotton candy, popcorn and ice cream are all buyable. Hotdog eating contest functions as a hotdog buffet table. And since I wasn't sure, I checked, the vending machines do work on an angle

"Requirements:
Must have some way of eating and bathrooms with at least 4 toilets on the lot.
Parenting Room (see link below) Toddlers require at least: one fridge, one crib, one potty, one change table and one toy.
Your lot must have something educational, something flirty and something fun."

• Plenty to eat
• Main bathrooms have 6 stalls, stall in the parenting room, and one in the restaurant
• There is a mini fridge under the counter by the door under the microwave, which you can just barely see the door of in the top down of just the parenting room (the rest of the toddler requirements are very visible)
• Educational - bookshelves in the kid's place
• Flirty - photo booth
• Fun - .........uh...I'm guessing that's obvious

Welcome to the Old Town Boardwalk!

Eeee I love it!

The city had very litte money to offer to buid a community place for all to enjoy, the city still needs more residents to be richer. Old small factory again, all what was left of it was the main gate, couble of bunkers and few brickelements, and lots of graffiti. Almost all the money went to the watering system, and to make sure the water is clean enough to swim in it .
But all the residents gave something personal to the community center and all enjoys it very much.

K wanted a video of the coaster, but I didn't know if it would be cheating to add it to my entry, so I'll just pop it here in case anyone wants to see it working

Coaster Vid

@Goldenbtrfly @Phantomknight 1 hour to rounds closing.

I am doing up the table now, with Ellu and Gina's entries. if I miss any entry or playalong can someone let me know.

I am truly impressed by all the community lots! Well done to all the contestants. (justJones - oooooooh la la! And I do love the factory as well, and the church, and, and and....)

Meanwhile, I am starting to pour the drinks for the Getting Jo Plastered party! See you all shortly at the Fermented Fruit Juice bar

Yeah... I'm not going to make that. I'm not winning anyway, so I'll be happy to take a deduction just so I don't have to rush. I hope that is OK.
Just by a day late, is what I mean, not two or three.

Each day over is 1 point deduction just so you are aware.


Mmm blue drinks.

I remember! I don't think it will hurt my chances of 10th place. Seriously though, I had zero inspiration after I built 75% of it. Then it just sat, and sat, and sat. Then today I managed to find some inspiration and started working on it again. (I hadn't done any wallpaper, landscaping or decorating at all.) Just a bad run overall both on and offline. Thank you for the reminder though! I do apologize.

@Goldenbtrfly - as long as you turn up at the party, I am going to need help later on : (Strongs with the last bit).

Jo - and cake

Yah! Round closed! For some reason the timer is now going the other way-up!

Don't forget your last rounds will be judged and scores tallied up so keep a check on the thread for updates..

Jones, that community lot is fantastic! :lovestruc

I have enjoyed seeing everyone's entries for this contest. Seems to me you are all winners, no matter the scores.

Oops. While trying to figure out how to properly clean Sim references and scour a Hug-Bugged Lot, I missed the closing buzzer! But I am learning something there as well. And now I'm equating NSL in my mind to what my mama told me to always make sure of when I went on dates.

Looking at these entries, I can hear the sound of mics dropping (I am sure this is a known idiom, but I was referring to the term "drop the mic".) Personally, I think that all of us who went as far as we could with this contest deserve those blue fermented beverages with those cute paper umbrellas on top and a floor show. Your choice of entertainment. I was thinking of fire dancers for me.

Congrats to all of us!

Well, better late than never, right? So I built a community ice rink center. Please let me know if I have too many pictures!
Round Five Entry







Whew! Glad I entered, but boy, this was exhausting.

Great to see you entry in Phantomknight, I will add your entry to the table right away.

Congrats to everyone! All the lots are frickin' amazing and if I had BV I'd download every single one. I can't tell you how many times I've said "Oh my god" when viewing an amazing entry (including just now) or "Why didn't I think of that?".
I've learned heaps in this contest and am so glad I entered. Firstly, I learned how to upload pics! I learned that the soon-to-be-dead photobucket shrinks the size. I learned how to make foundation planters (never even heard of them before); putting plants on top of one another (had never done that before); using CFE walls instead of foundation; and using cornice pieces to hide foundation, to name but a few. I am also more aware of decor and matching windows and doors. I've become really picky when it comes to building (I'm currently re-working a community lot I made ages ago and have made so many changes and am still not happy).
Thanks heaps, Jo, for the opportunity and all your hard work, and of course big ups to the judges for their hard work - not an easy job! Good luck with this latest round - your hardest yet, I reckon. We'll have to celebrate when the final scores come in. I think we all know who's going to win...
Now for some of that blue stuff with the little umbrella.

I feel the same! I learned a lot, and what's better, this contest made me really excited about finally getting started on building my own hood from scratch. I always wanted to makeover downtown and build my own little housing developments and I feel like I'm ready to do that now. I can't wait to try out all the cool things I learned here. So thanks for this contest Jo! And thanks to everyone who entered and played along. I can't believe that so many contestants continued on until the end and played along--I think we all really pushed each other to do our best.

Can the judges please check in.

@Charmful
@CatherineTCJD
@Karen Lorraine

Judges sheets will be up later tonight (my tonight, it's lunch time now)

Thanks Guys. I am really glad you enjoyed it.

I enjoyed this contest too When you announced it I wasn’t sure whether I’d join, but I’m glad I did Now I feel more free with respect to mixing different styles, and as I’ve mentioned before the best thing I’ve got from this contest is the modern-Moroccan style for my Oasis Valley, it fits there perfectly. I’ve also learnt about using greenhouse walls and roofs to create a sunny conservatory and practised no CC decorating

@joandsarah77 checking in

I have greatly enjoyed watching the progress of this contest. As far as I'm concerned, every single person who has posted images in this thread is a winner. With each round, my jaw dropped even farther. Amazing. Beautiful. I'm bookmarking so I can refer back!

I'm certainly learning more about Hug-Bugging than I ever wanted to know! Still keeping my fingers crossed that what I'm trying will work.

I learned about all sorts of new tricks.

The next time judges say something about someone's entry and I wonder how the entrant didn't notice certain errors the judges picked out ... well, I see how those could be missed. (STILL doing face-palms over that grill on the Elliott lot.) I will never tsk-tsk about that again. It's pretty darn easy for an entrant to miss details!

Learned all sorts of cultural things, too.

I think, though, if a Part II ever comes around, and I'm able to do this, I might go as a play-along right off the bat. I'm glad I did this contest, it was a very interesting experience, and thank you so much, joandsarah77, but I think it might be time to step aside and just watch and learn more next time. One day, I'll get to the Intermediate level of building.

By the way, I'm amazed at the retention rate in this contest. I think we lost only about six or seven out of the original twenty-one? That is a great average! The only contest I ever won, I won because only one other person stuck in there during the last round, and that person was kind of half-hearted about staying around.

And once I plop my new lots in the prep hood in my good game, it's actually time to play Sims 2 and 3 again! Yay!

I'm not sure if it will work for me. The symbols on Simlogical suggest it might not work for a latest EP after Nightlife, but in that case it wouldn't work for you either. I've downloaded it and I'll try it. But I probably won't change the door on this lot because it currently uses Rosebine's new door with the "Potty Room" sign on it. I suppose it might be possible to recolour Inge's door with Rosebine's texture, but I think that's a project for the long term -- not for this afternoon!
That could be why you made your bandstand so much bigger than mine! Mine is just big enough to hold four 4-tile instruments. I had hoped Sims might dance to the instrumentalists on the adjacent dance floor, but when I asked Trevor Elliott to dance to his father's playing, he got up on the stage beside him. Then he only danced for a minute or so, which surprised me as he really does like dancing, but maybe his Fun meter was already full. There are lots of ways to have fun on that lot, and Trevor clearly was enjoying himself. I think I'll build another small lot for the Elswyn Sims to perform and (hopefully!) earn dome money.
I wasn't really planning on uploading mine, but my highest EP is OFB, so you definitely wouldn't need BV to play mine. So I could consider uploading if there's any interest. By my standards this last lot used a lot of CC, and I'm not sure if I can trace it all, so it might be hard to meet the MTS upload standards. So I might just share my lots privately with anyone who asks, or, alternatively, put them on my LJ.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I mentioned this once before, but I wondered if this thread might be left open a little longer than usual for us to post about matters arising from the contest. I'm sure I'm not the only one who started a new 'hood just for this contest, and I for one believe that a Sim is for life, not just for Christmas, so I anticipate that I'll be playing these families for years. I'm not suggesting that the thread stays open for years, but it might be an idea to leave it open for a few weeks, so we can post on how our Sims get on a trying to build a community spirit. I know when Jo suggested we include a story, many people thought in terms of a backstory for the families we were building for, but I thought more in terms of the story going forward as we play these families, and they build friendships and relationships that turn the neighbourhood into a true community that Sims can be proud to be part of. Personally I find characters who wander into town with a mysterious past that they won't talk about exciting and romantic. Anyone who's seen the Juliette Binoche film Chocolat will know what I'm talking about. So a lot of my Sims don't have a backstory. Or rather, they have one, but I don't know what it is.

In the more immediate future I want to build a house for James (aka Jim) Evans the Olympian. It won't be using one of the contest foundations (they've all been used for other families) but it will be a modern house, and I intend to use CFE in it for the first time. I've already created him, and he's in the family bin.

When this thread does close, I think I'll start a continuation thread in the main forum, so we cam continue to post the stories of how our Sims build (or fail to build!) a true community spirit in their neighbourhood.