Sweet Mystre, that is so honest of you! I value people like you so much! :lovestruc Personally, I wouldn't take the points from you, since the judges didn't notice it on time. I bet most people wouldn't report it if they were in your place, so I would always reward such behavior.

Phaenoh, gorgeous building! I absolutely love, love the exterior! This screenshot looks particularly good. Also, wisely chosen family for that build.

Cowplant-simmer, your yard is perfect! Garden and all... I love how you used terrain paint to improvise wheel trace. I also really like where you placed the stairs leading to backyard. Neat idea.

I noticed a lot of people changed their entries. Or I wasn't paying attention the first time I looked. For example, I completely missed this gem by Greenplumbbob. I can't remember that looking so good the first time I saw it. Really beautiful screenshots of the exterior and landscaping. I wish it had more shots of the interior, the ones it has, don't show much.

I really love what you all did, especially for the Rhodes family. Entries for that particular family are the most inspiring to me. I guess that would be the family I would like to choose next.

Yes! I'm done... I think it's more stressful taking pictures with Sims in the way then the pets. XD
Hopefully this time I got it right... and better.

@MystAngel- well, it's not like it's money... if it were I might have keep it. Probably not but this is only for fun and Simmer-ship ( or Community Spirit) .

*I also found I used flooring costing 15 in the Pet's sun room... that gave me a little more building funds. Plus the 2 outdoor dog houses we optional, I got some more money (may=optional).

Thanks Phaenoh! I've made that change, and yes, it works for me. It should now be much easier for me to see which lots do face the sun.

I can't take any credit for it, but by sheer good luck, the two base-game compatible foundations that I uploaded are sun-facing. So if anyone (maybe a play-along) hasn't started building round 2 yet, you could use my foundation rather than Jo's. Although I really made them for any base game players, they will work with any configuration. Now that I know how to do it, I'll try to make sure that all future ones face the sun too.

The Elliotts have moved in now, and they hadn't been in the house an hour when I realised I hadn't given them a bookcase. Fortunately nothing has depreciated yet, so it was easy to get a new price photograph. I had to redo the floor-plan too, having got the Elliotts to go outside and look at their bike, so they wouldn't be in that picture. I'm still hoping to get the pictures uploaded later tonight, or (more likely) early tomorrow. I'm now taking pictures and playing the family at the same time, which is more fun, but probably slower than taking pictures in an empty house. Since there are now a few Sims living in the neighbourhood, I hope the Elliotts do get some "Welcome Wagon" visitors. They could do with making friends quickly in case they need help with bills and food before they get themselves properly established financially. Sims helping each other out in this sort of situation is one of the things that I understand as true "community spirit", and it happens already in our Veronaville.

May I just second that?

justpetro, rosebine and mystAngel, I'm happy that you liked it :D

Don't think that's true. I think they all can be used on a diagional--monkey bars and swings can be used for sure (so for example the one in my first entry is playable. Placing it that way is a great way to save space actually). I feel like I've used the merry-go-rounds, slides, and tree house/tower on diagonals as well, but I'll have to double check that when I play later today to be 100% sure.

But anyway, I've questions:

1. @joandsarah77, Are mailbox recolors counted as cc? Or, alternately, are there Maxis recolors for the mailbox that I just don't know about? I saw a couple of blue mailboxes in some no cc entries and I'm wondering if that's a game feature I've missed.

2. Also, for Evans, is "workout equipment" anything that builds body, like say a tv or the basketball court thing?

3. And @Greenplumbbob, I have to ask--in your entry (lovely, btw), the wood dining room/kitchen flooring is going all different directions (i.e. the wood panels aren't all laid the same direction)--is that effect intentional? I only ask because I know that for both rounds I had to clear the foundation/delete the floor before I could put down my own floor choices, as when I opened the lot the foundation tiles weren't going in the same direction either.

Want to change the sun direction on your lot? Use this: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...pic,8076.0.html

It works for all lots, because it fixes the neighborhood lot imposter in the neighborhood. Those lots are just normal lots built facing the sun that have then been shrunk.
Does that change all lots or just the one you want to change, and does the fix stick after a reload?

@Phantomknight - I changed the mailbox color, yes It is an in game option, if you have AL or M&G (not sure which one, to be honest); you can use the designer tool thing and it gives you some recolor options. For years, I did not know that option existed myself - I think I may have learned about it in a building competition .

Fermented fruit juice bar is open, all 24/7 if you are thirsty, or tired of building, or just need a drink for no reason at all!

@Phantomknight. Hmm I just downloaded Jo's foundation, grabbed a floor, used the >< signs (one with the . and , ) and just went ahead and placed it. Didn't need to remove anything from it. I think to just remove the floor easily, I think you had to use the ctrl button or shift to ' clear' it (please correct me if i'm wrong, pretty new to this ts2 building anyway :P) But yep! Did them on purpose! Thought it looked pretty interesting in a way, can't say I would have placed my floorings that way in real life ^- ~

Agreed. Maxis does offer you some change in mailbox colors. I don't believe those came with Seasons, which was as high as I went with the EPs up to 2013, so those would have to have come after that.

If there is any question, I'm on the machine with my test game now. (I had put the game on another machine to test for something that gave me a problem. My daughter had commandeered this particular machine for her game, which she played for some time. I don't have as nearly much cc in this one, but still see the recolors. Like justpetro, I didn't know about the recolors for years, and used to wonder just how people did that!

Even in THIS contest, I forgot about the mailbox recolor. I was looking at the entries for the first round, noticed some recolored mailboxes, and thought ... dang ... I could have changed my mailbox. It's not something I think about or do very often!

@Phantomknight
The game has mail box recolours, they came with M&G or AL, blue is one of them.

Yes anything that builds body. Notice I said this is a base game friendly family. So think outside the box.

Simply use the < > keys to change the direction of your floor.

Sweet Mystre, I don't recognize the wallpaper in the kitchen on the 1/2 wall. I am referring to your 2nd round house. Hopefully, if that's cc, you can fix it before this round ends. BTW- it's nice wallpaper. where is is from??

You're kidding. Seriously, how did I not know that? Granted, I never had a particular inclination to recolor the mailbox, but still! You'd think I woulda read it somewhere or accidently stumbled on it... Man, you think you know a game you've been playing for thirteen years... Why is there no 'mind blown' smiley?

ETA:


That's what I do. Anyway, it always bothers me when my wood floors don't run the same way, so it really stood out to me. I had noticed that the kitchen tiles all went one way, and the border around the dining room another, creating a pattern, but then all the tiles in the middle were different too, and I couldn't figure out if there was another pattern that I was missing there, !

@Mom50409 Maybe I am being blind but I don't see a half wall in Sweet Mystre's kitchen, only 1 dollar Maxis tile. Same one I used on my play along for round 2.

Phantomknight if you have the dreamalot buyable mail box the recolours don't show. I don't care since I never use the recolours that Maxis provided, a use a cover over all of my mailboxes, the one with a shelf.

I don't use a buyable mailbox and I've never downloaded recolors for it--the mailbox is just one of those things that I don't pay any attention to, I guess.

The picture with the aquarium Jo. There is the half wall, and the wall paper has stripes.

Eh, I was looking at someone else's entry, my bad. I am not sure on that paper, there is something similar in game, but that could be slightly different, more mustard than the yellow in game one.

I just fired up my test game, and I didn't see that wallpaper, either. This doesn't mean it ISN'T there ... I just don't see it. Thankfully, if it's a CC wallpaper, that is easily fixable and may not require too many retakes. I don't have too many CC paints or wallpapers in this game, so I could look through the catalog a little more easily on this game than my main game. There is plenty of time to fix it if it turns out it's CC.

On the other hand, I saw some interesting Maxis wallpapers I never noticed before that would suit a certain family or two when I do my next dice roll.

The paper on the living room side is an OFB paper, pretty sure. The paper on the kitchen side is a Pets paper.

Wait ... I looked again, and I think I might have found it. Or not. If you don't see this post deleted in ten minutes, then I didn't find it. Let me screen shot it and compare. Hold one.

EDIT: I believe it's the bottom part of Simply Loafly in Dough color.

This is a lousy, Maxis C screenshot (no FRAPS on this machine), I might not have set the camera resolutions very high (I usually don't take pictures on this game) and of course it's a cloudy day outside, but note behind the barista counter. There is some sort of pattern on top of the wallpaper. Now to compare it to the entry. Is it the same?

EDIT AGAIN .... Better resolution in the third pic, I hope. I had the resolution on medium for the other two. Oops. My bad.

But isn't the game version more yellow and that one more mustard? Although there it doesn't look as yellow as my game. I think we will say its game paper.

Variations in shades of yellow could be down to something like variations in monitor brightness.

Well to me the wallpaper in the entry lot and in gazania’s pictures looks the same.

Or it could be our own vision. I can't tell you how many times one or more of my family members claimed a shirt was one color and the wearer claimed it was another. The shade in my picture might also be a result of window placement, the weather outside, lighting, etc. These were quick pics. I would be more concerned if the stripes were purple and pink, and the game didn't have that variation.

*strolls casually through posts*

I see Justpetro is back to bartending