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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 2nd Aug 2017 at 12:16 PM
Default Lakeside.
Over the years I have created several neighbourhoods, but they have only lasted as long as the challenge or story I had in mind, apart from the very first. That ran out of steam as it was base game only, and as time went by it was too much effort to update it with all the EPs and SPs. However my current neighbourhood has been running for over two years and I intend for it to last a long time.

Lakeside was a small farming and fishing community until a property developer made the fishermen and the farmer an offer they couldn't refuse. The fishermen are long gone, but Farmer Bakewell retained his house, and that of his farmhands, the Smiff family. As we start Farmer has retired to warmer climes, and his grown up children Barry and Babs live in the farmhouse, now renovated. They have a bit of money in the bank, but not so much they don't need to work. Grandpa and Grandma Smiff have passed on, and Momma Smiff has gone to live with her sister in SimCity, leaving their house occupied by her son Norman, his wife Marilyn, and their growing family.

Norman and Marilyn have very little money. They met in high school and wasted no time getting pregnant with their eldest, Jolene, already a teenager, Billy, who is a child, and James Joseph, known to them as Jimmy Joe, a toddler, and, of course, being CAS sims, they are only just adults themselves. :-) They are both rather lazy sims, with highly dubious morals. Marilyn stays home and looks after the children, watches tv and does a little cleaning. She wants another baby, and soon one was on the way. Another boy, Jason, was born. Norman works - as long as he doesn't have to learn any new skills. He's happy in entry level jobs that pay the basic bills, he doesn't want extra responsibility. He wants to spend his spare time in various romantic pursuits, not necessarily with Marilyn. Jolene looks set to follow in her parents footsteps, and Billy is another lazy sim. The original story was about Jimmy. He was set to reject his parents lifestyle completely. I have been amazed how little I had to do to guide these sims, they did much of it themselves.

In due course Norman was found to be having an affair with Marisa Bendett and Marilyn found herself a toyboy, Cooper Seifert. They divorced and married their new partners. Marisa was perfect for Norman, she had some ambition, but only in the slacker track, and encouraged him to rise a little further in whatever work he liked to do. They had a daughter, Melody. Marilyn and Cooper did even better, 3 children ( one set of twins) and Marilyn discovered she actually liked working. Her LTW had been to have a number of grandchildren, which Jolene satisfied for her very early on!

Three other families were originally placed in the 'hood but two of them haven't got involved to any real extent as yet. The third has, the Biggins family, the teenage daughter, Carmen, caused some ructions. Later on four other families moved into the new houses, and all have been involved.

Early on Norman came home from work with Barry Bakewell. I said Jolene was to follow in her parents footsteps ( I was rather pleased to see her LTW was to marry off 6 children and in order to do that starting early is not a bad idea!) - and she had barely spoken to Barry before she took him to bed. ( I have ACR and Inteen). She was just a teenager, Barry was an adult, a bit creepy? but I felt Norman had an eye on Barry's bank balance and considered he could be a good catch. And she caught him. By the time she had her birthday they also had 3 children, and while he wasn't rich, he had enough to get them a small house of their own ( Babs didn't want children around spoiling her fun ) and he worked hard. Trouble came to them after the birth of their 4th when Jolene caught Barry in bed with her elder daughter's friend - the aforesaid Carmen ( who later married one of their sons) . Jolene kicked Barry out, then realised she needed a father for two more children. She did have one after an affair with a random college student, but Barry did father the 6th. Carrie-Anne, the elder daughter, invited him to come home ( he kept dropping round to see his children ) and for a long time he was consigned to a single bed in the chilly attic.

When Billy became a teenager he expressed an interest in the criminal career track ( and grilled cheese ). He found a reason to work when he did well in the teen career, and despite being so lazy , he eventually reached the top. It took him a while to find a wife, Michelle, and she was just as lazy, but they had twins and made a lot of money in ways better not spoken about,. :-)

Jimmy was a happy enough toddler, he had loving parents and a bunny to talk to. But when he went to school he heard other children taking of chess tables and painting, and fun with blocks, and he wished so much he had these things at home. There was not enough money to buy them, no room for them, and his parents had no interest in them. He also was much affected by his parents behaviour. When he grew to be a teen rather than rolling the dice I did choose his aspirations, Fortune/Family. he had the LTWto reach the top of the Business tarck and I intended for him to get a teen job and save up, he did, and not get romantically involved until he could afford his own place. That didn't work, he met and fell for Meadow Thayer. But talk about well-behaved, even though she moved into the Smiff house ( in order to keep her in sync age wise ) only once did I have to stop them woohooing. They never tried again, despite the 3 bolt attraction. Jimmy grew up, gathered sufficient funds for tiny place of their own, they moved in a day before Meadow grew up, and yeah, they did have their first woohoo before heading off to the local church to marry, but babies waited a little while. They had 3. Jimmy reached the top of Business, and decided to run for Mayor. He did that for a while but he's an elder now and retired.

Jason grew up to want to be dancer. He didn't know how he was going to manage that on the family funds - and then he met Johnny Richkid, who was then living in the penthouse of an apartment block in the centre of Lakeside. Jason found himself a sugar-daddy. They adopted a little boy later on.

So the original four Smiff children produced 12 grandchildren and I haven't even said anything about the next 4. The neighbourhood is full of Smiffs, Bakewells, and Seiferts, though some now have other surnames, and of course more has happened, but that 's how it all started.
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Top Secret Researcher
#2 Old 2nd Aug 2017 at 2:58 PM
Your 'Hood looks good ladykatsim. I like how you describe Lakeside it sounds good.

I enjoyed reading about your Smiffs, Bakewells, and Seiferts.

for info on changing the Mac Open File Limit check out my post here http://www.insimenator.org/index.ph...html#msg1628939
Curiosity killed the cat,
but satisfaction brought it back.
 
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