There are three ways to do a split-level, and each has its pros and cons.

There's the traditional way; the one that most people use. That can warp walls, though.

A long time ago, JustJones posted a tutorial that really cuts down on the warped walls, if not eliminates them altogether. That one is pretty useful, though it's what I would consider a basic split layout. Can't do a whole lot of fancy-schmancy stuff with it.
With my desires for expandable lots, though, I don't really care. If I have to use CFE for a split, simple is just what I want. (It's been a while for me, JustJones ... please excuse me if I messed up a detail.) There is another variation where though you do warp walls, they warp at the corners, and it's really easy to use a solid color over them and cover them up. You do have to find a way to get around not being able to completely connect certain walls, though. This is where a balcony or loft approach is useful.

And there is one I actually like to use where the warping can be very easily concealed and you can connect almost all walls with ease and use pretty much whatever wall covering you want, but it can lead to boxiness. There are ways to cut down on that, though. I have a theater I designed using this method, and have placed it in every one of my hoods over the last few years. It's a little more limited in use than the other two. I'd have to locate the tutorial. There are no more pictures for it, though, other than the main picture, and I would have to use my theater as a reference. That is one build that that really isn't too sophisticated since I did it so long ago, and I use it privately. I've done dorms with it as well, but I purged those some time ago.

EDIT ... Found it! http://carizzo08.livejournal.com/53004.html

The cheat file is working great! Oh man, it's a wonder and I shan't be playing without one, haha! Great tips, and thank you, Phaenoh for the CFE for Dummies links.

Okay, I think I'm finally happy with this... thank you to everyone who advised me to go with the shipping containers - here they are:



(Required object flamingo is visible in this picture)

Love it! You are really creative with the variations on these rounds.

One thing, though, I would be just a wee bit more specific where that flamingo is. It's right by the front stairs.

On a strange note ... I never noticed that the doors in a few of the rooms in my real-life house hang differently within the room. I was concerned about one door in my build, but not now. I would think it real life, how a door hangs would depend on layout, how a room was wired, etc. I'm overthinking. Not an issue. Even real-life builders couldn't care less. More South African fermented beverage, please!

The containers looking good!
@gazania, after the first glass, you will want 3 bottles

Sure, if the bed was meant for two sims that would definitely be a playability issue. But in the case of the Evans family, one sim - they could access one space in the double bed when the other side was next to a wall, without a mod so it's not an issue of playability. Now if Evans sim wanted to bring home a companion for some romantic bed actions then they are gonna have a bad time.

That's lovely, Natteryak - and I recognize the ladies. I guess this is what they're doing in an alternate universe.

Oh ... I didn't notice them! Good to seem them back!

I think I'm done. Despite the similarity with Evans (small modern house and pool) I went with the Rodneys (I hadn't got 'modern' out of my system). They were demanding clients and still complained that I hadn't included a fireplace and spa pool (not enough budget), but hey, I fulfilled their other requirements, and gave them a parking space for their own or a guest's car.

I have been so rude! I haven't commented on anyone's entries, save for one or two people. I shall do so now.

First of all, I believe that everyone has upped the bar considerably. And I don't mean the fermented juice one. ALL entrants and play-alongs have submitted entries have amazed, fascinated and wow-ed me. Seeing your creativity has shown me that even keeping up in this contest is no easy task! At this point, I think the judges may need fermented juice after trying to judge these rounds. I'm not sure if fermented juice will help make joandsarah77 feel better, though. I'm not sure that will play nice with her meds. She will have to defer that juice.

Justpetro ... a modern build that isn't cold. Too many actual modern floor plans I see in real life sacrifice warmth and comfort for streamlined trendiness. Yes, your build is modern. Yes, it's cozy. And yes, it's attractive. And that fence!

PeniGriffin ... I thought I was clever with my Newman details? Bah. You far outshone me. The garden is a great touch! And I really like the humor in your descriptions.

Voielle ... You never cease to amaze. A tiki paradise!

Scottiedoag ... When I looked at the first picture, I thought your build was really nice. When I saw the other pictures ... Wow! The amount of detail in them is amazing, particularly that pool!

Sweet Mystre ... A lighthouse! A freakin' lighthouse! And you got everything in there. I could barely get the things I wanted in mine, and I used far more space.

MystAngel ... your house is a prime example of skill, patience and creativity.

yavannatw ... I like the subtle cantilevering of the house. The layout flows really nicely. And again, unlike many modern house builds, yours is also warm and comforting.

NatteryakToad ... I'm so glad you went with the shipping containers. Great choice .... and a great lot.






Gotta go right now ... will edit when I can. Unfortunately, once June 4th comes along, I won't be able to comment, since I'll be in a place with limited Internet (the signal in that area is really wonky, and I'll be spending more time with movers and an electrician than surfing ... ah, the fun of real life!), but I already know that any entries submitted once I leave will be awesome!

Thanks for all the helpful advice and links to tutorials. I'll start working through them once I've finished the Rodney's house.

Don't give up. I have some other things I want to do when this contest is over but I'm sure I'll enter contests again. One thing that always makes me feel better is when the Sims move into my house and start to make themselves at home in it. I think, if they're happy, it can't be all that bad! Maybe most Sims are like a lot of Real Life people and prefer a reasonably conventional home.

It depends which object is next to the top of the bed, as I discovered in the Lambert boys' bedroom. It doesn't work with another bed there. In the original version of their bedroom, I had their beds arranged in an L shape.
Corey couldn't get into his bed (the one on the left with the dark blue bedclothes). I had to rearrange the beds like this:
The toybox between the beds was no problem. This is one of the little things I've learned from this contest. Apologies for the tiny pictures; they are details from full-screen floor-plans.

You can have kids beds in an L shape, you just need to turn the blue bed so the pillow end is near the toy box.

For all those of you who feels out of their league, I will proudly flaunt my very first entry into a building contest The gate, fence and street lights were supplied by the contest host and had to be left in place. (You may grin and be amused). I was rather happy with my entry until the others started rolling in

http://www.modthesims.info/showpost...2&postcount=103

Believe me, withdrawal was looking very, very seductive at that point. Fortunately, as @AndrewGloria defined it, one had to be a good bean counter too and I was rather good at that part. In the end, I carried on and worked harder and harder in each round. I think I may actually have used move objects on for the first time later in that same contest, and succeeded in building a lot I am still rather proud of today, this one here, which is also my top download:

http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=576146

I think this is my 4th contest and I have thoroughly enjoyed everyone. I did some stupid stuff in all of them That's how one learns. It probably will take another 10 contests to turn me into a master builder too, because it takes time and practice, nobody just gets it right at the first try.

NatteryackToad - had you seen this stove? I see you're done, but as you mentioned a gas bottle. It's a favourite of mine just for the makeshift feel of it

http://modthesims.info/d/302846

I'm normally that way too. I'll download plenty of lots, but when I get them in my game, I never actually use them. I'll plunk them down in the hood (if they even survive that long!), load them once, take a look around, decide I don't like it, and delete them again. :/ That's why I'm challenging myself to make an entire downtown using only lots that have been uploaded on MTS. A few of my own uploaded lots are sneaking in, and I think that's fair game as they are uploaded, but I'm trying to not build anything new for it. I am finding that I can't resist editing them all though, partly because I'm trying to go low/no CC for it and many of the lots I'm using had CC so I need to replace wallpapers and such, and partly because if I don't, they don't feel like 'mine'.

yavannatw, interior decorating is certainly your strong point! All of your colors coordinate quite well. I love the picture of the lower level living room. The gold accents in the picture frame and the curtains matching the couch is really pretty. Your exterior is a little haphazard though. I've counted 7 different windows/door sets. A modern build usually sticks to one set, or possibly two. I would switch entirely to the Werknotham set and the OFB Ergo set, though that leaves you with no privacy windows for your bathroom, so maybe use the cheapest tiny rectangle BG one (the pets one you are using is rounded and nothing else in your design is rounded). Your font entry wall will look really stellar completed done in those Werknotham windows. Use the full height OFB door to complete the look. Your roof also seems too large for your build, and you didn't enclose the backside. Do you have an inspiration image you were working from? If not, I would shrink the roof to not extend past the house on the two sides and the back, and wallpaper the roof's slanted walls to match the top level. Maybe also pick a different color than the default blue roof? One of the greys or the metal grey roof would look nice with your build. Also, did you know you can change the pool's wallpaper?

Finally done!! Rodney Plaza





More pics on the upload.

Is this a case of I'll show you mine if you show me yours, Voielle and Justpetro? OK. I'll show you mine. But please don't smirk too much.

This is my one and only upload anywhere, and it got ... hold your breath ... 80 whole downloads! Now in all fairness, the user base there was far lower than here, and it was buried deep in a thread in a lesser-frequented area. Oh, and the OP (not me) deleted the thread shortly after, taking my upload with it. This is my Willowhaven.

As you see, I didn't even know how to turn the gridlines off! This was probably done between mid-2007 and early 2008. I had this on a March 2008 backup disk. I wouldn't DARE put it in any of my new hoods now because I did so, so many VBTs back then that I'm not even 100% sure that lot wasn't inhabited. Oh ... and auto-roofed all the way, baby!

OK, OK. It's better than the Box Motel. And from time to time. I look at this and think, "With a good make-over, I could replicate this lot and actually make it presentable!" The layout isn't entirely hopeless. I would probably want to restructure significant parts of it, though. Back then, my thought was, "Oh, there isn't enough room?" Make it larger!" without any thought as to the overall effect.

But ... oh, boy. It's kind of embarrassing now! Still, I guess, one has to start it somewhere. So it started ... there. (Nod to Pulp.)

Phae ... what more can I add? All of your entries are great. I haven't even TRIED an apartment yet; never mind a multi-storied one.

EDIT ... Folks, I'm trying to wrack my brain with the Rodney alternate lot. But with everything going on and the stress and the lack of sleep, this is my brain when I think of designs: ..........

I'm too fried and too exhausted to come up with much. I was approved for the postponement, but there is so much to be done with this stuff I have to do, and so much to take in mind.

I think I should be thankful that some inspiration came with the Rhodes house. If I ever get a spark, I might at least do an exterior for the Rodneys. But while the Lambert alternate was 92% (almost done ...) , I'll be lucky if the Rodney one gets to 40%.

I'm fairly certain I've never in my life posted a tutorial about anything, lol. You may be thinking of Inge Not that it really matters, just don't want to take credit for something I haven't done. Nor, to be honest, do I want folks asking me for CFE help because I'm the last person they'd want to ask! :P

Hmm ... my memory isn't as good as it used to be, I admit. Time to find that thread and see just whom I'm supposed to credit!

EDIT ... It was Jonesi. Sorry, Jonesi, wherever you are! Well, I can see how I could be confused. Jonesi also did the bit about the raised skylight buildings, which I used for a building. That was the CFE that looks pretty neat, but does warp the corners a little, which can easily be covered up with a solid wallpaper. Also, you really need the double-sided tiles for this one because as I found out the hard way, you get the freaky CFE ceiling.

Unfortunately, that link on SimPearls leads to the wrong tutorial. Fortunately, I downloaded the right one some time ago.

@gazania - you and your Box Hotel I enjoyed that episode thoroughly, really - and you were quite inspiring, sorting stuff (and Freezy) out left and right, so determined to make everything work. The Box Hotel may not win a prize, but the creation of it was still something special.

Gazania, that lot is much better than the one I showed before, which was autoroofed too for all I see, and which isn’t salvageable I don’t think, even after a remake it’d look bad. I have an interior picture too - so much CC that doesn’t even look good, weirdly mixed colours, and I put a reflective overlay on a carpet And this was the first house I played 2004 (it’s a recreation made later to show it to someone, in 2009 maybe?), right after TS2 came out and my parents got it for me (I was 10 year old) – it’s a Maxis house in Veronaville, all I did was making something quite odd with the interiors

I think I learnt most in 2007-9, when I was a member of a forum that focused on improving skills of TS2 creators. We got and provided lots of constructive criticism, and it helped a lot; judges’ comments are like that too, so I definitely agree someone can learn a lot participating in contests and hearing opinions of lots of different people – all of them are subjective and it’s natural to often disagree with them if someone has different taste to the commenting one, but sometimes it lets you look at your build from a different perspective.

As for my best build, I’m not sure if I have a lot that is significantly better than all my others, they’re all on a similar level, but I’m quite proud of this. But my computer doesn’t like me for building that, and shows that with extreme lags when I zoom out to see the whole thing on the highest floor

Phae, I like the amount of windows and the use of the floor inside is interesting, I seem to ignore those as I can’t find any reasonable use for them, but it fits your apartments just fine, maybe I’ll use it at some point too

I learned much from the SimPearls community lot contest I entered last year. The others basically ran circles around me. Yeah. Try competing with Riekus, Minena and crew. Every one of the entries there left me sputtering in the dust!

But I learned the importance of at least SOME decor and clutter. About the use of OMSPs to make those counters hold more than one or two items. It was there where I learned about the no-red line mod and using the terrain tool to get rid of the grid lines. Found out about the Pescado mod that kept pesty customers out of the kitchen. And I am proud of my entry, darn it, and still use it in my Uni and my main hoods!

I actually like your interior shot, Voielle .... I really like your use of soft colors and lines (well, maybe not the red part! ) and it shows the potential for your great lots later .. but I can see why lower-end computers wouldn't like some of that CC! If I recall, mirrored floors gave several computers heartburn back in the day.

I came across some of my interior shots for a few other lots in that hood on that backup disk. Since I no longer have the completed houses (I did not package them, and that was probably a fortunate thing), I found myself wondering, "And you were hoping to accomplish ... what?" when I look at them now! I obviously knew about move_objects then (I had been playing only a year to a year and a half or so before I tried building, but NOT in my defense ... I was far older than 10 then!). Boy, did I know about move_objects. I obviously LOVED move_objects, whether the effect worked or not.

I find that interior shot charming, but you can't trust my taste!

What are OMSPs? You've mentioned them a couple of times now and I don't get what that stands for.

Apart from building a modern home for Evans, I have also renovated a charming frame house for the Rhodes. Well, it's partly renovated. Bathrooms were a lot smaller back when that house was originally build, so there are some plumbing issues to adress.

One more slot please

They're damn useful: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=317716