Detectives Phelps and Biggs, LAPD, to see Leland Monroe.

L.A. Noire is really cool for modelling the inside and the outside of a building in real size instead of warping you whenever you enter or leave a building, making proportions nonsensical. Thanks for that, Team Bondi. Elysian Fields Development is a really cool building and, apart from wishing you could have walls and/or floor tiles on a half tile and from different levels of CFE shenanigans, it works really well in TS2. I particularly love the ceiling work (with help from GridAdjuster for the multiple dummy levels in here). The shell is done though I could probably add more landscaping, the decorating will be much harder especially if I want to make this usable for my sims instead of just neighbourhood deco.

I'm restricting CC to the bare minimum.

For the last ten years or so Veronaville's New Changing Hut has stood near the Canal Bridge in Veronaville. It's called the "New Changing Hut" because it replaced a very similar older building many years ago. Its purpose is to provide reasonably comfortable accommodation for newly created CAS Sims while I make various changes to them to allow them to become townies. The lot contains various CC modified objects that allow me to make the changes needed. These include the Sim Manipulator, Christianlov's Clothes Rail, A Simlogical Teleporter Painting, and Pescado's Batbox (in the roof-space). I got the idea from a post, which I think was by pixelhate, but their version just had the necessary modded objects in an empty outdoors lot, and was played with MaxMotives. But, as I think you all know, I like to be nice to my Sims, and I enjoy playing them through the ordinary interactions of everyday life. So I built them this little hut with everything needed to keep them comfortable for a few hours while I prepared them for life as townies.


This is the original building, which has seen a few minor changes over the years. Until yesterday it stood on a 1x1 lot. By the way the little toilet window towards the rear of the building was white, until i painted it green this morning. Thanks @Justpetro for giving me a link to the green recolour.

Originally I just played such townies-to-be for a few hours -- sometimes only minutes -- while I made the necessary changes, so there was no need for a bed.


However over time I found I was playing these Sims for longer and longer. I suppose I just like hanging around with Sims, and sharing in their lives. I fairly soon found myself playing them until the welcome wagon came, so they could meet some of the Sims who lived in the neighbourhood. When these guests left they'd be exhausted. The best they could do on the lot was to nap fitfully on a park bench or a recliner. Or take a taxi to a community lot where they could buy an energy drink from a CC vending machine. All told it was ceasing to be fun, either for them or for me. It was obvious they needed beds, but there was no room to put one. Over the last few months I have added sleeping facilities to the downtown and Bluewater changing huts, and built a new larger changing shed in Monopolis, but there was still nowhere to sleep at the Veronaville hut itself. So when Gerald Park and Horace Blue moved out and became townies a couple of days ago, I decided to take the bull by the horns and build a second hut for the future townies to sleep in.

I used Mootilda's lot adjuster to increase the size of the lot from 1x1 to 2x1, and built this new sleeping hut. I had some difficulty levelling the ground to build on it, but I succeeded in the end. The little bit built out into a small gable at the front is the toilet. When all the other doors and windows were painted green, I really didn't like having to use a white Glasterpieces Privacy Window for the toilet, so I started a WCIF thread to see if there was a green recolour. Meantime I put the white window on the side of the building, so it wouldn't be too obvious from the street.


Justpetro kindly responded to my WCIF, giving a link to some recolours of that window by Michelle on TheNinthWaveSims website. I used that to move the toilet window to the front gable, and widen that gable to a more symmetrical appearance to the front of the building. This also allowed me to add an indoor shower. (The original hut has an outdoor shower at the back of the building.) I had to build several temporary internal walls to support the weight of the front gable roof, while I was building it. I'm not sure why I needed them, but I removed them all after I finished the roof.

The first Sims to move into this improved facility are Frazer Knowseley and Beatrix Keanie, two adults who had been separately in the Family Bin for some weeks. I combined them into one household. In the first picture Frazer has just come out of the original hut to greet Stephen Tinker. In the second and third pictures Beatrix is playing chess with Julian Moltke-Jones (Andrew's husband), who (along with Andrew) was one of the Welcome Wagon guests.


Floorplan of the two buildings. Originally I only placed three beds in the new sleeping hut, but I added a fourth one when, at the end of the first day in the new hut, we found that Andrew and Julian, there as Welcome Wagon visitors, had decided to test the new beds by sleeping in them. I now have Lamare's "Use inaccessible beds" mod which allows Sims to use these beds. (The similar older mod by Inge requires Apartment Life, so I can't use it.)

After only two days in his new house at 11 Bow Street, Monopolis, Herbert F. Foster has extended the house front and rear. It's just gone 7 a.m. and Veronaville paper boy Jess Shaikh has just delivered the morning paper. He doesn't seem too fazed by the fact that the house is significantly bigger than it was yesterday morning. Or maybe at this hour in the morning, he's just too sleepy to notice!


This is the rear of the house as now extended. This house gets plenty of sun in the back garden, but none at the front. I know a lot of Simmers want the sunny side of the house to always face the street, but lots of real houses aren't like that. My own Real Life house only gets a little bit of sun at the front on summer mornings, but for most of the year, and for most of the day, it's the back garden that gets the sun. I actually prefer it that way. It helps my plants to grow, and on nice days I can relax in the sun in the garden. That is of course when I'm not indoors playing The Sims!

The piecemeal building of these new extensions, has given the roof an unusual, if interesting shape.


This floorplan helps to explain why Herbert and his adopted son Ian wanted to make these changes:
1. A 5x5 (25 tile) extension has been added to the right hand rear of the building. Most of it will eventually become Herbert's main bedroom, but for now a karaoke machine has been parked here.
2. This is the current main bedroom, where Herbert usually sleeps. It is almost unchanged, except that a 2 tile recess has been added, and the wardrobe moved into it. The plan is that, when Herbert moves into the new room, Ian will get this bedroom, giving him room for a double bed. I think he'll appreciate this, as he now has a boyfriend. I generally let teens share beds with their boyfriends/girlfriends, even if they're "good" kids who don't woohoo. (A few years ago, when I had a lot of teenage friends, a lot of them seemed to do this.) Andrew (in)famously never had woohoo till his wedding night!
3. This is Ian's current bedroom. Until now it was only just big enough for a single bed and enough room to get into it. It has just had 3 tiles added to it, extending it towards the front street. The plan is, that when Ian moves next door, the karaoke machine will come in here. Both Herbert and and Ian intend to use the machine to build up their charisma for promotions they're seeking. It's certainly more fun than talking to yourself in the bathroom mirror!


For comparison, this is what the house looked like, when they moved in on Monday!

I'll start off with a picture of the Fosters' house as it is now. Compare it with my picture of this house in its original condition in my post above . This transformation has been achieved inside a fortnight. It shows what is possible when a motivated Fortune Sim is pursuing promotion in their well-paid career. (I've previously posted this picture in the Hacks you'd like thread. I've just linked back to the image uploaded there, rather than waste capacity on MTS's servers by uploading it again. )


Only a few yards/meters from the Fosters' home is this new timber-built house at 72 Bow Street belonging to Harris Maclean and his son Remus. Harris is a Family Sim and he's not earning nearly as much money as Herbert F. Foster is earning as a Chartered Accountant. But he has fallen in love with a Downtownie called Mary Love, and, being a Family Sim, he has added an extra upstairs room which can be used as a nursery.


This picture shows the house as it is now, with the new room added. The mailbox has now been moved nearer to the front street, after a taxi drove over the flowerbeds. (The damaged flowers have now been replaced.)


This picture shows the interior of the new room, with Mary Love (Harris's fiancée) sitting in it practicing chess. Note that it is possible to place furniture here, and for Sims to use it, despite the fact that I haven't deleted the original ground floor roof. When I first tried to place furniture here, it said the ceiling was too low. (Clearly it was going by the height of the original roof, as if I was trying to place furniture in an attic space.) But after I added an extended roof at upper floor level, I was able to add and use furniture without further problems. @StrangeTownChick was asking about this in the Hacks thread. Beware though that it might work differently with the later EPs, as Seasons made some changes to the way that roofs work. My highest EP is Open for Business.

I'm not sure if I'll be totally convinced that it's OK, until I see the room working as a nursery!

Having a bit of fun flipping one of the contest houses (not following all the rules around the building, but challenging myself to only use maxis, save for some simple fixes, a lighting mod, and possibly some bedding defaults I forgot I had... Not even OMSPs or the "shiftable everything" mod, even if it's tempting)

Not my preferred size of house (I like when the rooms are bigger - easier to take good pics), but it's fun with a bit of a challenge.

Most of you are probably aware of CatherineTCJD's Fix It or Flip It Building Contest, where I have posted a Play-Along 'Crack' House in downtown Veronaville. In playing the Sims who moved into that house a number of issues arose, most of which I mentioned in the The Future section at the end of that post. As we really built this lot for the Sims who now live in it, we have, along with these Sims, made some minor changes which help to resolve these issues.

The most serious issue was congestion in the kitchen, caused by Sims eating standing up, just inside the kitchen door. This has been resolved by removing two sections of wall, as illustrated in the final picture of that post. This turns the previously separate kitchen into a food preparation area, within a bigger open plan living area, which includes both the dining table and the sitting room. When the places at the dining table are all taken, Sims carry their food to the sitting room and eat it in comfort there.

Here Archie is preparing the cereal for breakfast, while Tom, who is hungry, looks on.



The problem that Graeme had of having to do his homework while sitting on a cactus, has been solved by the addition of this back door. The fenced enclosure beside it, with a lockable gate, should provide an adequate source of regular income for the boys, probably better than they could get from most regular teenage jobs. Archie has just finished tending their money trees. This enclosure is cheaper than the alternative of building an extension to the house.


@Charity suggested giving Archie a CC Merola dresser in his room instead of the university locker in the upstairs seating area. I passed her message on to him and he agreed. Here he is reading on his bed with his new little Merola dresser at his bedside.


Removing Archie's locker from the upstairs seating area, allowed the bathroom to be enlarged to a full 6-tile 3x3. This allowed a washbasin to be installed inside the bathroom, so Archie no longer had to use the one in his friends' bedroom. Here he is washing his hands after using the toilet. Yes, Archie noticed the state of that toilet too. The next thing he did was to thoroughly clean it. Then he took a bubble bath to get himself thoroughly clean too. The washbasin in the bedroom has been retained, so Tom and Graeme can use it, if they just want to wash their hands or get a drink. It is also useful when everyone is trying to help to wash up the dishes after a meal.




[P.S.] I have replaced the first picture with a new one, showing the same two Sims the next morning in roughly the same place, only this time they have their clothes on! As @Charity pointed out, the original picture unintentionally showed something that, while really quite innocuous, did look rather inappropriate!

That top picture looks like it should be censored rofl.

I see what you mean, but it's actually just the leg of the table.

It helps me to understand why some Victorian ladies used to dress table legs with floor-length skirts!
I'll try to take a similar picture of this location, when the boys have their clothes on. I took this one, when they were getting ready for breakfast early in the morning, and they were still in their undies as they had been sleeping that way. (Actually most of my Sims tend to stay in their undies all day at home, and only get dressed when they're going out. )

By the way these are the four visitors eating their supper at the dining table, that I mentioned in that post. Left to right they Sarah McGuire, Beatrix Keanie, Sienna McGonagall and Douglas Cockburn. (Pronounced "Coburn"!)

It probably won't be till tomorrow that I can get Archie and Tom to pose for a "more decent" picture.

Some of the small houses in my hood:

Thank you @simsample for your Channelwood. Now with it and Darkling merged I got new opportunuties.
Maybe off putting but in my game Alt Huk lives together with Ramm Guzeg. I don't quite remember where they met each other, I guess somewhere at the harbour, but they spent lot of time together since there and when Alt invited Ramm into house, Poh came up nervous and they, with two cats, left right once they found worthy house in Channelwood.

Two fortunate events then came up, first they got TV from their network friends and second, they found genie lamp, which they spent all on money!
And now they have their house, not finished outside, but close to their dream house inside.



I usually tend to build square shaped floor plans and never knew such... carved... house plan can become that cosy like it has so many angles with walls half-rised to show many decorative items!



Your neighborhood fits so much as downtown actually. It has some urban vibes so those house located at 2 Sim Lane, also was furnished as modern apartment with some striking design features.



There are a lot of pet items to make two cats happy, even at the enterance hall but it also serve as reading nook and has some space for a case with grilled shutters



Guys gave me permission to show their bedroom. Came up they sleep together in murthy bed which was unfolded and also they have a vanity table and big unshuttered clothes rack where I even found one dress!



When ask about their relationships, Ramm said they are in free relationships. Alt can't give up his romance aspiration so they have a lot heart-shaped modern neon decorations and wall of Alt's fame behind the murthy bed. Where he pursues some of his love strategy.



Ramm is different and not romance-holic, not quite adapted and keeping some memories about Darkling. Happened he really likes nature and can't give up his tree plantation labour. But in modern town there are few of such trees so he has those shelfs to grow his own plants at least.



They decided to meet up modern tendencies and not to go back to Darkling woth its rustic furniture. In JUSK store around they found very good furniture which is modern and very very fashionable! As they said: money can buy it, babe!



Some shelves are yet empty but they promised to fill it with sweet memorable items once they reach an argument about where to spend their weekend.
And they bought those angel-wing shaped chandelier! That designer's thingie cost them tons of simoleons!



Guys both are of playful character so they have some toys, table with PC, chess board and console game. Alt bought new training center and even came fit. He still follows his sportive measures I swear.



Oh, almost forgot about bathroom here it is. Nothing special is here. Maybe just paw prints in the tube that show their genuine love in feline life.



I also made WCIF picture when happened you liked some from screenshots. Hope my letters can be recognised:



I screenshotted those house while was playing. I used no money cheats. Thank you for watching

@Victor_tor Wow, you made that house look so real! Very nice choice of furniture and decor, I could never have made it look so good! Very interesting that you put Alt and Ramm together, nice match. I hope they will be happy! Thank you for your kind messages about Darkling and Channelwood, I am glad that you are enjoying them both!

My childish scratches can be translated? It is English not Simlish, you see! They still have 12734$ simoleons in pocket. So feel free to share you advices about house design