All right folks!

The vampires called and told me I'm immune to the mumps, so now that my paranoia has been proven unjustified (I did spend a fair amount of time yesterday palpating my jawline to check for swollen glands...), I'm aiming to finish up my entry over the weekend. I just have to get rid of the nasty bruise they gave me trying to draw my blood (par for the course in my case, though. I usually bruise after a blood draw, though not normally this much - they had to stick me in a weird spot on the side of my elbow this time).

Still no word on the university's potential strike, but I'll likely be starting paper two this week... (Which, happily for me, will require hours and hours of binge-watching "Touch" on Netflix and perhaps "Scorpion" if I can find it online through a non-pirated source. I love it when my passions and my work overlap... now if only I could somehow work The Sims into my workload.)

Have a teaser pic while I finish up grunging and floor-plan shooting.

I had some unexpected time today, so I completed the shell - not that I really have any idea of what I am doing here
Question - any specifics for the parking since it is for a carriage? (I have even less ideas about that)!

Welcome back to Loch Namara!
We're getting ready to celebrate one of our town's favourite times of year, and in honour of this, we've given a new property for the City Council to examine: the old Namara Estate.

Paul and Pauline Namara were our great town's founders. Their beautiful family estate has been parceled off and sold over the years as the family fortune dwindled, until all that remained was the piece of land containing the old family home. Once a pristine Victorian building, this five-bedroom, two-bath home has now been overrun by plants, the wallpaper has peeled and the floors and ceilings are in desperate need of refinishing.

We think that this character home could be refurbished with a bit of love and attention into a wonderful commercial space for our beloved town.

Enjoy the night time picture, because hey, who doesn't like a creepy old Victorian building two days before Halloween?

Hi everyone ! Sorry I disappeared for a while, I lost my Internet connexion for more or less 3 weeks and it will probably go down again in a few days due to some works? (they redo things in the neighborhood, buildings, cables and so on). I have no idea when it will stay for good. I tried to connect with my phone once but it's an old one and it was freezing each time I tried so I gave up.

I think I sadly have to retire from the contest because of this, as I don't know when the Internet will be lost here again, + I don't know for how long.

I will surely keep looking what you all do, starting now as I have a lot of thing to look at since the last time I went here.

Really sorry about that. I was so excited by this contest but I can't be sure anymore that I will be able to keep going on MTS often enough until the end of November. Anyway, thank you all for the amazing time I had here ! It was a lot of fun and even if I can't continue playing with you for the moment, the few weeks I spent here gave me a lot of fun and inspiration, so a huge thank you !

Wow, that Victorian House is stunning! Almost a shame to redecorate. XD

WOW! Fantastic!


....( better quit giving out advice to the competition! My house is sad in comparison! )

xmathyx, I'd hate to lose you too! We are also having a bit of a speed bump ourselves, so you might not end up that far behind if you just miss a round until you have your internet back.

Everyone, I love your houses! As for carriage houses, you may pretend that it has already been knocked down by a windstorm and just do regular parking in the back accessible by a driveway from the front.

Had a bunch of fierce thunderstorms pass through several times yesterday knocking out the power so I didn't get much time to work on the house. I turned off my computer to protect it from surges.

Any news on the factories yet?

*nervously chewing fingernail* I hope no one docks my factory for it's shiny clean smoke-stacks! (I couldn't find a grungified wallpaper that had the same effect)

Dear City Council

We have heard that this building is going to be bulldozed shortly.

Council Members, we want to bring your attention to the fact that this house is a Victorian Painted Lady! We also believe it may well be the only one in the city, if not in the country, that has ever been built.
The architect was the famous Travis Traveller, who lived here in his early years before going off to design some of the world's most intricate skyscrapers.

We understand that your records show that the owners have left the country after falling into debt. Of course we agree that a building that old, and standing empty, is not a valuable asset to the city. Yet due to the fact that it is quite unique in many ways, it surely can be!

Not only has the building historical value, it is also situated in a prime location. It is in excellent condition for a building that has stood empty for years. We apply for a building permit to restore the house to its former glory, when it was known as the Sunshine Villa, and use it for commercial space.

Please view our application with the historical value it has in mind, and please let us know if you need more information.

Your sincerely
The Small Business Chamber.

Hey Phae
I know you've been busy... and I want to be sure my R1 Church Reno wasn't missed - it's not been added to the table yet. It is post #485
Happy All Saint's Day!

I think Phae got a bit overworked the last week or so and didn't do the front page for a few things. AFAIK, she's made sure to keep the judges' scoresheets updated with the correct links.

Ok! Test week gone, I thought I would have plenty of time to build. Well, I was wrong, I had some unexpected events during the weekend. What I have so far I started building last night. It's still very rough, but if I can get some fast feedback I might still be able to pull off something.
The outside is not yet grungified and the inside has no furniture (not even plumbing).
One problem I have is the driveway. I only have 4 tiles for it. Do I have to add that extra tile? I really don't want to rebuild the whole house. Also, is there a better roof for the tower?

Yeah, last week I was sick, then was crazy busy with my Halloween party and now I'm starting a new job tonight. I tend to update the front page all in one swoop, so no I haven't missed anyone yet, just haven't done it. We have the scores for the warehouses for 2 of the judges, but our EJ is MIA, and AdonisPluto is dealing with family loss. I'm considering releasing the scores now without the third grade, as long as y'all know that the scores might change slightly once we have our third judge. Any preference?

Official call for a new Emergency Judge. If you want to help judge or know someone who might want to, speak up. Maybe some of the contestants who had to drop due to the pace could be enticed to judge? It's significantly less of a time commitment. I don't know when or if Adonis will be back, so this could be a permanent judge position.

Until we get another judge, the contest will be on hold. You may keep tweaking your Victorians, but you need to have some sort of entry posted before tomorrow morning. Post up what you have, and then you may keep editing and tweaking them until we have our new judge. Like musical chairs, keep going until the music suddenly stops; as long as you have something posted tonight, you'll have a chair to sit in.

Aarg! I've torn my roof off several times already because I don't like it. I'm being a purist and don't have the right cc. grrrr... The Mansions and Gardens stuff pack has 'second empire' architectural stuff which is not Victorian - It's French. Plus Sims 2 roofs are an annoying thing to craft. Trying to get the top of a gable roof to stick above the hipped roof and have the same slope grade and meet on the hip ribs has been interesting (read annoying) to pull off.

I will post my mess tonight but understand it needs lots of revision. or maybe not, if I quit rebuilding it.

oh. Just continue with the two judges until you find another one.

-----------------------------------------------------
Sims 2 Architectural conundrum...



So what I've been attempting to do is recreate part of this roofline. The main roof is a hipped roof over the majority of the house. With gables over the extensions jutting from the front and side and also the top of the hipped roof. (get rid of that tower) Or, another way to look at that is to make a tall gable over the center of the house and use hipped half roofs for the front and back and allow the gable to poke through the top. The problem I've been having is getting the hip/gable ribs to line up neatly and seamlessly. The roof edges want to peek out which spoils the effect. *sigh*

That pink house example has some lovely gingerbread frills and frippery that I CAN'T find in cc or easily fake! I'd have to get out the wallpaper maker to do that gingerbread justice... and I don't have the time to do that...

LOL! (I'm laughing here, instead of crying...) I feel your roof pain *sigh*
I just threw up my hands (in the air, but I really do care!) and went with the M&G Empire pieces.

No worries Phae - I new you were busy! As for another EJ - I hope someone steps in. I'll twit, FB, and tumble it out there <3

And we can drink Juice bar remains open, freshly stocked!

Maybe call for a new judge on the site news page? It's so easy to miss posts here like I did last round not even seeing we should be judging until one of the other judges said something else.

I'd say go ahead and post the scores. Unfortunately, I am literally the only person I know who plays Sims, so I can't help on that front.

I don't think you can go on to the reno part without all 3 of us giving our vote though.

If we're indefinitely on hold, then the reno may not matter.

A post on the general sims 2 board asking for a judge may be a faster way to get another judge.

2 judges is fine if we can't find a 3rd. I don't want to cancel this contest. We're on round 3.

I'll see if one of our moderators might be able to help out.

Official round 3 - Victorian do-over

I don't know how many revisions I've done but FINALLY, I finally got a decent roof that I've been trying to do so here goes the unfinished entry. I'll be finishing it this week. That roof doesn't look like anything special but it was a DOG to get it to look that way!

ok. This house will be better now that I've got the roof I want and will have time to grungify it and put in the top floor rooms.


*SIGH* I had the roof fixed the way I wanted it but there was not enough head room for the required rooms. I'll add the 3rd floor pictures when I fix it up. If I have to be disqualified because of lateness, so be it.


I had hoped for the kids rooms and nanny's and a spare servant room to fit under the rafters. When I tried a taller roof, it looked terrible on that house so I had to lower the pitch. *sigh*. What I did last night was tear off that acceptable roof and added walls for the 3rd level in the back of the house. I'll keep the front gable on top of level two and see what I can come up with that looks like a decent Victorian style roof...


Ok. Here is the updated monstrosity! uh... Yea. It needs a LOT of work! I'm just sad that I don't have good looking gingerbread wall paints. Front view.



P.S. I know it's supposed to be run down. I left the cars on the lot to show Phae that there are enough parking spaces.

PanAm, sorry I missed your post last round. No, your driveway can be 4 tiles wide, a car is 3 and that's enough. I am concerned about your parking spaces though, do you have enough right now and is there vacant space to add more during the reno?

Porky, you should try plasticbox's bigger attics method, basically creating a shorter dummy level under the roofs, so you'll have more standing height without it looking like a full roof. Without the extra level, you are going to lose a lot of points for required rooms not being there. The basement is nice, but it's not going to make up for the lost space. Also, do you also have enough parking spaces?

Heaven just PM'd me and I replied, we shall see what she says about our judging dilemma.