Progress Report...

I had already extracted and cloned (almost) all my playable Sims and all the Veronaville townies, using a process similar to the one suggested by gummilutt. I named the extracted Sims with their names (e.g. AndrewJones.package). Then I cloned them one at a time in Body Shop and immediately deleted the original extracted Sim in Body Shop. I had SavedSims open so I checked that each "named" package file was really gone. I also kept a note of which cloned filename belonged to which Sim, but, in a moment of disorganisation, I must have forgotten to save the list for my playables! (I do have the list for the townies.) I don't think it matters too much though as I reckon I can remember the appearance and names of all my playables. In my case figuring out which Sims I wanted to extract meant all the playables and all the townies. I'd really like some of the NPCs too, but I may have to make them playables in the new 'hood. If (when) I get OFB, I may be able to get them back into something like their old jobs.

I have successfully renamed my old 'hood "Old Veronaville" and renumbered it N103, so I can open it without having to have multiple copies of "The Sims 2" folder. When I say I have extracted almost all of my playable Sims, two that I haven't got yet are the McBains' twin babies, as I have to grow them up to toddlers before I extract them. I could use the Sim Manipulator or the SimsAgeCheat to grow them up immediately, but they are my very first Sims babies! So despite the corruption, I'm going to try to let them grow up normally and enjoy my time with them as babies. In normal times I would be tempted to turn aging off and maybe try out some baby clothes, but in the circumstances I'll just let to grow up in the default couple of days. If it works, this will be my last bit of real gameplay in the old 'hood.

Anyway I opened the McBains household yesterday, and found them so far unaffected by the loss of wants and fears that has been plaguing the neighbourhood recently. I played the lot for about half a Sim day, and it was a reminder (if I needed one) of just why I love my Veronaville Sims so much. The lot played perfectly. It almost made me wonder if I was giving up on the 'hood too soon, but I know that some other Sims have really major problem. To put the icing on the cake (metaphorically - I'm not quite ready for real birthday cakes yet) Andrew Jones, my very first Sim appeared as a walk-by, and young Gerry invited him in. Andrew, who had cooked fish for Jenny while she was pregnant, went upstairs and stood, deep in thought, holding baby Peregrine in his arms.

I'm sure he's thinking about the future, so I'd better make sure that I give him one! :lovestruc

Alright! I finally found the notebook I used when rebuilding all my lots for the new hood, so I figured I'd write out my process for remaking lots while I remember to.

First of all you need to decide how hardcore you are going to be. Nobody knows for sure whether previously used lots are safe or not, and we are not likely to find out any time soon. Currently it is reasoned that it is best not to use previously occupied residential lots, but community lots are okay as long as they haven't been changed since creation (the last edited date on the file should be the same as when you made added it to your hood). Personally I went with rebuilding almost everything, because I figured it'd take less time to build a few more lots than it does to redo the rebuild yet again.

Second, figure out which lots you want in the new hood. Make a list. Lists are your friend. Go over your list, are any of them downloaded? Do you have any of them in the lot catalog? Once you've figured that out, decide which ones you are going to rebuild from scratch.

My method for recording a lot for rebuild

Make yourself a building hood, that is empty. Use it only to build your lots, and place them in catalog when you are done (you might also want to package them and put the package in your rebuild-folder, so that you have a backup).

For rebuilds I use three tools. A notebook with squared paper, Fraps (a program to take pictures) and in-game collections.

Step 1. Go to the lot you are going to rebuild. Take out your notebook with squares, and note down the wall-structure of your lot. 1 square = 1 in game square. You can use floor tiles to make it easier to count. Just pick some nice bright color and put a floor tile along walls on every two squares, or some other system that works for you.

Here are some photos illustrating the above:
A bunch of houses drawn on paper

Close up of one house drawn on paper

Using floor tiles to help illustrate dimensions
Note: You may want to remove things like trees and plants that obscure your view. Or you could do the floor tiles further from the wall. Whatever works for you

Looking at the second image ("Close up of one house drawn on paper") you'll see that I have diagonal lines and U's drawn. These represent windows and doors. U's are doors. If the U is on one square, it's a single door. If it spans over two squares, it's a double door. Diagonal lines represent windows. The line is drawn over however many lines the window covers, just as with doors.

Step 2. Once you have the shell of your house all figured out, it's time to record the interior and exterior. This is where your picture-program comes in. Go through every room and take a picture of it all. Don't be afraid to go picture-crazy, because no matter how many pictures you take you'll probably have to go back at least once to look at something.

I suggest going room by room, taking one screenshot from above and then of every part of the room. Be sure you get details, because you won't remember later.

Step 3. This step is optional. After taking pictures of the entire lot, I make a collection file with all of the items used. You could also look at your pictures and locate items as you go, it's up to you. I find it's faster to make a collection file and add everything there than find it as I go along, because I have a lot of custom content and it takes forever to find specific things.

If you do want to do collections, be sure to utilize the sorting-function and place your collection first in the list. That way when you add new items, you can click ok directly without having to pick a folder (it automatically selects the first one). The way I do it, is to go from room to room. I use the eyedropper tool and start with wallpaper, floor tiles, windows, doors, and move on to the furniture and decorations. When one room is done, I move to the adjacent room, until I've done the entire house, and then I do the exterior adding greenery, and anything else I've used.

Some items can't be placed in collections, like for example fireplaces. To help myself locate them quicker, I use the eyedropper tool to go to that item, and take a picture so that I know more or less where in the catalog it is.

If you decide to not do collections, you might want to note down things like what page the flooring or wall paper is on, to speed up the process.

Step 4. Go to your building hood and get started. I highly recommend doing this in windowed mode so you can look at your pictures simultaneously. Also, take this chance to change anything you might want to change. Perhaps you have tools now you didn't know about when you built the lot, like LotAdjustor making it possible to have walls one tile from lot edge.

I think that's it. Good luck building! I'll add more on something else when I have time/motivation

Thanks for the tip. I spotted posts about Sim Tracker last summer, but it looked then as if RebaLynnTS was about to release a version 2,which I hoped might be able to extract the information from the game, so I held off. At the time she was posting updates every few days. Sadly it now looks as if she may have given up on it. Her home page says she's now only developing programs for Windows 8, which is not the best platform for The Sims 2! Does anyone know what's happening?