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Inventor
Original Poster
#1 Old 10th Mar 2017 at 11:10 PM
Default Parker Country Home
I have a country home ready to be uploaded, but I crave the thirst for feedback before I do so.

This is a rather rural home from early to mid-20th century. It has remained in a fairly healthy state while retaining its original nostalgia for these several decades; the residents over time have prevented the wilderness from overwhelming it completely. It has one bedroom, one walk-in closet, two bathrooms, and a living area, kitchen, and dining area all within the same space. I added all the basic furnishings possible and a few extra accessories, allowing players to decide how they will use the remainder of the spacious den. It is not supposed to have a garage, which means Sims will have to go to work by carpool and walk/use a taxi to community lots. There is room for at least two driveways but I won't recommend it.

I do have more of these screenshots for the upload, including a top-view shot of the house. Hopefully my Fraps has made better screenshots than my previous attempt with just using in-game screenies. :p
Screenshots
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 11th Mar 2017 at 12:08 AM
Couple things... buildings are symmetrical, some gardens are symmetrical, but forests aren't. The trees you have now being mirror images on one side of the lot and the other feels (in the literal sense of the word) unnatural.

Also, I like the lines of the building, but I might re-think the external wallpaper you're using. This seems like the kind of building that would either be a log cabin, or would use more random native stone, like maybe one of the river cobble wallpapers.

And finally, this is one that might just be because of the perspective you're using for these screenshots, but the living room and the bedroom both seem really big, especially for a house this size. It'd be a lot easier to judge that with a top-down floorplan shot, but I might suggest shrinking the living room and adding in another bedroom, just to keep the proportions a little better.

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We lied about having cookies.
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
#3 Old 11th Mar 2017 at 12:35 AM
The screenshot sizes look ok to me.

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#4 Old 11th Mar 2017 at 1:04 AM
Adding to the points above. When you put down trees not only do not make them symmetrical but also turn them. When you put down a bunch of the same maxis trees you will notices a pattern of sameness to the growth, but if you spin them on an angle or around each side, what shows as you look at it will appear more natural.

Next I notice fish eye especially on the front. This is caused by being too heavy with the X zoom out key. A front shot only needs to show to the edge of your building. Always go back with S and be careful to not use X more than 1-2 times, 3 at max. Inside you can remove a wall to give the camera more space, take the shot and use the back arrow to return the wall and anything on it.

Your main room looks really large. Can you show us the floor plans? You need these to be walls up, well lit and to get in as close as you can. Don't show heaps of grass surrounding it.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Inventor
Original Poster
#5 Old 11th Mar 2017 at 2:49 AM
Taking the suggestions, I went ahead and renovated the home quite a bit by adding a second bedroom, moved one of the bathrooms to completely replace the walk-in closet, and sectioned off the living room and kitchen to create a new foyer at the front. I originally meant to make the living space big to let players put more into it as they please.

Then, I redid most of the trees to make the forest behind the house denser and less symmetrical. Too bad there aren't any non-CC tree stumps, fallen trees and tree halves.
Mad Poster
#6 Old 11th Mar 2017 at 3:10 AM
Those bathrooms are freaking huge. And why do you need two of them? The scale of this is way larger than I would expect of either a farmhouse or a vacation home. It'd cost the earth to heat.

The veranda is a place to sit with your family when it's hot, to shell peas from the garden, to gut fish, etc. Put some Adirondack chairs and end tables around, maybe an outdoor chess game; make it a social area.

Also your floor plan is dark enough that I had to hunt for the kitchen.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#7 Old 11th Mar 2017 at 3:50 AM
I would reduce the size of the house at least by 2 tiles maybe 3. The hallway is far too large as are the bathrooms. You can shrink one off the hallway and one off the bathroom. Large bathrooms are okay if there is a reason for it. So say it's a swanky place with a tub up on a stage taking up the room, not items just hugging walls with lots of empty space.

The front shot can go back one step. The floor plan, as I was saying needs to be close without much surrounds showing. Yours is currently showing both surrounds as well as the neighbours. Get right in until you see the walls of the house just near the edge of the shot. My other point above was well lit, that means lights on unless your house is naturally light from large windows and pale flooring, your shot is currently too dark.

Outside is fine. A pond/creek might be nice for them to go fishing.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Inventor
Original Poster
#8 Old 11th Mar 2017 at 6:38 AM
Third time revamping the home. It sure looks tinier but then I've been used to building large.

By making it smaller, that opened up an opportunity for me to place a little campsite behind the house. I also added a few other outdoor entities: a pond, a barbecue, a hammock, and some apple trees. I renovated the bathroom left of the house completely to where it is now a small workroom, and I did a full extension of the hallway so it separates the bedroom from the only other bathroom. I hope the floor plan is well lit this time, as I used a cheat to turn the lights on during build mode.

From the final picture, does the shower seem to be facing correctly so that a Sim can step in? I never really used this particular shower before.
Mad Poster
#9 Old 11th Mar 2017 at 2:33 PM
That's more like it. Homey. Curtains would make it even homier, but the scale is much more natural now.

Two things about the kitchen: If you take down the wall between it and the front room, you'll have more room to eat. Not everybody wants to walk into the kitchen through the front door, but in vacation homes and rural residences having one big living/kitchen/dining area is common, and in a lot of rural areas you always go round to the kitchen door anyhow, because it's the warmest room in the house and the place where everybody is most of the time. That wood floor looks awfully fancy and hard to maintain for the kitchen, though, especially if you go for it being the heart-of-the-house type kitchen. You don't want to have to worry about what gets dropped on your kitchen floor. A plain, cheap wood and some braided rugs would look more natural than the parquet, if you don't want to go with tile or linoleum.. Put the parquet in the front part of the house to make a good impression on visitors.

I think that shower'll work, but the best thing you can do now is playtest a copy to be sure. I always have a tough time with that shower, myself.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Mad Poster
#10 Old 11th Mar 2017 at 5:35 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Peni Griffin
I think that shower'll work, but the best thing you can do now is playtest a copy to be sure. I always have a tough time with that shower, myself.


That shower, in my experience, lines up the same way as all the others... I've started placing the cheap BG shower first, because it's the only "obvious" one, and then just putting the more expensive shower stall that I actually want so that the shower head and controls are in the same place, and the place a Sim would enter the cheap BG shower is still open. So far, that's always worked right, so looking at the pictures here, I'm reasonably certain that the shower here should work the way it's oriented now. (The "Strut Your Stuff" shower can be approached from any direction except through the wall, so it's easier, but it's the only one)

I agree with most of what Peni said too, and the proportions feel a lot more natural and realistic now, and I do like the stone/log siding on the outside much better!

Welcome to the Dark Side...
We lied about having cookies.
Inventor
Original Poster
#11 Old 11th Mar 2017 at 7:00 PM
Thanks for the assistance, everyone. I will agree that the cabin has improved drastically than it previously was.

I went ahead and removed the wall that sectioned off the living room and the kitchen, as that was my original intention.

One question: should I layer half the foyer with log cabin siding, as well as all the small workroom in front, or is the current dark wood paneling just fine as it is?
Mad Poster
#12 Old 11th Mar 2017 at 7:10 PM
I'd stick with the paneling you have right now... While there are log cabins that have essentially the same walls on the interior as they do on the exterior, that generally comes off poorly (at least in my view). The ones you have on the interior right now still have a good 'rustic' effect, while at the same time looking like a more deliberate interior wall choice.

Welcome to the Dark Side...
We lied about having cookies.
Inventor
Original Poster
#13 Old 11th Mar 2017 at 8:23 PM
I'd agree on that. Alright, I'll leave the interior alone.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#14 Old 12th Mar 2017 at 12:03 AM
Lot's better.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Inventor
Original Poster
#15 Old 13th Mar 2017 at 7:07 AM
Log cabin has been approved and published. Thanks for the feedback everyone.
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