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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 5th Jan 2017 at 8:59 PM
Default My Sims' residence kinda sucks
So this house kinda sucks, it doesn't look very good and there are a number of things about it that don't make sense. I didn't entirely build it myself, but despite that I've rebuilt and refurnished every part of it several times over. And it still kinda sucks.
And the reason that really needs to be fixed is because this isn't just a house, it's THE house. The one that I've been playing in since 2014, the one that I've probably spent a thousand hours in since then.

So, there's a number of problems I'm having. Here's two of them.

1. There's too much redundant space/I don't know what to do with this much room
Two adult women live in this house. They both have hobbies, but they sleep in the same bed and they never have guests over overnight. The house should also look like it's going to be ready for a kid that's coming a couple of months from now.
So here's the floor plan. I've marked living areas/lounges in red, and bathrooms in blue for a bit of distinction. As you can see, there's way too much living space.







2. It just looks weird on the outside
It's a 64x64 lot, but I planned it out to be way larger. So I've had to shrink the contents of what I imagine is an 80x80 or a 96x96 lot down to 64x64. Which makes the whole thing look a bit cramped.
But the house itself doesn't make sense either, I think it looks as if it's out of balance. There's nothing wrong with it's basic shape, but I think it just doesn't look like a real celebrity mansion.
This is also my biggest difficulty with Build Mode, I just don't have the spatial awareness to build anything in balance.


The front. While not completely awful, it's weird Into The Future roots do show. And that glitch where ceiling tiles just randomly disappear doesn't help either.


This hot mess of wasted space and inconsistency.


The whole lot, showing how poorly it blends in with it's surroundings. I've already managed to improve this quite a bit by toning down the terrain paint, making the roofing textures less inconsistent, and removing excess outdoor clutter.
(And another thing: There used to be Store solar panels all over the roof, but my game has been strictly refusing to install them so they're gone for now. If anyone can hook me up with a .Sims3Pack my launcher won't reject, pretty please.)

So these are the main problems I'm having now. I'll update this post after I've done some experimenting on my own.
~ Pi

insert signature here
( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
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Top Secret Researcher
#2 Old 6th Jan 2017 at 4:28 AM
Wow, this is a challenge. Large lots are difficult to make "cozy", which I think is part of what you want. You prefer a modern look, I'm assuming.

Does it need to be this big? I like to sometimes build in stages. The sims begin in closer to a starter home, and I add additions as they get more $ and their family grows. This allows you to rein in the design to a manageable size, and only add what the family needs. The house becomes more home. less commercial.

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retired moderator
#3 Old 6th Jan 2017 at 4:33 AM
Why do two ladies live in such a large lot? I think it looks rather nice, although I have a hard time with pictures that large since I have to drag the bar across to see the right side and in so doing hide the left side. I think a smaller picture where the lot can be taken in at once might help.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#4 Old 6th Jan 2017 at 9:54 AM
Quote: Originally posted by attuned
Wow, this is a challenge. Large lots are difficult to make "cozy", which I think is part of what you want. You prefer a modern look, I'm assuming.
Does it need to be this big? I like to sometimes build in stages. The sims begin in closer to a starter home, and I add additions as they get more $ and their family grows. This allows you to rein in the design to a manageable size, and only add what the family needs. The house becomes more home. less commercial.

Yeah, it does need to be this big. It's a celebrity mansion, 300 million dollars lives here. It needs to be modern, but also homely. I've already done a lot of decoration to cozy the whole place up. Reducing it in size or removing anything wouldn't make sense because this household isn't "up and coming", it's been there for literally years. This is the house my Sim had built for herself and her then-girlfriend in 2014, it wouldn't make sense to have any element of progression.

Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
Why do two ladies live in such a large lot? I think it looks rather nice, although I have a hard time with pictures that large since I have to drag the bar across to see the right side and in so doing hide the left side. I think a smaller picture where the lot can be taken in at once might help.

Uh, I'll take some more screenshots. They look fine on my end, fit on the page perfectly and everything. They should scale, unless you're on a tablet or something.

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( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
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retired moderator
#5 Old 6th Jan 2017 at 10:07 AM
Nope, desktop PC. This is what I see before dragging

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
dodgy builder
#6 Old 6th Jan 2017 at 10:33 AM
I have a mobile and a pc, both looks very nice. You could probably look for some settings or something joandsarah77.

I needed some time on this, basically because I think it looks very nice at least on the outside. I would have liked a picture where you show what you use the rooms for with text, like playroom etc. I see the rooms are quite empty. What I often do in big rooms is to have the furniture more in the center of the room, or at least a tile or two from the wall. I also decorate with fountains inside, planting etc, perhaps an aquarium, there is a lot of options.

Often in big houses I decide to use one room for the TV and then they need a room for that with sofas. Then they need a sauna close to the pool, another room ticked, they need a diningroom, a gym with a bathroom close by. Just give a corner of the house a purpose and dress it up for that.
Department of Post-Mortem Communications
#7 Old 6th Jan 2017 at 11:14 AM
Well, I am not a member of this group (yet) but have been watching the threads for several days now and this one caught my attention, so, please forgive me for posting.

I think the basic problem with this house is that it has evolved into something like an architectural monster. While the build style is modern the building concept isn't. It is built like a medieval castle - units attached to units with no real sense for overall coherence, as if it was built over decades and a new unit added whenever the building called for a new function. In medieval or Victorian buildings this may look cosy or endearing, but has the reverse effect in modern styles. It's a clash of ideas because this is not how modern architecture works. It's a 20th century Gormenghast

The front alone shows at least six vertically distinguishable build sections, emphasised also by the use of too many colours and materials. Examples: in the fifth section from the left or second from the right you use a glass fence that is only visible there and in no other section, while in the fourth section from the left you make use of those ITF windows that are three tiles wide but vary narrow and I cannot see these anywhere else either but in this very section.
The top view also shows three parking spaces and each of them is in a different design and they are dispersed over the whole lot space.

The use of colour is also, I think, one of the reasons why the building doesn't blend into its surroundings. The grass is dark, then the paving is bright, while the house is dark again. It makes it difficult from the top view to actually make out the building against the (overly) bright paving and looks rather like a gigantic concrete pattern.

Your base was the 60x60 ITF pre-built lot from the lot bin, right? This is already a problematic lot to begin with, with long stretches of hardly usable and comparably narrow space. This doesn't get better by simply subdividing one long space into several smaller compartments. If I had to rebuild it I'd probably rather push the various parts closer together, thus making the core building smaller and freeing up garden space. Or, on reverse, I'd emphasise the stretched out aspect and get rid of some of the angular walls and make them straighter and more austere.

Basically, what I am saying is that in its current state your house wants too much. By trying to look large and impressive it managed to look cluttered and patched up. It's not without reason that the motto "Less is More!" is usually associated with modern architecture. Even post-modern buildings that look thrown together on first sight usually follow one basic core idea which ensures that the various different sections meld into one build again.
Instructor
#8 Old 6th Jan 2017 at 11:44 AM Last edited by cutsocks : 6th Jan 2017 at 12:07 PM.
Oh, beautiful home. Such an interesting shape. It intrigues me; the house dares me to to question it, to explore it. It engages me. -- That's all hallmarks of good art. Great job there!

The pictures are a little hard for me to read, but I think I can get the gist of it. A top-down, walls-up view would be easier to understand.

But let's talk rooms. Or in the case of open floor plan modern homes, spaces. But let's not just talk, but question. (This is a bit of theory for real life, but for the most part, works with Sims as well.)

Let's take a space, or a chunk of a space. If you had to give that space a name, what would you call it? What is its purpose? And how does it relate or interact with other spaces or rooms around it? For example, in a theoretical space, there are some sofas. So it's a lounge/living room. And there's a TV. It's a lounge/living room for consuming media. (If there was not a TV, maybe it's a lounge for socializing.) Off of that lounge is a bathroom and the lounge opens up into the kitchen, both logical things nearby. Snacks and potty breaks. And then there's a stairs that leads up to the bedrooms, so easily accessed by the residents. All good. You can make arguments for anything. But in your case, you know the sims that live there, and you can only makes arguments logical to them. :P

Why are those questions important? Because in successful space, any random person should be able to answer them automatically. And that person should be able to see themselves doing something in there, and for a reason.

Theory talk over. Let's see If i can decode some pictures.

Next to the garage, it looks like you have a separate wing, connected to the main house via the second floor. Is it a guest house? It kinda looks like a guest house; it has a very tiny cramped bedroom though. Or is it for a butler? And there's an office maybe, a bathroom and two living spaces. I would suggest a guest house, or a butler's house or the master suite or when the potential child grows up and wants some more space that is their own. (I realize I don't know where your two gals are sleeping.) In any case, all those rooms are meant for specifically for someone in a way that is separate from the rest of the house. Play that up. Get rid of the living space on the upper floor, expand the bedroom, shift the bathroom up, and the office down. And if you really want to accommodate whoever the space is for, give them a small kitchenette.

Then there is a elevated hallway over the patio/pool connecting the guest house and the main house. Hallways have the potential of being a hard stop. Yeah, they connect parts, but they can also separate parts that cannot relate to each other. So... is it really just a hallway? It serves that function, but it's location is unique. I feel like it is missing out on some potential relationships. Its great view of the pool, for one. This is your socializing lounge. Where the occupants of the guest and main house can "meet in the middle" for good conversation, maybe a cocktail, and great views of the sunset as its reflection shimmers on the pool below.

Into the main house from the elevated hallway, and I'm not sure what is going on here.... There's a restroom, looks like an office, and a ton of living space with random stuff in it. Okay. Skipping this for a second.

Going up a floor, ah, this is the master bedroom and en suite, and then a ton of party stuff just outside. Let's shift that bedroom down a floor. And move your party/group activities things to a lounge where the bedroom used to be. Top floor is party floor. Middle floor, then, is bedroom floor; because if you want a nursery/another bedroom and playroom and bath for coming child put it in the other half where you didn't put the master bedroom. Then guest house bedroom and the two main house bedrooms all can meet in the elevated lounge. Good coming together, good synergy.

The "ground floor". This kitchen, sadly, is not related to anything at the moment. That open hallway that runs from front door to back door is just quarantining it off on its own. and for such an open layout kitchen, that's painful. It's open but nothing can go play with it... So sad. And I think there is an actual dining table way far away over by the pool, but kinda hidden by a bookcase? That's bad dinner party mojo. I know, no guests, but there's always potential for dinner parties. (Never deny the potential for dinner parties--that's certified cutsocks life advice, right there.) I feel like the kitchen, dining area, and television living area here, just need better incorporation with each other. Have the kitchen and gym swap places. Keep that gym closed off. Discourage flow from the front door straight through, instead pushing the flow from front door, around the corner, past the stairs into living area, dining, then kitchen. Moving the kitchen over there gives you better access to outside eating opportunities.

Alright, that's all I have for the moment.

ETA: Oh I see others have posted whilst I was writing my thesis. Obviously floor plans are important to me. But this is gonna be a fun time group. Yeah.
Scholar
#9 Old 6th Jan 2017 at 11:54 AM
First off, modern architecture is far from my specialty, but in my less-educated opinion I feel that the facade is very handsome, and it feels very elegant in its shape, especially for modern architecture.I agree that making the whole exterior more cohesive in its appearance would be a real benefit, especially with the use of wall coverings and windows.

To blend it into its surrounding more I would suggest the inclusion of more plants on the roof terrace and maybe around the pool to break up the amount of concrete visible from above. The house kind of towers over the surrounding plant life, so if it were possible to place a couple of taller trees strategically so that they have a height advantage over the house but don't intrude on it too much, that might really aid the situation.

Also, I find the best way to deal with ceiling tiles is to leave it until you're absolutely certain you won't be using CFE anymore and then go round deleting floor tiles from above where the ceiling tile has disappeared below, replacing the floor tile and pasting on the desired ceiling below. Then where you get the mysterious floating ceiling tiles elsewhere you need to somehow place a floor tile on them which can then be subsequently deleted to remove the ceiling tile in question.
Simply deleting the ceiling directly with the delete tool will turn the process into a never ending scenario. You must do it on a basis of deleting and replacing flooring. (If that makes any sense?)
dodgy builder
#10 Old 6th Jan 2017 at 12:34 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Don Babilon
I think the basic problem with this house is that it has evolved into something like an architectural monster. While the build style is modern the building concept isn't. It is built like a medieval castle - units attached to units with no real sense for overall coherence, as if it was built over decades and a new unit added whenever the building called for a new function. In medieval or Victorian buildings this may look cosy or endearing, but has the reverse effect in modern styles. It's a clash of ideas because this is not how modern architecture works. It's a 20th century Gormenghast

The front alone shows at least six vertically distinguishable build sections, emphasised also by the use of too many colours and materials. Examples: in the fifth section from the left or second from the right you use a glass fence that is only visible there and in no other section, while in the fourth section from the left you make use of those ITF windows that are three tiles wide but vary narrow and I cannot see these anywhere else either but in this very section.
The top view also shows three parking spaces and each of them is in a different design and they are dispersed over the whole lot space.


Modern can be what you make it. The house follows a tradition within Sims of making several angles like this. 3D is a problem in this game, but it's an even bigger problem in Sims4. Several has therefore started making a house with angles and colors to make the 3D of the house more in your face. What you think about may be minimalism and that is something that doesn't look that good in Sims4 at least.

Here is a house made in 2013 that looks very close to this.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#11 Old 6th Jan 2017 at 1:21 PM
Holy crap, didn't expect entire essays to be written on this.

Quote: Originally posted by Don Babilon
I think the basic problem with this house is that it has evolved into something like an architectural monster. While the build style is modern the building concept isn't. It is built like a medieval castle - units attached to units with no real sense for overall coherence, as if it was built over decades and a new unit added whenever the building called for a new function. In medieval or Victorian buildings this may look cosy or endearing, but has the reverse effect in modern styles. It's a clash of ideas because this is not how modern architecture works. It's a 20th century Gormenghast

The front alone shows at least six vertically distinguishable build sections, emphasised also by the use of too many colours and materials. Examples: in the fifth section from the left or second from the right you use a glass fence that is only visible there and in no other section, while in the fourth section from the left you make use of those ITF windows that are three tiles wide but vary narrow and I cannot see these anywhere else either but in this very section.
The top view also shows three parking spaces and each of them is in a different design and they are dispersed over the whole lot space.

The use of colour is also, I think, one of the reasons why the building doesn't blend into its surroundings. The grass is dark, then the paving is bright, while the house is dark again. It makes it difficult from the top view to actually make out the building against the (overly) bright paving and looks rather like a gigantic concrete pattern.

Your base was the 60x60 ITF pre-built lot from the lot bin, right? This is already a problematic lot to begin with, with long stretches of hardly usable and comparably narrow space. This doesn't get better by simply subdividing one long space into several smaller compartments. If I had to rebuild it I'd probably rather push the various parts closer together, thus making the core building smaller and freeing up garden space. Or, on reverse, I'd emphasise the stretched out aspect and get rid of some of the angular walls and make them straighter and more austere.

Basically, what I am saying is that in its current state your house wants too much. By trying to look large and impressive it managed to look cluttered and patched up. It's not without reason that the motto "Less is More!" is usually associated with modern architecture. Even post-modern buildings that look thrown together on first sight usually follow one basic core idea which ensures that the various different sections meld into one build again.

I completely agree. I think there's many small sections of the exterior design that look good by themselves, but once you put them together and look at the whole thing, it just falls apart.
I want to get rid of these inconsistencies in colours and build features, but I don't know how. There's these six sections, and I think it's #3 and #4 that cause the most disharmony.
These contrasts are also very difficult for me to do anything with. So far I've been blaming the total chaos that the top down view is on the house itself, but looking at it again I do agree that the paving is the bigger problem.

Quote: Originally posted by cutsocks
Oh, beautiful home. Such an interesting shape. It intrigues me; the house dares me to to question it, to explore it. It engages me. -- That's all hallmarks of good art. Great job there!

The pictures are a little hard for me to read, but I think I can get the gist of it. A top-down, walls-up view would be easier to understand.

But let's talk rooms. Or in the case of open floor plan modern homes, spaces. But let's not just talk, but question. (This is a bit of theory for real life, but for the most part, works with Sims as well.)

Let's take a space, or a chunk of a space. If you had to give that space a name, what would you call it? What is its purpose? And how does it relate or interact with other spaces or rooms around it? For example, in a theoretical space, there are some sofas. So it's a lounge/living room. And there's a TV. It's a lounge/living room for consuming media. (If there was not a TV, maybe it's a lounge for socializing.) Off of that lounge is a bathroom and the lounge opens up into the kitchen, both logical things nearby. Snacks and potty breaks. And then there's a stairs that leads up to the bedrooms, so easily accessed by the residents. All good. You can make arguments for anything. But in your case, you know the sims that live there, and you can only makes arguments logical to them. :P

Why are those questions important? Because in successful space, any random person should be able to answer them automatically. And that person should be able to see themselves doing something in there, and for a reason.

Theory talk over. Let's see If i can decode some pictures.

Next to the garage, it looks like you have a separate wing, connected to the main house via the second floor. Is it a guest house? It kinda looks like a guest house; it has a very tiny cramped bedroom though. Or is it for a butler? And there's an office maybe, a bathroom and two living spaces. I would suggest a guest house, or a butler's house or the master suite or when the potential child grows up and wants some more space that is their own. (I realize I don't know where your two gals are sleeping.) In any case, all those rooms are meant for specifically for someone in a way that is separate from the rest of the house. Play that up. Get rid of the living space on the upper floor, expand the bedroom, shift the bathroom up, and the office down. And if you really want to accommodate whoever the space is for, give them a small kitchenette.

Then there is a elevated hallway over the patio/pool connecting the guest house and the main house. Hallways have the potential of being a hard stop. Yeah, they connect parts, but they can also separate parts that cannot relate to each other. So... is it really just a hallway? It serves that function, but it's location is unique. I feel like it is missing out on some potential relationships. Its great view of the pool, for one. This is your socializing lounge. Where the occupants of the guest and main house can "meet in the middle" for good conversation, maybe a cocktail, and great views of the sunset as its reflection shimmers on the pool below.

Into the main house from the elevated hallway, and I'm not sure what is going on here.... There's a restroom, looks like an office, and a ton of living space with random stuff in it. Okay. Skipping this for a second.

Going up a floor, ah, this is the master bedroom and en suite, and then a ton of party stuff just outside. Let's shift that bedroom down a floor. And move your party/group activities things to a lounge where the bedroom used to be. Top floor is party floor. Middle floor, then, is bedroom floor; because if you want a nursery/another bedroom and playroom and bath for coming child put it in the other half where you didn't put the master bedroom. Then guest house bedroom and the two main house bedrooms all can meet in the elevated lounge. Good coming together, good synergy.

The "ground floor". This kitchen, sadly, is not related to anything at the moment. That open hallway that runs from front door to back door is just quarantining it off on its own. and for such an open layout kitchen, that's painful. It's open but nothing can go play with it... So sad. And I think there is an actual dining table way far away over by the pool, but kinda hidden by a bookcase? That's bad dinner party mojo. I know, no guests, but there's always potential for dinner parties. (Never deny the potential for dinner parties--that's certified cutsocks life advice, right there.) I feel like the kitchen, dining area, and television living area here, just need better incorporation with each other. Have the kitchen and gym swap places. Keep that gym closed off. Discourage flow from the front door straight through, instead pushing the flow from front door, around the corner, past the stairs into living area, dining, then kitchen. Moving the kitchen over there gives you better access to outside eating opportunities.

Alright, that's all I have for the moment.

ETA: Oh I see others have posted whilst I was writing my thesis. Obviously floor plans are important to me. But this is gonna be a fun time group. Yeah.


Again, great story. The spaces are all wrong, it doesn't make sense, the "guest house" has been a pain in my ass since day one, and I really want these two parts and the bridge connecting them to become one house.
However, I don't like the idea of shifting everything up and down. What I'll do is sum up the rooms that I decidedly don't like:

  • Elevated hallway
  • Both "guest house" living spaces
  • Guest house bedroom
  • Living space adjacent to the main house's office
  • Second floor party space
So those are rooms that aren't used much, that waste space, that I just don't like. I don't necessarily want to get rid of them, but I want to make them less redundant.
Here's rooms that I don't want to move. I don't like all of these, but I'm hesitant to move them around and I don't want to move them up or down:

  • Guest house office/Amber's office
  • Guest house kitchenette
  • Master bedroom
  • Kitchen
  • All bathrooms
  • Gym

So I can now draw new conclusions about the two main problems I originally outlined:
  • Many of the rooms don't relate to each other, and/or they're redundant. They're there simply to fill up space, but I don't need them and I don't use them. So what I want is to find some other use for them. I have the guest house completely blacked out with Hidden Room markers simply because I never use it. It's not a guest house, by the way. It's just more of the same and that's the problem. There's too much of the same.
  • Inconsistency, and the overall chaos that is this lot's exterior design. I know what the problem is, I know where I can find it, but I don't know how to solve it.

@cutsocks, I agree, this is gonna be fun. I'm not an easy person and it seems that you're not either. And I mean that in the best way possible.
@Volvenom, your house looks fantastic. Can your house and mine have a baby?

I'll also make sure to take a ton more screenshots. Top-down, marked, annotated, the whole lot. Uh, literally!

insert signature here
( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
dodgy builder
#12 Old 6th Jan 2017 at 1:33 PM Last edited by Volvenom : 6th Jan 2017 at 3:45 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by GrijzePilion
your house looks fantastic. Can your house and mine have a baby?


I just needed to sort out the misunderstanding. It's not my house
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#13 Old 6th Jan 2017 at 3:10 PM
Here's screenshots of pretty much every room and angle in the house and on the lot.













So what I've realized I'd like to do is move the master bedroom. The problem is, that gives me about 5x8 tiles to work with, and it has to be oriented in a certain way.
That's a major downgrade, and it will put some serious distance between the kids' room and the master bedroom. It'll also create a huge empty space where the bedroom used to be. But, I can make that a recreational room. And that'd make more sense as well considering the full-height windows all over.

Shit, this is a real dilemma.

insert signature here
( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
dodgy builder
#14 Old 6th Jan 2017 at 4:16 PM
I don't like making long posts, but it seems I was right on my first assumption.

1. A sofa does not need to be by a wall, you can pull it away from the wall to give the room an impression of being lived in.
2. ist the big issue of style. Modern is just way to big to describe what you want. Get away from that. What kind of a person(s) live in the space. Since you have been living with them for 2 years you should have some idea.

Natural and organic:

260515 Sunny Hill by Volvenom, on Flickr

Color theme: Complementary purple and yellow

Organic with clean surfaces:

300315 Modern warm/cold by Volvenom, on Flickr

Color theme: Contrast warm and cold

Industrial dramatic dark stone and wood:

The Rosetta house is one of my favourites, but turned out to be a bit much for most of my downloaders

030215 Hard Funkis by Volvenom, on Flickr

Color theme: Complementary purple and yellow again, this time in very dark shades.

Rosetta house can also be used to illustrate the effect of textures and patterns:

030215 Hard Funkis by Volvenom, on Flickr

Here the picture is used to give the room depth and a feeling of hospitality despite the hard general look. The rug has the same kind of effect. Very often I use different blending modes as well as complementary when I choose colors for my objects.

Rosetta house again and the bar in the basement:

030215 Hard Funkis by Volvenom, on Flickr

Again purple and yellow, and you can see how I use the light in the square by the end wall to lit up that part of the room without having anything on the wall.

Industrial shabby chic with a clean modern look and some drama:

150614 The Rails by Volvenom, on Flickr

Color theme: Complementary and Blending colors

Modern Industrial and Boheme Fusion

100315ConcreteLace by Volvenom, on Flickr

I could go on like this forever. In this house I used wood and blue concrete on the walls. This dining corner has an industrial concrete wall, retro rug, cute wooden walls, Maurish lamps. There is still something they have in common. Blue and yellow. Blue concrete, wall lamp and blue in the rug. Yellow in the gold wooden furniture, yellow rug and gold frame. I don't expect anyone else to be this shameless in mixing styles and colors, but there really is no reason to just stick with the same colors in this game. It's what this game has with the color wheel, just go mad basically.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#15 Old 6th Jan 2017 at 4:42 PM
I definitely like the style you've got going on with the Rosetta house. You seem to be a fan of a certain dirty, industrial style. I also see pretty dim lighting, and that's also something I have a lot of myself. I'd say my house actually looks better at night because that's when you get full control over lighting. Where we seem to differ is on how open we want our interiors to be, because I'm a big fan of finding the right balance between openness where openness is appropriate and intimacy where intimacy is appropriate.

As for color, I'm a big fan of two-tone combinations. I use a lot of reds, purples, browns, pinks, but also a lot of contrasting greyscale tones. I've noticed that I'm quite partial to 80s design, so you'll find a lot of 80s modern interior design trends in my ideal version of this house.

insert signature here
( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
dodgy builder
#16 Old 6th Jan 2017 at 5:11 PM Last edited by Volvenom : 6th Jan 2017 at 5:36 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by GrijzePilion
I definitely like the style you've got going on with the Rosetta house. You seem to be a fan of a certain dirty, industrial style. I also see pretty dim lighting, and that's also something I have a lot of myself. I'd say my house actually looks better at night because that's when you get full control over lighting. Where we seem to differ is on how open we want our interiors to be, because I'm a big fan of finding the right balance between openness where openness is appropriate and intimacy where intimacy is appropriate.

As for color, I'm a big fan of two-tone combinations. I use a lot of reds, purples, browns, pinks, but also a lot of contrasting greyscale tones. I've noticed that I'm quite partial to 80s design, so you'll find a lot of 80s modern interior design trends in my ideal version of this house.


Nah, I'm not sure I have a favourite style. Just like games. I easily get bored, that's probably my style more than any. The style of variations.

When you talk about 2 tone, how do you select each color?

... and where we differ on interior is more to do with purpose. I use colors, lights and textures to make the interior have a feel. I like to give the room more 3D feel.

Remember I have been brought up in this school of mts when it was in it's prime. Open spaces was not considered a good thing. New builders often tend to make houses too big with lots of interior open spaces. Sometimes more room is good for movement, but usually it gives the space just a feel of being empty. The last being my genouin feeling.

When is open spaces appropriate?

I may be wrong, but it seems to me that you put much more work, more or less intentionally on architecture, while I have moved on to interior. I really like your exterior while you are far more critical on that part. If I was to say much more on your exterior I would have to download, and that's too much work for me, but still I suspect it's the interior I would end up working the most on.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#17 Old 6th Jan 2017 at 6:25 PM Last edited by GrijzePilion : 6th Jan 2017 at 6:57 PM.
I don't know what I'm doing. That's what it comes down to. I've been playing The Sims for a decade and I still have no idea of what a house should look like. That's why I'm asking you people. I love essays and theories, but it's not gonna help me.

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( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
dodgy builder
#18 Old 6th Jan 2017 at 8:38 PM
I just think you're wasting some good skills just building for yourself. As my painting teacher once said. It's all good with squares where the joints are on a human, but you've passed that now, time to move on.
Instructor
#19 Old 6th Jan 2017 at 9:00 PM
I think a bunch of us Sims 3 builders are a bit starved because the building side of Creator Feedback has been kinda dead. Heck, I didn't even realize how hungry I was. :P

I realized as i was falling asleep last night, that I was straight up telling you what to do, while I should have been guiding/suggesting instead. That's bad on my part. I should have presented it better. Under the restriction of not changing the structure and utilizing the items already there, that's how I would resolve the space issues. But it's not my build, it's yours and you have different restrictions.

I'm definitely with Volvenom, I like the exterior. It's a right amount of chaos, like a Kandinsky painting. You and Don, however, feel it's too much chaos. And neither side of the fence is wrong. But on your side of needing to tone down the chaos, identify the parts you like and keep those. Simplify the parts you don't like, meld them altogether into harmony. Easier said than done, right?

Like I said before, I'm a layout/floor plan/space usage guy. I see a problem and I start there and then assume everything (exterior, decor, landscape) will fall into place around it. Ideally, though, all those things should be resolved at the same time. But that's really difficult. True geniuses can see the complete picture from the start. The rest of us have to focus and refocus bits at a time until the full picture forms. And that leads me to what you just said:
Quote: Originally posted by GrijzePilion
I don't know what I'm doing. That's what it comes down to. I've been playing The Sims for a decade and I still have no idea of what a house should look like.

But you do know what a house should look like. You know it because this home isn't there for you. It's in the fog, you can kinda make it out if you squint and you are reaching for it.

You've put 1000 hours of playtime into this lot and the sims that live there. That's a very difficult hurdle for us to suggest fixes, because you have invested so much and we don't know all bits you are strongly attached to and don't want to change. So it's safer for us to toss out ideas, examples, and theories in essay-form, in hopes to guide you to come up with your own solutions. Let's just keep the conversation going. With 1000 hours in, none of us are going to come up with immediate answers for you.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#20 Old 6th Jan 2017 at 9:05 PM
Quote: Originally posted by cutsocks
You've put 1000 hours of playtime into this lot and the sims that live there. That's a very difficult hurdle for us to suggest fixes, because you have invested so much and we don't know all bits you are strongly attached to and don't want to change. So it's safer for us to toss out ideas, examples, and theories in essay-form, in hopes to guide you to come up with your own solutions. Let's just keep the conversation going. With 1000 hours in, none of us are going to come up with immediate answers for you.

YES, EXACTLY. Suggest anything you want, just throw it at me. I'll do it if I like it, I won't if I don't. If you can sell the idea of painting the whole thing hot pink then congratulations, I will paint the whole thing hot pink. If you make it sound like a ridiculous idea, which it is, then I'll keep it in mind but move on. I guess I kinda like the front of the house, but I also don't. I like the rest too, it's obviously something I've put a lot of time and effort into so it has to be at least a little bit good as-is, but I wouldn't be here if "good" was good enough to me.

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( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
Instructor
#21 Old 6th Jan 2017 at 10:14 PM
Modern is not my thing. So I'm about third from the last guy I'd go to for advice. Antepenultimate. (There's your vocabulary selection for today. ) But I'll try with some exterior ideas.



Yellow: I feel like this is your core, the base. What the other bits are grounded by and attached to. Wooden walls, horizontal windows, the diagonal trellis bits.

Red: The drama parts. The focal points from which you start at then your eye moves around from there. You've got three types here. the strong vertical white light pillar, the round window, and then the grid windows. Here they are working together, accentuating the overall movement and shape from upper left to lower right. I feel, and it might actually be that the white pillar should be unique here. Then you are left with circle windows and grid windows, and variations thereof to make focal points around the rest of the build.

Blue: If yellow is the paper and red is the punctuation, then blue is your sentence. It is more dominant than the yellow, makes a louder statement, but yet should feel somewhat held in place by yellow. And blue, at the moment, is not a cohesive as I think it needs to be. I think it should be mostly the charcoal gray walls, heavy gray frieze, the vertical rows of borderless windows, and the occasional black vertical bits.

Overall I want yellow, red and blue to be able to share features throughout the build. BUT, I want to know what section a feature belongs to, and is only borrowed by the others.

Oh, and I did it again. Lots of theory and only some specifics. But maybe applying some similar rules will give you some ideas on how to make the exterior less chaotic.

(I think my spacebar is dying... tis a sad day.)
Screenshots
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#22 Old 6th Jan 2017 at 10:26 PM
I know exactly what you mean, and yet I have no idea what it means. Yellow is the canvas, the empty paper; blue is what really ties the room together, to put it in Jeff Lebowski terms. And red, I think red must be on something because it's just wild. And not in a good way.

So there's this bathroom with the big round window on the first floor. I want it gone, but I have no idea how.
And then there's these two vertically alligned spaces, one with the grid windows and the other with the balcony and the glass railing, and I want them to match. Again, no idea how.
I think that once I get those two things sorted out, it's gonna look pretty damn good. From there, I can move on to less obvious issues.

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( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
Scholar
#23 Old 9th Jan 2017 at 5:17 AM
Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
Why do two ladies live in such a large lot? I think it looks rather nice, although I have a hard time with pictures that large since I have to drag the bar across to see the right side and in so doing hide the left side. I think a smaller picture where the lot can be taken in at once might help.

You're still at the classic theme, right? It doesn't scale down the pictures, the recent ones do.

The horizon of many people is a circle with a radius of zero. They call this their point of view. - Albert Einstein
Arathea's Area @ TFM's Sims Asylum - TS2 & TS3 Stuff
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#24 Old 9th Jan 2017 at 5:32 AM Last edited by joandsarah77 : 9th Jan 2017 at 5:44 AM.
I was wondering if it was Classic's fault. Not that I am much help with TS3 or large buildings. My only advice on something like that would be to study the style that you want, don't mix architectural types or too many different windows and think about what each room is for. A large room is fine if it's large for a reason. I had an even larger bathroom in a house I did as a request a few years ago, I had the bath up on a platform, a double basin and a large walk in shower but because it was full it didn't look too large. I am mentioning that as I see what I call a 'rattly bathroom' in blue, first picture. Any room that is large with just a few items will have that empty 'rattly' effect. Since the house is built I would think how you can fill those spaces.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Scholar
#25 Old 9th Jan 2017 at 5:23 PM
Quote: Originally posted by GrijzePilion
So there's this bathroom with the big round window on the first floor. I want it gone, but I have no idea how.

I was unsure as to whether theoretically being able to see the house's inhabitants in the tub as you walk up to the front door was considered a luxury for either party concerned?
But if you want to keep a bathroom on that floor in that general vicinity, have you considered moving it to that nook where the pool/billiards table currently is? The you could move the pool table down to the floor below and rearrange the "useless corner" to accommodate it near the gym? Or you could then stick the pool table where the dinning table is and then make the the useless corner the dinning area so that it connects better with the seating area also located near it, and then you can also see it from the kitchen. It's just a thought.
 
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