"The Widow's Mansion"

Once owned by the wealthy widow Madame Ariane and her past husband Monsieur Pascal, it has been standing for almost 100 years. Monsieur bought the mansion after he married the young Ariane through an arranged marriage with her father. The Monsieur was able to provide his wife with a beautiful garden, pond, and two large shade trees with her own sitting spot to read and knit. They raised 4 children in the house: Lucien, Pierre, Bernadette, and Edith. When Edith was an infant, Pascal past away due to illness. Ariane remained in the house while her children moved on one by one and until her death.

The blue chair and shade trees were left as a reminder of her presence that can still be felt in the house and gardens. Some day on a nice day, you can hear her humming like she used to when working in the garden. Owners have come and gone in the house with some modifications added to modernize the home. The stained glass windows remain due to the character it gives the mansion.

I hope you enjoyed my story. I couldn't help it. For some reason it popped into my head and I kind of went with it

So far, I am starting on the outside and working in. So, really this is looking at the outside of the house for now.

The is a redo of the Federal Mansion. I don't know why I went with the French theme.

Let me know your comments, thoughts, and suggestions!

Sorry for not cropping out the lines. I figured it wouldn't matter for review purposes.

Just so you know the flooplan showing is your cottage, not the mansion

Hahaha. I didn't even mean to have a floor plan picture....thanks karen

My first thought is the walls at the front of the property. I'm not at all sure about that concrete wall across the front. I think my problem is that you currently have three styles of wall and that's too much for me (actually four if you count the pediment in front of the flower bed). I kind of like the way you have framed the gateway/entrance with the sandstone columnar palings but they wouldn't work as a complete wall. Why not use the stone wall you have down the sides of the path across the front? It works well as a front wall, would give you a more consistent sense of style across the front of the property and the stone wall and column palings both have an air of age whereas the concrete wall looks modern (plus they are of a similar height). I'd also stick a stone base wall paint on your foundation.

I think you will need to do more with the garden too - the elements you have at the moment look fine but they look like little bits isolated in an expanse of green grass. What's going on with your pond? Is that your graphics card?

I agree with maxon. It needs more landscaping. And maybe some terrain paints too.

But otherwise, it looks beautiful. I for one think it's done and ready to be uploaded.

Ah, The depth was not all the same, so that's a deep spot I must of made that I did not notice until now. That will be fixed. Also, I can add more gardening elements and fix the walls so the style is a little more consistent.

And Jawusa, I have done much yet with the inside. I haven't decided if I should do furnished, partially furnished, or unfurnished. What do users like better?

People like different things. I prefer empty houses myself but a lot of people like it to be furnished. One thing some uploaders do is offer two versions: unfurnished and fully furnished (or semi-furnished).

I like the different styles of walls.

I will be posting pictures tonight of the outside. I think by having the exterior, kitchen, and bathrooms done users can decorated the rest of the house with their own custom content if they wish. I may post idea pictures to help them out though.

Ok, there are a lot of pictures coming your way. I think I am only going to have the kitchen, bathrooms, and outside totally decorated and furnished. It would lower the price of this already expensive house. It would be like her children took and sold/kept her stuff in a way. I also figured people might end up putting custom content in there anyway and users can decorate however. I will remove furnishings later. I wanted to get comments and suggestions on the landscaping again as well as the wall paper and flooring Thanks!

I think I am going to go ahead and upload it the lot with the bathrooms and furnished kitchen.

I will keep this thread up in case it is rejected. Wish me luck. I am mainly uploading it for the outside portion, which looks great thanks to everyone's suggestions

It looks great! I don't think it will get rejected, as it looks beautiful!

Good luck with the upload!

I have submitted the lot. It now says I have the option to bypass the moderation queue, but I still like when mods look over my work. Just in case

Well I am glad I had it looked over. And I totally understand why they are requiring changes. Because this is a maxis lot, the interior layout of the house needs to go through some changes in order to upload a maxis. I did not do anything with the interior layout. I am going to take tonight and Monday to work on it and I will post pictures.

UPDATE: Apologies, real life overtook sim life. I will hopefully be able to get pics up this week