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Inventor
Original Poster
#1 Old 14th Mar 2017 at 11:47 PM
Default Benson Manor
Alright, let's keep the momentum going. Next house is a fairly roomy mansion with a well manicured lawn. I had this designed originally for a single person who is the chief of staff in the medical field. Thus, there's a garage big enough for one car.

Although there's little to show in terms of only basic furnishings to prevent the rooms from looking quite spacious, the rooms are meant to be large enough for players to organize many other furniture and toys around. I admit the master bathroom downstairs is larger than need be, and that is to compliment the jacuzzi room after that. Then, there is a smaller guest bedroom and bathroom, and a playroom/study room, however the green room will suffice for the guests. For the multi-story windows towards the rear of the mansion overlooking the backyard, I wanted to keep the layout symmetrical hence the two windows. I like to do the Octothorp Atrium Window instead but that would appear a tile off either way and I wish to keep the current width of the foyer for the front.

The roofing was very tricky to pull off with a structure this complicated, and admittedly the middle part at the very top floor is indeed questionable. I will try to keep playing with the roof to see if I can get something better. I was partially limited with trying to extend the roof before it attempts to cross through one of the multi-story windows, thus setting a block. In reality, rain, leaves and dirt would easily gather at the tight crevasses the roofs have made, but that shouldn't matter in Sims 2.

Here's what I have so far. Be prepared for a slideshow. :p
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 15th Mar 2017 at 12:36 AM
Have you considered a shed roof on the first floor on the side where there's no windows anyhow?

One way to reduce the sense of "OMG this is a huge bathroom" might be to split up the space that isn't the spa. A lot of modern houses have the sink and toilet in one enclosure and the shower and bath in another; or you might be able to rig a luxurious-looking shower (with, theoretically, room for a woohoo!) by enclosing an area and putting a showerhead or two in there.

This guy has three full baths and a spa, but only one tiny wardrobe. There's plenty of room for walk-in closet in his bedroom, and you could steal some space from the bathroom to put an ordinary-sized closet in the upstairs bedroom. Remember, closets are woohoo locations! Love the mural in the upstairs bathroom, by the way - gives it a lot of ambiance.

The stairs need some kind of fence or railing around them. I think they'd look more natural if they came right up to the edge of the mezzanine, rather than having that cut out for them; or at any rate, if the cut out extended all the way to the edge of the mezzanine. That single-tile fringe between the stairwell and the mezzanine's edge looks weird to me.

Shouldn't there be a tree or a statue or something inside that square of hedge? And either paving or terrain paint leading from the patio to the pool?

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.)
Inventor
Original Poster
#3 Old 15th Mar 2017 at 3:10 AM
There was a tree in the middle of that hedge square; I deleted it temporarily for the pictures. A paving to the pool I completely missed out on though. :P

Speaking of the staircase, the mansion originally had one of those spiral staircases on my laptop. Would that suffice better or does it not matter too much?
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#4 Old 18th Mar 2017 at 3:49 AM
Nice looking house. Adding to Peni,

The roof needs a little work. That small area, I would play around with it.

Bathroom is kind of in the kitchen which is actually against the law in some places. Not too pleasant.

Totally agree on doing a walk in robe and taking a bite out of that bathroom. Showers can be made with wall, the glass slider door and the uni shower. They will use 2 tiles.

Wondering on the two tiles of flowers at the back?

Does the massage table work pushed into that corner?

Please put a railing around those stairs! A larger opening there would look nicer, right up to that railing. Spiral would look lost in that space. I recently used those stairs. I added a warning that a lot of sims using it will cause foot stomping since they are fixed not modular.

"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 19th Mar 2017 at 1:10 AM
I seem to have this habit of excluding railings from staircases.

Anyway, I worked with the manor and made some changes according to the suggestions. After some more trial and error with the roofing, I finally decided to design the second floor to where it is less complex and help the roof design better throughout most of the house. That small bit of roofing towards the backyard where those multi-story windows originally were encouraged me to take those out and use another set of windows. I also made the master bedroom a tad smaller by one row tile and made the guest bedroom one tile wider to symmetrically fit two twin-size beds. Again, it was to make the roof easier to build.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#6 Old 19th Mar 2017 at 1:24 AM
Good job on the roof, that looks good.

I would probably swap out the kid wardrobe for the blue locker.

Not sure on the stairs, only because normally you see them going up when entering a house not the back of them. How does the view look when you step into the house?

"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
#7 Old 19th Mar 2017 at 3:31 AM Last edited by kamoodle5 : 19th Mar 2017 at 3:54 AM.
The first two screenshots show how the stairs look when entering the front door; their base would be facing the backdoor. The last three are of my attempt to rotate the stairs so their bases would be facing the front instead and I extended the mezzanine a tad and added some railing.

Would having one set of stairs seem more pleasing to the eye or are these two fine as they stand?
Screenshots
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retired moderator
#8 Old 19th Mar 2017 at 4:34 AM
I would leave them as they were, so facing away from the door. I liked that landing space better. But, I would add a wall at the back, so that the rear of the stairs are boxed in. That way you could match it to the wall colour and hang a feature picture there or stand a statue against it. Also I'd remove the center rail from the stairs, so that it looks like one grand staircase.
Inventor
Original Poster
#9 Old 19th Mar 2017 at 5:15 AM
With simsample's advice, I was able to transform that new enclosure behind the staircase into a small television room. The household will have to put up thick curtains especially at night so no passersby will notice what's on the screen.

Then I separated the kitchen from the foyer and added a two-tile wide open door frame, and I wanted to add a small fireplace in front of the stairs.
Screenshots
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