I am no good when it comes to landscaping. I'm lookin for ideas on what to do with the outside of this house. I want to stay with all base game and the only CC is the 4ESF Antique Theme stuff to fill the house.

I am debatin on dl'din more antique items that will flush the inside out more so if there are some nice dl'ed plants, trees, shrubs .. what have you or other outdoor items that would fit in with the antique theme I'm willin to look at it.


Sooo... suggestions?

I would add a bit more dimension to that back deck- maybe stick a trapezoidal section in the middle and use it to house a grill or a hot tub. That'll break up the pretty severe line that you've got right now, and give it a more organic feel, so it can transition better into the greenery of a yard. (Same kind of goes for the front, although in this case I think you might have more luck keeping the straight line (flowerbeds look best if they're planted more or less in rows, at least in front of a house like this, IMHO), but adding a covered porch over the front door- maybe put a couple columns 2 or 3 tiles away from the front door, and stick another gabled roof on top of them- it helps to draw the eye to the front door, and make it more of a centerpiece when seen from the street.
As far as the landscaping itself goes, the front yard here strikes me as kind of a white-picket-fence traditional suburbia feel, which is pretty simple- white picket fence, lawn terrain paint, some flowers and shrubs up against the house, etc. I would kind of fade that around to the back of the house, and there, limit the lawn to the center of the backyard, and line the edges with denser trees and shrubs- you might not even need a fence surrounding the entire property, just the foliage might do well enough to define it. In the backyard especially though, stay away from straight lines as much as you can. The house has kind of a severe quality to it, which is fine, but if it's not offset by the landscaping, it can feel a bit overwhelming. That's why I say go for a more natural, organic feel with the backyard.

Also, I hate to critique the only landscaping you've done so far, but the fact that the hedges stack up right next to the deck looks... off, somehow. I'd opt for either the shorter hedge, or a flower bed there (unless the hedges are covering up terrain issues with the basement door, which looks like a possibility)

The taller foundation with the decking columns looks rather strange to me.

Normally for a formal type house I would suggest a formal type garden, but like Zarathustra said, straight lines there coupled with the house would be rather severe. Can you use moveobjects on with just the base game? If you can and use grid off you can move your plants into more round shapes around the edges at the back of the property and and use terrain paint under them.

Hedges .. are there to cover the open basement area. Suggestion to change the bushes, while still hiding the open area ...?

I'm goin for a more ... not mediveal look, but a late 1800's turn of the century .. I think that's what the furniture is supposed to be.

A Lord 'n Lady style manor house feel.. sorta ... lol. At least that's the kinda impression I get from the furniture.

Have you seen the 4ESF Antique Themed furniture? http://archive.sims.shanegowland.co...quebedroom1.htm

A mature weeping willow and a pond will both age and soften the place while providing focal points. Don't forget to put water plants in the pond, and muddy up the edges with terrain paint. Be careful not to block pathways. If there isn't room for a pond, a fountain with benches and flowerbeds around it will do. Rosebushes are very Victorian. The verandah definitely needs a roof.

Ok ... look better?

I was able to keep the light and windows in the basement in using the .. decking so has more of a wrap around now instead of half way.
I angled the back decking.
In doin the back decking it looked funny when connected to the front w/ foundation so changed that out for deckin as well.

I prop should have built farther back from the road seein as how I have lots of back area still that way would have given it more of a front lawn area.

I'll deff do a pond and the willow .. prob some benches out by it too.

Can you adjust the size of the lot using the lot adjuster? The porch roof is occluding the front windows and is too steep, I would use a shed roof here rather than the hipped roof.

Macarossi has a lot of very useful plants that are base game and they don't need any attention either, here and here.

I know you said you were looking for help on landscaping, but the architecture you've created so far is wonderful, and I feel you could really make it stunning with a few alterations. Maybe the front porch could have a flat roof and you could put a fence all the way around the edge of the roof to smarten it up, that way it wouldn't obstruct the windows behind it. The general shape of the exterior bares a good resemblance to the turn-of-the-century architecture you said you were aiming for, although I'd consider swapping the arched windows for some with flat tops rather than rounded ones. Instead of the big gable on the front roof, I'd suggest replacing it with a couple of smaller dormer windows, so it looks something like the shape of this house with its gable on the left and a dormer window (or two) on the right:

The big gable looks really good around the back of the house where you have it lining up with a smaller gable, so if you could keep it round the back it would look really good.

I've never tried the lot adjuster so I don't know :D. Did you suggest that because of my comment 'bout buildin farther back? I think it's ok w/ the space it has .. or I'd need to figure out how to fill even more space up ... lol. I was just thinkin of the rl old houses that are set a mile back from the road like that have this big old open lawn space before gettin to the house. However, rl doesn't always transition well in Sim Life.

Ahh, the porch. (I had to look occluding up as I'd never heard that before; learned a new word :P) Ok, so yeah ummm.. I tried the shed gabled roof first. It didn't wanna play nice. First, it refused to attach cuz it said "can't intersect w/ other objects'. So I removed the bathroom and bedroom windows. It was ok w/ that, but then part of the roof would stick inside the room to the left and I didn't know how to stop that so out it went. So then I tried w/ the shed hipped and that flat out said nope not gonna work and cover all you want me to cover. It didn't like meeting up w/ the wall junctions/ corners. ... and this is why I like auto roofs so much :p

As for the steep, if you know of any way for me to change that and do it base game I'm all ears. The roof angle cheat didn't come out till UNI.

I'll take a look at the plants. Maxis plants generally leave somethin to be desired, they're just so .. so well ick. (I could also think this as in rl, I'm not much of a plant person, not even plastic ones .. lol.)




No wories Fergus, I am open to all kinds of helpful suggestions, it's part of learning and expanding on what we know. In the past I've always built houses how I like and for me, but now I would like to share what I make and to do that sometimes it'll mean changin how I do somethin and gettin outta my comfort zone.... ie the dreaded roof tools (they hate me I swear they do) and learning to landscape. I gave up on learning how to do split lvl stairs, I wanted to keep the rest of my hair on my head.

If I go for flat roof, which tiles and fence border do you suggest I use?

I"m confused on what you mean for the windows part, can you explain a bit better for me what it is you mean I should change and where. Did you mean I should swap out all the long windows with the rounded top for shorter flat topped ones? I did mix them up some in the back area for the shorter flat topped one. There are no flat top long ones in BG and I really wanted the big window look which is why I choose those.


So I did do some changes. What'cha think now? I think I solved the roof issues. It looks better to me.
Still workin on the landscaping. I know I want a little more, but not much.


Pictures of inside the house. Note that it's not fully done yet, so yes I know that some rooms are still empty, while others look sparse, and a few other things that need fixed. :D

Roofing can certainly be difficult sometimes. I'd suggest you have a read of some of the building tutorials on the site. Looking at the way the roof intersects your upstairs windows, I'd suggest you have a read of this tutorial; http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=251896 as I think it would really improve the visual appearance of your house if the roofing wasn't covering part of the windows.

As for the porch, the tiles/wood flooring you've got now are fine. As for the fencing and windows, you've changed the house from a turn-of-the-century Queen Anne into an early 20th century Colonial Revival/Classical Revival, so the windows you've got are much more suitable now. The fencing would be very good in white, especially if you changed the porch columns to white ones which would help match in further. Maybe you could even extend the second story porch around the left side of the house? Another thing I'd suggest is that in the two front bedrooms, where you've got the pairs of windows either side of the beds, maybe you could bring each pair of windows one tile closer to the centre so that the back pair are directly above the pair of arched windows on the floor below. I think this would really help balance out the exterior a bit more not having windows right in a corner.
Maybe you could even bring the front attic gable out over the front porch like this house?

The landscaping it exhibits with all its shrubbery might also be of some use.
P.S. Your interior is amazing! :lovestruc One thing I would suggest is adding more fireplaces so that there's one in each of the principal rooms(living room, dinning room, kitchen, master bedrooms, e.t.c)

I hope this isn't another thread where I am not seeing the pictures? Where are the interior shots?

Under the spoiler tag as links.

I know I said I would l was thinkin of dl'in other antique stuff, but since I actually started the house to be about the 4ESF furniture I don't think I am. I really wanted to keep it base game w/o any CC other than the furniture itself which is why the outside light wood flooring - it was the best choice imo ... lol. Base Game is very restrictive, but there in lies the challenge to makes somethin that looks good w/ only what.

I did also consider doin a recolor on the wood tiles cuz yeah I thought they didn't really match.

How did I change it era's? What was it that changed it? I find history interesting, but find when it comes to what time period it was built in .. notta clue. I build generally to what I like and think looks good combined with what works for the interior space.

I actually built this house much different than my usual houses in that I built everything around the concept of the 4ESF furniture.

In lookin back at their page and the pic I was wrong, most of the items are supposed to be mid 1800's, with only one of the rooms bein later 1800's to early 19's.

As for the interior, I put all the 4ESF furniture in the rooms they said it belonged to (with a few BG items thrown in atm). I am seriously thinkin of changin alot of it around as I don't think they labeled some items right, but before I did change it I wanted to see it their way. Yeah .. so the interior is still a wip ... lol

EDIT: Ok, I looked at the tute, and I'll give it a try, though I just hope I don't warp my house I understand the concept of a dummy level and like it, I just usually fail at it as noted by the numerous times I'd scratched a house where I'd wanted to put in split level floors, umm yeah total washout. However, I am a masochist so I'll go beat myself up ... err try again :D

I like the top balcony, but lookin at it this morning, I'm not sure I actually want it. Hmmm, maybe w/ the dummy maybe I could make a few other tweaks to get rid of it.

Ok... back to the drawin board (in a bit though as I'm doin a play test atm and have already found a few things to change).

Ok, I tried the dummy level thing and after HOURS and HOURS (ok so maybe not that long, but quiet a while) of tryin to get it I almost gave up. Instead I went into a blank lot and played around in the hopes of savin my sanity and my hair See my colorful pic ... lol, however I think it worked as I think I understand it now, maybe, we'll see.

I did make some structural changes. I added a 3rd story in the back and did a bit of interior reconfiguration. I went ahead and swapped out the windows for the single windows with the shutters, those look better? I did leave the long windows in the Ballroom/ Music.

Does the porch cover look better? I didn't like the tile either, but never thought of usin the gravel tiles from Others.

Swapped out a darker wood for the deck flooring and changed the fence to a lighter shade, it was the closest I could get to white.

I know that these pic don't have the dummy level so windows are slightly covered, but other than that how's the rest of it .. better .. worse .. no difference?

I very much preferred the rooflines on the original one- the new one doesn't really feel coherent- it almost looks like something you'd get from using autoroof (sorry!) The one other thing I notice in these shots that you may want to consider is somehow making the foundation a bit more distinctive, either by using a completely different wallpaper (there are several stone ones that I love for foundations), or at least using a brick one with a top border, so it's a bit more defined. It seems like most real-world houses with visible foundations have it contrasting with the rest of the house in one fashion or another.

I have to agree with Zarathustra about the roofs. If you like, I could put the dummy level in for you? I finally have the Sims 2 back up and running on my laptop so it wouldn't be a bother on my part. I must say that I really like your new choice in wall covering, it's much more aesthetically pleasing.