I have made a couple of formal gardens, they are more Tudor in style but take a look at them if you want to (I googled Tudor gardens and Hampton Court Palace for the ideas). http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=494560 and http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=476225 and http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=476225

Mmm... Well from all the input you guys gave, here're the latest pics.





Damn right, I got these pics in full video settings. XD A big improvement compared to the old pics.

Anyway, here's the tally...

$489,563 total cost, fully furnished, around $189,000 unfurnished.

5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 2 half baths, 2 garages

Special rooms: 1 library, 1 art gallery, 1 basement storage w/ hidden room, 1 sitting room, 1 children's room.

Additionals: Greenhouse & playground

Notes:
1. Annoying warped wall where the garages meet the main body of the house...
2. Wrought iron portion of the fence does not meet the wall due to interactions with CFE...
3. All ceiling tiles have light wood floorboards over them. This contributes to the cost of the lot, but I decided it looks better than the default look ceiling tiles get when viewed from above.

Much better, planting and picture wise. I would still add a bit more colour to it, like some red, pink or purple roses. Old granny statue lol.

I'mma get to that... And yeah, I couldn't remember what the statue was called. XD

Wait, I did use all the colours available for the roses. I guess the picture's angle doesn't hit that spot on.

I couldn't see the colour. You can do a mock up here of your pictures for uploading here if you like. I found that was the trickiest part of getting something approved when I first started uploading lots here.
You should be able to attach the fence with cfe, but sometimes things just won't work. Garage and warped walls is normal, just cover it in paint or plaster. With a lot like this I wouldn't worry about the cost, people expect it to be pricey. I would mention using gardening mods when you upload it.

Um, mockup meaning I upload the lot, or the pics I'd post if I were to upload the lot?

You can post the pictures and the text here if you want. It's the pictures which are the tricky part until you know what they want. I had my first lot come back 3 times for the picture angles.

Ayt. I'mma get on that in a bit. Thanks for the idea.

In the meantime, I'm having trouble with this pic.

The guidelines say I need a view of the lot as it is seen from the street. Well, if I stay on the street with the camera and do a full zoom out, this is what happens.



Is it more important to take the pic from across the street, or from far enough to see the whole house?

With wide lots like yours I sometimes take an image from the left and then from the right to fit it all in or take from an angle rather than straight on.

What karen said.

Yeah, sometimes you just have to bow to reality. Camera mods can sometimes get more of what you want into a picture, but with a house this size, you won't be able to get the whole thing in without losing some detail. Keep in mind the purpose of the picture - to show the downloader what he'll get if he downloads. The guidelines are written to facilitate that purpose, and any individual rule that must be modified on a one-time basis in order to accomplish that, should be.

Fiddly details: A little terrain paint in the playground would make it look used - either worn paths and scuffed areas around the equipment, or filling in the whole area with a different surface, such as the pine bark. The playground looks quirky with the formal Georgian garden, but it's also kind of endearing.

So... what if I try to take a snapshot like the one I took of the facade, but with a reduced angle... not exactly eye level, but about a couple of degrees higher than the fence?

That should allow the entire lot to fit in, including the garages, without bending the guideline too far. And the fence wouldn't hide the rose garden that way.

On a side note... dyou think the fence should have the stone base, or be all wrought iron?

If you take a look at my profile you will see that a lot of my images for the front of the lots are taken at an angle to get the whole of the frontage in. In the garden picture I have taken the front from the left and from the right http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=475161

You don't have to use the front image as your thumbnail. Sometimes I take a picture specifically to use as the thumbnail (probably best to use an image of the front of the lot but it can be at an angle and show off the best part of it).

Hope that helps?

You can take a look at my water park as well https://www.modthesims.info/d/477943 It's the largest lot in the game and spreads right across the whole lot. The front shot doesn't really show much of the park at all, but it's what the rules as they are now calls for (It will be great when they change!) I used part of the park for my main thumbnail as the front didn't really show what it was at all. But you can see I went back and to the left. I don't have a camera mod.

1 Angelus Hill (5x6 Lot Size Georgian Home)



This is a modified take on the blueprints for a "Williamsburg Mansion" (Blueprint HWEPL09929), and represents tradition of the grandest scale. Upon entering the gates, your eyes are greeted by the front veranda, flanked on both sides by elegant rose gardens. The grand foyer opens to the east and west wings of the house, and has twin double doors that lead to the conservatory. In the east wing, one finds the library, a personal work space, and the brightly lit master's suite, complete with twin dressing rooms. The west wing grants access to the living room and spacious dining room with a miniature bar. A separate kitchen has easy access to the basement storage rooms.

On the second floor, the private art gallery is inaccessible except from the staircase next to the master's suite. Four bedrooms, each with private baths make up the central mass of the home. The second storey of the west wing is taken up by a children's room. The sitting room sits between two bedrooms, and has double doors that lead to a massive balcony that covers the entire veranda below.

The back yard of the house is accessible from the conservatory via the west veranda, and comprises of a small play park for the children, a greenhouse and pond, and a floral garden around the statue of the Gray Woman of SimCity as a focal point.

• 5x6 lot size
• 489,697 Simoleons total tost (Furnished as is)
• Current expansions: All EPs, Glamour Life Stuff, H&M Fashion Stuff, Mansion & Garden Stuff

I actually like the front of your house better than the house you modified it from.

I don't feel confident enough to comment on the screenshots you have up. However, I do think you should include a few more. I assume you're uploading it furnished. Take some shots of your favorite rooms. It's always nice to see how the decor looks up-close.
I'd take a second closer shot of the front of the house from just inside the fence. I'd also take one or two more shots of the garden in the back from inside the fence - again, at eye-level. The main areas, your favorite spots....

Those screenshots look good.

To improve I would do one shot showing the whole lot and then with the floor levels get in as close as you can, no grass showing on either side. You can turn and take your photos on the side if need be. I would then as Kerri said take shots of your favourite rooms and garden angles. You're allowed 12 attached shots and four shots inside your main text-I would use all of them on a place that large.

Also just looking, but some more indoor decoration of paintings and plants wouldn't hurt either. I'm thinking it's a little bare looking in that regard.

I agree with Jo on adding plants and deco objects to your rooms.

With lots as large as yours I divide it in half and take leftside and rightside shots so that the details of the floor plan can be seen more clearly.

You can have up to16 images now per upload and the file size and size of the images has increased too.

Your upload text is well-written too You don't need to include the lot size in the title. You could put 1 Angelus Hill - a large Georgian Home.

Grammar fiddle, final paragraph: "comprises of" should be "is comprised of" or "consists of."

The birdseye views look a bit slanted to me? My eyes don't see straight lines well, though.

Hm. Okay, I got a couple of good pics today... I'll ad these, and then try and work on clearer floor plans.





At the moment, I'm saving the images you guys like in a folder, so I can easily get them when I upload the lot.

I've added a few more wall hangings to take up wall space inside, so I'm still trying to find good angles to take pics from. I find that the main problem is that by not re-using wall hangings over and over, I have a limited selection to go all over the house with. I only have 3 stuff packs, so... ergh. I need to find a copy of the rest, I guess, if I want a larger variety.

At the moment, I have H&M, Mansion & Garden, and Glamour Life. Do any of the ones I don't have come with decent wall hangings and plants I might like for this house?

Those pictures are better, well done

You might like to paint the ceiling of the porchway a different colour? Also floor tile edgers would make your house look even better. Can be found here Don't forget the shaders, which are linked in that post.

With regards to plants and pictures, just reuse the ones you have in game or if you're happy to download some CC ones use those.

I can never remember what came with what EP or SP. With the plants you can combine some with move objects to make it seem like more variety. Otherwise I would be a bit more strategic with the wall hangings. I see there in that top picture you have 4 wall hangings at that end of the room, instead I'd only use two and shift the other two someplace else. When I said it looked bare I was looking at two bedrooms with seemed to have no pictures at all. You could place a painting above each bed using move objects and quarter tile cheats so it's centered above the bed. Another way of breaking up a large area of bare wall is to use wall lights, because yes you are constricted with wall hangings when you want to go cc free. I'm pretty tired of all the games wall hangings even with having every EP and SP ever made. But I do that to make things easy for people to install because as a downloader I prefer that-not everyone does. If I didn't have such a huge download folder I probably wouldn't mind more houses with cc but it has to be a special building for me to download one with cc these days.

Thanks for the compliments. :D

Hm. What colours should the front porch ceilings be? Cuz I really didn't know either. Meh.

Anyway, I'm getting closer to getting this thing done, although Jo is right... It's a clean lot. No cc if anyone downloads it.

I hadn't noticed the ceiling until karen pointed it out (must have posted while I was posting) I would do it red to match the bricks or grey to match the columns.

The CC floor edgers that I pointed you to don't upload with your lot, but they make your pictures look nice Just credit them in your upload text so that if the downloader wants them they can go and get them. The floor edgers are defaults.