Recent threads has reminded me that I've been meaning to ask the rest of you, out of curiosity, what an average Sims home looks like. When I started downloading houses here on MTS to fill up my new hood about a year ago, I was surprised at room counts and what people put and did not put in their houses. And so I became curious of what other people tend to do with their Sims homes.

So here are a bunch of questions on what your Sims homes look like
1. How many bedrooms does a typical house in your hoods have? Do you have many families living together, or do they tend to get their own home?
2. How many bathrooms do you normally have? How does adding Sims change your opinion on how many bathrooms are needed?
3. What other rooms do you add to your houses, aside from bedroom, bathroom and kitchen?
4. Do you have any non-traditional rooms, like a hobby room or a play room?
5. Do you use a lot of CC to make room types that EA never intended, like a garden shack or something such?
6. Are there any must have items, aside from the obvious (bed, toilet, fridge etc) that you tend to have in most homes?

Probably have more questions in there somewhere, but those are the ones I could remember now

My military Sims have to have one of those guns from the Sim Wardrobe in their home. Ditto for criminal Sims and redneck Sims.

1. How many bedrooms does a typical house in your hoods have? Do you have many families living together, or do they tend to get their own home?
Well, I need to have atleast 2 bedrooms, with an extra/hobby room (an attic might count as an extra room).

I do have families with adult married couples living on their own, depending on wealth, traditions and storyline, while others live together with either the maternal or paternal Grandparent(s).

2. How many bathrooms do you normally have? How does adding Sims change your opinion on how many bathrooms are needed?

Well, it doesn't really matter sometimes, as it depends on the size of the house and the way its built. Though, sometimes, it depends on how wealthy a family is. For example, some large families, with 4 kids, these 4 kids share one bathroom (all houses have a minimum of 1.5 bathrooms). While other smaller families can have more than 1.5 bathrooms, like, a bathroom for each bedroom.

3. What other rooms do you add to your houses, aside from bedroom, bathroom and kitchen?

Well, there's the living room, dinning room, hobby room (mentioned above), and sometimes a library/study (this is optional and depends on wealth as well).

4. Do you have any non-traditional rooms, like a hobby room or a play room?

Yes, a play room is also the hobby room.

5. Do you use a lot of CC to make room types that EA never intended, like a garden shack or something such?

No, not really, I tend to stick with EAxis stuff, like lost and founds and maxis matches as well, so nothing other than what the game provides.

6. Are there any must have items, aside from the obvious (bed, toilet, fridge etc) that you tend to have in most homes?

Well, my children and teens will have at least two desks in their rooms, one is for homework, the other is for a future computer. All bedrooms must have a wardrobe of some sort as well. The parents' bedroom must have side tables, wardrobe and mirror.

1. One master bedroom, and usually one for each kid. I tend to furnish and decorate the rooms so they fit to the children's personality. If there are a lot of kids, some of them must share a room. If there are babies and toddlers I usually make a nursery with beds for all of those under child age, or plop the babies in one room and toddlers in another.

2. If it's a large family they need at least 2 bathrooms, sometimes 3. If (rarely) there are 3 or less sims on a lot, they can make do with one.

3. Livingroom (often a combined living- and dining room), and perhaps a garage with a tool bench and lots of boxes, tools, discarded outdoor toys and bikes slung about. Sometimes a laundry room, and maybe a small TV room for the kids. Nurseries too, but those probably counts as bedrooms.

4. Sometimes a play room, although I usually just put a lot of toys in the kids' bedrooms, and a hobby room if there are creative sims in the family.

5. I sometimes use CC to add an extra finish to rooms, yes. Rarely a garden shack (although they tend to get a little garden plot). I sometimes make playable treehouses for the kids (but those can be managed with minimal CC, like a ladder of some sort).

6. Sprinkler systems are a must. The fire dept are so slow the fire is already out (and not in a good way) by the time they arrive, so I prefer having an automatic system. They also need a wall phone and a trash bin or trash machine thingy (because otherwise they go out in their undies in the middle of night/winter to empty the trash). You'll also find baby and/or toddler objects in 99% of all my houses. Insim objects, the freezing clock, OMSPs and poseboxes are also common objects to find on my lots (actually more common than the regular objects - I have lots without fridges or chairs, but with tons of poseboxes instead).

Whenever I install a sprinkler system, I must have a smoke alarm to go with it. In real life, fire sprinklers are usually tied into the fire alarm system in buildings, which in turn summons the fire department. In The Sims, even though the fire department doesn't actually do anything when the sprinklers put out the fire, it's cool to see them show up like in real life.

1) Usually my houses have 5 or 6 bedrooms. 1 master for the parents, sometimes a master for the grandparents and each kid gets their own room. It depends. Sometimes Sims move into their own home after they graduate from college, other times they move back in with their parents.

2) Usually my houses have 3 or 4 bathrooms. Sim families tend to drive me crazy when there isn't enough bathrooms, so I build multiple bathrooms for my own sanity.

3)I usually have a computer room and a hobby room. I don't put noise making things in bedrooms so computers go in a separate room with a bookcase and couch. I create a hobby room for musical instruments, chess board, exercise equipment if needed for jobs, a TV and other hobby type stuff.

4)If my computer room and hobby room are considered non-traditional then yes.

5) I don't use CC to create rooms not intended. My cc is more hair and clothes.

6) There must be at least one phone, fire alarm and burglar alarm in all houses. There must be a chest of drawers in all bedrooms.

1. Generally, my bachelor/bachelorette family and married couples with no children have one bedroom, and that's enough, usually. In families with siblings, they usually share a room, unless if they're rich or if they plain hate each other. In families with children, upper-and-middle class parents get their own room, and unless they're really close or for storytelling purposes, children get their own rooms, away from their siblings. Poor families don't get much of a choice - in one apartment, I had a father, a mother, and their two children all sleep in the living room, while the bedroom was transformed into a lounge (Good thing there was a hot tub in the communal areas, so there was no need to skip work to WooHoo without the kids in the room). And speaking of WooHoo, bedrooms generally tend to be on the upper floors, because while building my lots, I always put myself into the shoes of the Sims, and wonder "Would you really have a floor-to-ceiling window in the bathroom where everyone can see you with your pants down?" Of course, if my Sims are poor or in a ground-floor-apartment, then the blinds would have to do.

2. SimNation Law - every lot, whether it be residential, commercial, industrial, or another civic building, MUST have a bathroom/washroom/restroom/whatever. Apartment dwellers don't get much of a choice - if I want them to have a study/computer room or a bedroom as mentioned above, everyone's going to have to compete for the bathroom (unless there's one in the communal areas). Poor families living in detached houses also have one bathroom, which visitors and residents all must learn to share. Families with more money get more bathrooms - generally, there's always one on the ground floor, mainly for visitors, and on the upper floors, there can either be one for each bedroom, one down the hall where everyone must share, or a bathroom connecting two bedrooms, like a suite. Of course, the trouble with having more Sims is the need for more bathrooms, otherwise everyone would be pissing themselves everywhere and taking sponge baths in the kitchen . Poorer families don't get much option - I have a poor family with 8 Sims and two bathrooms for everyone. In other households that have the cash to spare, the number of Sims influence the amount of bathrooms there will be.

3. There's always a living room where everyone gathers - and wastes their time watching TV or playing pool. I seldom bother with quiet study rooms and places for Sims to do their homework, because 1. It's a waste of money and 2. my Sims are just fine doing their homework on the floor (I do it myself!). If the house has room and the family has money, there's a garage for the car to sleep in, attached to the house. If the house is on a foundation and thus can't have an attached garage (I know a trick to do this that involves the constrainfloorelevation cheat, but I'm too lazy to do it), I sometimes make up for it by building a basement using this technique. The basement is usually where the recreation stuff that youth enjoy and seniors think are a waste of time are, though I did use one to build an indoor swimming pool.

4. They're usually all merged into the living or bedroom room, but I sometimes build a basement for them.

5. No - surprisingly, I haven't used much CC in building houses/apartments/community lots at all in The Sims 2. I remember in The Sims 1 there was CC in every single lot I built - I even made my own (for personal use, not available to the public unfortunately). I had civil war cannons and water coolers and chocolate punch fountains and party nite lights and paintings that make your wallet weep and even vending machines on every single community lot (And Sims often pissed themselves from drinking too much soda) . With The Sims 2 and all EPs/SPs, there was too much pre-made content (and the debacle with long load times, AND the endless amount of bugs that needed mods/hacks to fix) for me to actually invest in CC for building.

6. Smoke detector and burglar alarms required by SimNation Law Section #731. Note to self: Estimated 62% of Sims do not have either in their homes. Also, an FFS Lot Debugger, CJ-Debugger, and a phone (must be a land phone, not a cell phone) are strongly recommended, but not required. And there MUST be a bathroom! I think we mentioned that already...

1. How many bedrooms does a typical house in your hoods have? Do you have many families living together, or do they tend to get their own home?
I build the houses as the sim family's wealth increases so I kind of add on as the family expands. In my alphabetacy each new heir moves back in with their parents (I guess that's a typical legacy house) and after 6 generations they're plenty rich, with one bedroom for the elder couple, one for the heir and his or her spouse, & three bedrooms for each child. Each spare begins a new home and that eventually grows through the generations until it ends up having a large number of bedrooms as well. I don't like small houses anyway.

2. How many bathrooms do you normally have? How does adding Sims change your opinion on how many bathrooms are needed?
One bathroom for each bedroom is the general rule, but if there are a lot of kids they might end up sharing.

3. What other rooms do you add to your houses, aside from bedroom, bathroom and kitchen?
There's usually some sort of living/family room with the usual couches, TV, etc. And maybe a separate study/library-type room for 'quiet' activities, like chess, reading, and painting.

4. Do you have any non-traditional rooms, like a hobby room or a play room?
Yes, and it depends on my sim's hobbies. Gamers might get a room full of arcade machines & a pool table. Fitness nuts might get a small gym. Musically inclined sims might get a room full of instruments. When I played an uberhood and aged down all the single, childless adults to teens and sent them to uni, I made special dorms for each hobby. They were chock full of activities relevant to that dorm's particular hobby. In wealthy houses I might put in a theatre room complete with large screen TV, no windows, movie posters, & red theatre seats. And then if the family has been around a while I'll probably find some random room to put in all their career rewards. One family had a bowling alley with a bar and stage for a band. That family was full of partying romance sims.

5. Do you use a lot of CC to make room types that EA never intended, like a garden shack or something such?
Nope. I use a lot of CC recolors and new flooring & wall coverings and clutter, but I usually only use the clutter for staging photographs, not in my general play.

6. Are there any must have items, aside from the obvious (bed, toilet, fridge etc) that you tend to have in most homes?
Hmm. Not in the home exactly, but every family I play will have a garden. It'll start out as just a few plants but when they earn enough cash it'll have the full enclosed greenhouse. I love gardening in the sims and pepper punch is a must-have for my pregnant sims, so everyone earns a gold badge so they can make it for the next generation.

I like the idea of this thread ^^ It might actually become really popular, because it's great to share our opinions on how we like to conduct our sims' lives ^^
Let's see how I like to play in my Medieval&Renaissance neighbourhood ^^

1. How many bedrooms does a typical house in your hoods have? Do you have many families living together, or do they tend to get their own home?
Well, there's no such thing as a typical house in my game ... I mean ... there are ... a couple of types of homes that I use (I can't build a house in Sims 2 to save my life XD I'm awful when it comes to building, so I prefer to download lots, but I do pretty well at furnishing&decorating ^^). My peasant families (farmers and fishermen) have only two or three roms. There's usually one not-so-big bedroom, where the parents and most of the children sleep, a kitchen that's also a living room, where people cook, eat, spend most of their time and where the cribs and babies are and another room that was originally built to be used as a barn, but I use it as an additional bedroom, because those families tend to have lots of children (like 8 or more). So you could say there are two bedrooms here.
I usually have one family per lot (when I don't use apartments). Of course, when the eldest son gets married, he brings his wife in his parents' house and they have children of their own, so you could say there are two families ... But, with so many children, there's almost never room for more than those two families (even if grandparents, aunts and uncles are great when it comes to raising many children).
For my noble households ... well, I just like to pretend that they live in a big castle/manor XD I mean ... I download medium sized lots, but I only use the first floor XD I can't play houses that have too many rooms, because my sims tend to get lost >.> So there are three bedrooms (one for the main couple, a nursery and another one for older children; servants sleep in the kitchen). And, except for the Royal household, there is only one family per lot, but they do have servants (one or two servants per family, because too many sims on the same lot make my game sloooow XD ). The servants aren't married (or don't bring their spouses), but some of the handmaidens do have their master's children.

2. How many bathrooms do you normally have? How does adding Sims change your opinion on how many bathrooms are needed?
Never more than one. I mean ... cleanliness wasn't exactly their obsession back in those days. And there were no ... water mains (that's what you call them, right? I mean those pipes that exist so we can use water whenever we like XD ). There's usually a chamber pot in every bedroom and a bathtub in the master bedroom. Servants and peasants use a barrel shower. I came to the conclusion that I don't really need more than one bathroom on each lot ^^" They're kind of crowded, especially when I have 12 or more sims in a family, but I can manage somehow (also, a "No privacy" mod is essential).

3. What other rooms do you add to your houses, aside from bedroom, bathroom and kitchen?
Peasants don't have spare rooms. Some farmers have a barn, where I let the dogs sleep. Noble sims have a withdrawing chamber (one of those drawing rooms) that they also use as a dinning room and study (there's a piano, a violin, some bookshelves, a ballet barre). Right now I'm considering building a greenhouse, but I'm not too sure if it won't take too much room. And I don't know what I'll use it for, except for taking pictures.

4. Do you have any non-traditional rooms, like a hobby room or a play room?
Well, I guess you could call that study/dinning/drawing room a hobby room ^^" But except from that ... No, I don't have those. I get bored furnishing and decorating too many rooms XD

5. Do you use a lot of CC to make room types that EA never intended, like a garden shack or something such?
Because I only play Medieval (more like Renaissance, but my game's not exactly historically accurate, because I like throwing in Medieval, Renaissance, Regency, Colonial and all kind of elements and characters) I do use lots of CC XD I actually don't use any of the original Sims 2 content ^^"

6. Are there any must have items, aside from the obvious (bed, toilet, fridge etc) that you tend to have in most homes?
There's also a nursery in every house. Even the Convents have one! XD Because you never know when a poor woman might show up and deliver a baby there, trying to hide said baby's existence from her husband and family. So I always have cribs and changing tables (because they are so much more workable than sinks and bathtubs ^^" ). And every noble household must have a piano and a violin (those children have to learn how to play a couple of instruments). Girls also have dance tutors, so there's a ballet barre and boys have to stay in shape, so I use a fighting dummy. Other than that ... I don't think there are other objects that exist in every house.

1. How many bedrooms does a typical house in your hoods have? Do you have many families living together, or do they tend to get their own home?
-Master bedroom
-Nursery
-Boy's bedroom
-Girls Bedroom
They're not huge either, a master can be as small as 4x4 and a kids 3x2.

2. How many bathrooms do you normally have? How does adding Sims change your opinion on how many bathrooms are needed?
-Half bath in garage
-Half bath near main entrance
-Master bath
-Jack and Jill, or separate for kids depending on bedroom layout.
The two half baths serve for those who just need to quickly do their business on the way out/in. Main bathrooms are probably no bigger then 4x2 if i do a separate shower/bathtub combination.

3. What other rooms do you add to your houses, aside from bedroom, bathroom and kitchen?
-Separate formal dining room
-Breakfast nook, normally a 1x3 bumpout in the kitchen with a bay window
-Inside/Outside foyer/entrance depending on house style. If it's a georgian style then it's a 4x4 coatroom inside with either 1-2 arches leading into the main hall. If it's more modern then it's a covered terrace type of deal that's semi connected to the rest of the porch area.

4. Do you have any non-traditional rooms, like a hobby room or a play room?
-Nope I build small so most of that kind of stuff is on community lots where greater interactions can take place.

5. Do you use a lot of CC to make room types that EA never intended, like a garden shack or something such?
-I used to but it got a bit overwhelming to have so much deco clutter that was only used once or twice while I was using the same maxis table in 50% of my houses so i deleted alot of it.

6. Are there any must have items, aside from the obvious (bed, toilet, fridge etc) that you tend to have in most homes?
-I'm odd like this but greenery. I don't feel a room is actually complete unless there's some type of plant in it to make it feel more comfortable and homey. I'll make sure that's in it before even realizing I didn't add any lighting to a room.

Interesting thread. I try to answer honest.

1. The number of bedrooms depends of the number of sims and the size of the house. I use to put adults in the same room but the kids can have separate rooms if the house is big enough (kids use to be noisy, that's why). I do have familys living together under the same roof and it use to work fine.

2. I use to add two or three bathrooms if the number of sims is more than two. It makes things easier in the morning when the sims are waking up to go to work/school ( sims still have to wake up at 4 AM in order to have enough time).

3. I find a living room useful and if the house have enough space I add a room where the sims can sit down and eat (the kitchen use to get quite full so a table and chairs won't fit).

4. The sims sometimes use to put on some weight and then I find it useful to build a room where they can exercise (putting in exercise machines). If I can I make an "office" containing a desk whit a computer, a bookshelf and other stuff. If the house is very big, I have a room whit a hottub. (The hottub can also be added to a bigger bathroom).

5. yes, I do use some CC when I decorate a house but I do not think that my houses have any "unusual" rooms.

6. I don't know if this answers the question but my houses must have computers, burglar alarms, fire alarms and telephones.

No average houses - can't add them together and divide by the total number, it just works out to be impractical.

My tendency is to expand the house to fit needs and budgets. My rare singletons will only have one bathroom, but most people have at least 1.5 baths so visitors have an option when someone decides to take a bubble bath or bathe a toddler during a party. The largest number of bathrooms is four, at Hawkins Prime, and it wasn't always enough during that house's heyday.

Uses and layouts change over time as the configuration of the family changes. Starter homes run to an open plan kitchen/dining/living area, a bedroom, and a bathroom, but even single sims like to have a second bedroom to use as a study or hobby room. When the single sim gets married this will probably turn into a nursery and I'll add a second story, where older kids will sleep. Hawkins Prime started with a long front room containing the kitchen, three back rooms which were the boys' room, girl's room/nursery, and Ma and Pa's room. After the second floor was added, with three bedrooms, bath, and stair hall/play area, all the kids moved upstairs except the current toddler, the old boys' room became a study, the center room remained a nursery, and Ma and Pa stayed in their room; but eventually they moved their bed and wardrobe into the nursery and the old nursery became a music/game room. When Pigeon and Zeke moved in and took over headship of the house, one of the upstairs bedrooms became theirs; but since Pa died they tend to rotate sleeping in the big bed in the nursery with Ma - and Dove as a child often slept in there with Granny. The big bed is pretty much stuck there till Pa (who hasn't haunted yet) gets moved to Drama Acres Memorial Park, as no one wants him to be an angry ghost. Plus they have three porches, a garden, fruit trees, a greenhouse, and a dog house, and have expanded the kitchen. There's one wardrobe upstairs, in Pigeon and Zeke's room, and one downstairs in the nursery. Because of course in this family everybody wears each other's clothes.

The Bubblers downtown, though, have no children and seem unlikely to get any. They've expanded their original starter home - one of the one-bedroom/carport places on Mendoza - considerably, with the original bedroom turned into a stair hall, a large party room that doubles as a studio, an expanded kitchen/dining area, and a second floor consisting of one bedroom, one full bath, and a hall big enough to house the computer comfortably. They retain the carport out front, and in back they have a patio with a hot tub and the candy machine. The Dave Ottomas household next door has similarly converted all its downstairs into social space, including a music room and a small TV room, and moved bedrooms upstairs, but the Swains and Starchilds on the same street both still have first floor bedroom/nurseries; and where the Swains have a pottery/painting shed, the Starchilds do their painting in their bedrooms and keep a hot tub and a garden outside.

It's pretty rare for me to have multiple wardrobes in a house, and when I do, it's mostly one on each floor. But I built a set of apartments with the possibility of advertising for roommates in mind, and each of those has a closet per bedroom. I like to have outdoor things, either porches or patios, gardens, pet areas, hot tubs, that sort of thing. Wealthy families with kids might get a playground. Nobody in Drama Acres has a private pool - I prefer going to community lots to swim. Hardly anybody has a garage, but several people have hobby/craft/work-study areas. Hardly anybody has a formal dining room. Upsloper houses have the front door opening into the kitchen; Downsloper kitchens are in the back of the house. Mary Munny had a recording studio in her house, but she also had two hot tubs, an electro-dance sphere, and a photo booth - she lived way off the bell curve.

Houses that have known death will have an area set aside for the dead one at least until the ghost spawns. This may be an indoor shrine or an outdoor graveside; and this does include pet graves. Hi Thyme kept his daughter's ashes on a shelf, with flowers, almost on the spot where she died; but Hilary Aerius's are on the desk in the room she used to share with her grandson, and Goz Hawkins's grave is outside next to the hot tub, while the bones of their old dog Lady lies under the apple trees.

1. How many bedrooms does a typical house in your hoods have? Do you have many families living together, or do they tend to get their own home?

Most of my homes have 2-3 bedrooms. Generally, one child (the heir) will move back into the family home with their spouse and parents and the other children will establish new households. Children almost always share bedrooms in my hood, even in families that could certainly afford separate rooms. I prefer smaller houses, although they run the gamut from ranch style to eclectic modern.

2. How many bathrooms do you normally have? How does adding Sims change your opinion on how many bathrooms are needed?

1-2, mostly. If there are 5 people in a house, there will almost always be a 2nd bathroom.

3. What other rooms do you add to your houses, aside from bedroom, bathroom and kitchen?

It varies. Some of my homes have open floor-plans, so there aren't separate rooms. Others are more traditional. Usually, there will be an office/library and often a formal dining room. Larger homes tend to have a permanent nursery and most homes have either an attic or cellar for storage (that is, a room that is not accessible where I store things that don't have a permanent place or aren't being used at the moment - kid toys, exercise machines, aspiration and/or career rewards, etc.)

4. Do you have any non-traditional rooms, like a hobby room or a play room?

Sometimes. I also will occasionally have a "compound" type of lot with multiple outbuildings with varied purposes. Some families have sauna or hot tub rooms.

5. Do you use a lot of CC to make room types that EA never intended, like a garden shack or something such?

Not really.

6. Are there any must have items, aside from the obvious (bed, toilet, fridge etc) that you tend to have in most homes?

Every home will have a selection of skill objects so everything is doable. All my homes have sprinklers and burglar alarms.

Usually it depends on the neighborhood, type of sim/family, and which sim/family is going to be using the house. I'll go just by my current hood for now.

1. How many bedrooms does a typical house in your hoods have? Do you have many families living together, or do they tend to get their own home?
Usually one to two. The main family in my hood started out as four unrelated sims (two males, two females) living together so a bedroom for each gender. Then ACR took over and couples formed. Then they all started breeding with each other and as more kids arrived the living room became a makeshift bedroom as well.

2. How many bathrooms do you normally have? How does adding Sims change your opinion on how many bathrooms are needed?
I usually only have one bathroom in my homes unless they are ones that I downloaded with an extra bathroom. If I think that there are too many sims on a lot for one bathroom to work, I will add stalls instead of single toilets and the Uni showers so that multiple sims can use a bathroom at a time.

3. What other rooms do you add to your houses, aside from bedroom, bathroom and kitchen?
I usually add a study where there are easels, bookshelves, skill building items and the such.

4. Do you have any non-traditional rooms, like a hobby room or a play room?
See question #3.

5. Do you use a lot of CC to make room types that EA never intended, like a garden shack or something such?
Depends on the family. The main Vida family in my current hood currently has a storage shack for fish and vegetable from their pond and garden. I will also sometimes build a small building if I am going to have a family open a home business.

6. Are there any must have items, aside from the obvious (bed, toilet, fridge etc) that you tend to have in most homes?
I always have the batbox, insimenator tree, and visitor controller on every lot. Most of the time there is also the little phone book stack looking thing for ACR as well. An easel is also in most homes.

1. How many bedrooms does a typical house in your hoods have? Do you have many families living together, or do they tend to get their own home?
At least two bedrooms. I like each couple to have their own private bedroom, although I will put their baby or toddler in with them if they're low on space. I don't like households with single Sims, so I have a lot of multi-generational households. Most of those families live in three bedroom homes. One for the grandparent(s), one for the parent(s) and one for the kids.
2. How many bathrooms do you normally have? How does adding Sims change your opinion on how many bathrooms are needed?
If there are five or more Sims in a home, I like to have two or even three bathrooms.
3. What other rooms do you add to your houses, aside from bedroom, bathroom and kitchen?
Either a separate living room and dining room or one combined room for both.
4. Do you have any non-traditional rooms, like a hobby room or a play room?
Only in large houses with lots of spare room. My Sims usually live in homes that are just the right size, though. If I do have space to fill up, a baby might get a nursery on each floor, or I'll make a small library or game room, or music room.
5. Do you use a lot of CC to make room types that EA never intended, like a garden shack or something such?
No.
6. Are there any must have items, aside from the obvious (bed, toilet, fridge etc) that you tend to have in most homes?
Everyone has a bookcase. Most places have an easel. Sims with toddlers get every toddler skilling toy. Kids usually get the dollhouse and toy stove.

I tend to have one bedroom per couple, but children or single adults will share rooms depending on how many beds I can fit in each one. I love having 2 or more families living together, in my Strangetown anyway. I think I do it so that my sims are having financial troubles, just like in the real world.

I like to have one bathroom per 2 or 3 sims. But they still all try to use the same one, at the same time!

I always have a living room, sometimes a dining room aswell if the kitchen is too small for a table.

Sometimes if the house is quite big, I have a hobby room or a play room, only because I don't know what else to put in there. Sometimes if sims move out, their bedroom will be converted into a hobby room. Some of my houses also have a 'pet room', with the pet bed, food bowl, scrathing post, litter tray etc. if there isn't much room for those things in the rest of the house. Those rooms often have to be built onto an existing house. One of my houses has a little shed-type thing for the au-pair to live in, to keep her out of my main house during family time (she kept sleeping in the kid's beds and it was annoying me).

One of my houses has a field, stables, a feedroom and a tackroom, which all contain lots of horsey cc. I love my horsey stuff.

I have toilet paper, towels, and a bathroom cabinet in most of my houses. It does my head in that EA didn't put shampoo bottles etc. in the showers. I also like to have alcohol and cigarette related items in my houses, and sometimes condoms aswell, just to add a bit of realism. Some of my houses have doormats aswell.

1. How many bedrooms does a typical house in your hoods have? Do you have many families living together, or do they tend to get their own home?
I don't know that I have a typical house. Some families live in flats which may be as basic as one run down room for those in my cheap hostel. I have a 'homeless' family who sleep in tents with a grotty toilet block, a park bench and an esky. (cooler) Others live in small houses and a few in larger posher houses.

2. How many bathrooms do you normally have? How does adding Sims change your opinion on how many bathrooms are needed?

Most houses would have 2-3 bedrooms and at least 1.5 baths, but often 2.

3. What other rooms do you add to your houses, aside from bedroom, bathroom and kitchen?
Normally there will be an office with a computer.

4. Do you have any non-traditional rooms, like a hobby room or a play room?
Families that can afford it will have a study/hobby room and a play room.


5. Do you use a lot of CC to make room types that EA never intended, like a garden shack or something such?
I have 'houses' that are actually a fire station, police station, school and hospital. Not all of my sims live in 'houses'.


6. Are there any must have items, aside from the obvious (bed, toilet, fridge etc) that you tend to have in most homes?
Every house has the bat box, simblender, day setter, season adjuster and buy at home coat rack. The visitor controller and hobby adjuster and fairly common. All houses will have an easel and most have a juicer as I like gardening.

I find that with the fixed income that came added to Apartment Life, I usually end up deciding a home's contents based on this. So, as in real life, those with more money have some extra items. Those with lower income (usually those I bring straight out of uni or couples from CAS.) tend to have the necessities, but they're at lower value. This is solely due to the fact that I run my game on an economic system, so I buy new stuff when those sims either earn enough from their job or end up marrying someone. Usually the latter, but like I said, it depends. Some of my sims don't get promotions or suffer job loss, just like the real world. Some of my sims end up in pretty bad debt, just like real life.

Somehow, I find that some sims with less income are generally happier. I've noticed that some of the more expensive stuff in later EPs has less of the ability to fulfill motives, and I have to wonder if EA did that intentionally. Brandi Broke took a couple years to get out of her debt, and she hated the more expensive plumbing I purchased for her. I felt bad, so I did end up giving it back. The sims with less money also enjoy having pets, because like I mentioned, they're usually fresh out of college or newly married sans kids.

I didn't read the other responses, so I'm not sure how similar or different mine are.

1. How many bedrooms does a typical house in your hoods have? Do you have many families living together, or do they tend to get their own home? Usually, it's one or two families to a house, unless it's my commune.

I prefer one for the spouses or committed couple and one for each child, even if it's a glorified closet. However, I have no qualms doubling kids or roomies up if the budget is not amenable. I'd say the average was three.

2. How many bathrooms do you normally have? How does adding Sims change your opinion on how many bathrooms are needed?

MUST be at least 1 1/2 if there are more than two Sims. I truly do not like just one bathroom. But it depends on the number of family members. Three is usually my max.

3. What other rooms do you add to your houses, aside from bedroom, bathroom and kitchen?|

Depends on the Sim. Knowledge Sims with cash might get a library. Music-loving Sims might get a music room. Artists might wind up with a studio, particularly photographers. I usually stick in a family room. Rich Sims might have extra guest or servant rooms. Playboys or girls might have their own little room for their fun and frolic. That sort of thing.

4. Do you have any non-traditional rooms, like a hobby room or a play room?

Well, a rich playgirl or playboy needs a little place for private parties, I would think. A bar, expensive stereo, a keg for larger parties (along with a mind control mirror) and a fireplace would be pluses. ACR helps things along a little, too. Sims with home offices need a place to do their day to day business. REALLY rich Sims might even have a room with a private hot tub or pool. My schoolteachers have their schoolrooms away from their homes. I use the download from the classic site Aussie Topenders to get a camera early on for my photographers, and try to set up some scenic or artsy backdrops for their studios. The camera lights on this site by Numenor (I believe) help get the photographer's business going as well. And can't forget a few props!

5. Do you use a lot of CC to make room types that EA never intended, like a garden shack or something such?

The school might be an example of that. I don't think I could do a good job without Simlogical mods. Photography studios usually have a lot of CC in them.

6. Are there any must have items, aside from the obvious (bed, toilet, fridge etc) that you tend to have in most homes?

Well, a bed, toilet and a fridge is a good start! I usually put the InSim green plumbob max motives thingie because I have no qualms about cheating re that, unless i want to. The Sims have both the EA phone and the Christianlov one. I usually try to add an easel (since poor Sims can use that for some cash) and a couch and bookcase ASAP, as well as the cheap telescope outdoors for the logic points. And I try to get better toilets, since the cheap one breaks down much more often. (Yes, I know there is a cheat for that, but my mods and hacks folders are pretty full as it is!)

Oh, and I forgot the Visitor Controller and ACR hacked items. And the Sim blender and Insim.

1. How many bedrooms does a typical house in your hoods have? Do you have many families living together, or do they tend to get their own home?

A typical bedroom in SimHampton may have anything between 1 and 3 bedrooms. Usually there are 2 bed spaces (two singles or a double) for every 3 Sims. This works out surprisingly well. Rich Sims are required to have one bed per servant, and usually manage one bed per rich Sim also.

For the most part, families live in independent homes. However, sometimes entire branches of a family may work as servants for another family, or room-mates from different families may live together for a common purpose.

2. How many bathrooms do you normally have? How does adding Sims change your opinion on how many bathrooms are needed?

Normally, one. Even if the household has 8 Sims, including 3 elders, in it. The Charges of the Heavy Bladder Brigade are sometimes quite dramatic... Some Sims have multiple bathrooms, whether that's because they're showing off, want men and women to have separate bathrooms or prefer their servants to get their own bathroom.

3. What other rooms do you add to your houses, aside from bedroom, bathroom and kitchen?

Every house has a living room, which frequently also hosts the/a kitchen. Rich Sims typically have a dining room and some sort of servants' quarters. Drawing rooms with quiet skilling items and sofas are also quite common. A few Sims have fitness and/or music rooms; the latter usually have 3-4 instruments, not just a piano. Rich Sims with any children, and average Sims with several children, install a combined nursery/playroom if there's space. Some homes also have 1-3 rooms that are for carrying on a home business. Some houses get a variety of room types more or less often seen in real-life homes.

4. Do you have any non-traditional rooms, like a hobby room or a play room?

See previous and following questions.

5. Do you use a lot of CC to make room types that EA never intended, like a garden shack or something such?

Two of the three religions expect rooms devoted to their faiths, neither of which is kitted out like a real-world prayer room. Both require some CC to work (in the Baneforce's case, a batbox (FFS Lot Debugger) and skeleton; for the Valgonians, a sword, pensieve, CC spellbook and cauldron combination). The Baneforce's room requires a mirror as well, but that can just as easily be an EA item as custom. I'm not 100% convinced that EA planned for servants' quarters (typically a sleeping/cooking/living room with en-suite bathroom, sometimes a more sophisticated facility) or SpacePort launching rooms (a set of 4 recliners in a room with several vaguely mystic-looking items, surrounded by wall-length windows) either, but both exist in my neighbourhood.

6. Are there any must have items, aside from the obvious (bed, toilet, fridge etc) that you tend to have in most homes?

All my households must have a method of paying bills to other Sims (either Monique's computer or cheques), unless its owner(s) is/are outlaws. Most of them have to have a mirror as well, even if the occupiers have no detectable interest in what their faces look like. I insist on bookshelves for every household (I've been known to forego beds in favour of them). SimBlender and phones are not quite compulsory, but is found in most of my houses.

1. How many bedrooms does a typical house in your hoods have? Do you have many families living together, or do they tend to get their own home?
My sims are all pretty poor. There'll be one bedroom for the adults, and kids usually share two or three to a bedroom. My one rich family, Alon's branch of the Dareme clan, got a new house built for them with one bedroom per kid plus a study for Alon - but then managed to have twins, so now one of the older kid's bedrooms is being shared by the younger twins, and the study is now the older kid's room. So I still have no households where everyone has their own bedroom, except my singletons, none of whom have a spare room .

Most of my sim teenagers want to move out fairly quickly but can't afford to, so a few are still living at home. A long time ago two teenagers bought a house together to live as housemates... that went terribly, terribly wrong and now they don't speak to each other .

2. How many bathrooms do you normally have? How does adding Sims change your opinion on how many bathrooms are needed?
Most houses only have space and money for one, a couple of the bigger households have two. No half bathrooms for some reason.

3. What other rooms do you add to your houses, aside from bedroom, bathroom and kitchen?
Most of my households have home businesses, so there's a shop, and often a room for the production of whatever they're selling. My farm has a barn and a chicken coop - but mostly, my sims can't afford luxuries like hobby rooms and stuff. Houses have a living/kitchen/dining room, bedrooms, bathroom(s) and possibly a shop - that's about it. Babies tend to sleep in their parents' room or a common room until they're old enough for their own bed (walking toddlers).

4. Do you have any non-traditional rooms, like a hobby room or a play room?
Just lots and lots of home business rooms.

5. Do you use a lot of CC to make room types that EA never intended, like a garden shack or something such?
I use a tonne of CC, but not generally to make weird room types .

6. Are there any must have items, aside from the obvious (bed, toilet, fridge etc) that you tend to have in most homes?
Pescado's Lot Sync timer and a SimWardrobe chequebook!

Really interesting to read all the replies, thanks everyone

I guess I'll also reply.

1. How many bedrooms does a typical house in your hoods have? Do you have many families living together, or do they tend to get their own home?

I don't tend to have more than one family living together, because I don't enjoy playing that many Sims at once. So most of my houses have a bedroom for the adults, and if there are children they get a room. Depends on the house if they get a separate room or not. Some houses just don't look right with extra rooms added, and then it's make it work time. But I do build big, so kids most likely get their own room. The exception so far has been the first pair of twins I had, which I felt were close enough to want to be in the same room.

2. How many bathrooms do you normally have? How does adding Sims change your opinion on how many bathrooms are needed?

One if there is one floor, two if there are two. This, and bedrooms, are such a pet peeve of mine when downloading lots. What am I supposed to do with a house that has 5 bathrooms, and 6 rooms with double beds?

This thread has made me realize why it might be that I only feel I need one, or possibly two, bathrooms. Free will off = I decide who goes to which bathroom when. I automatically line things up in different orders for different Sims. For example, in the household with the twins, I'll have one go grab breakfast and then line up toilet/shower, and the other one gets toilet/shower/breakfast. That way they don't conflict, and everyone gets their needs satisfied before school.

3. What other rooms do you add to your houses, aside from bedroom, bathroom and kitchen?

Almost every house will have a living room and an office area with the computer and a bookshelf. Whether that is a separate room or not, depends entirely on how much space there is and if I feel an open floor plan is better, but most of them do have separate rooms.

4. Do you have any non-traditional rooms, like a hobby room or a play room?

Depends on the Sims, but most of them will at least have one room that is devoted to something like music, or skilling. Sims with a strong interest or a hobby obsession will have a room dedicated to it.

5. Do you use a lot of CC to make room types that EA never intended, like a garden shack or something such?

I am a CC-junkie. I might not be able to make my Sims use all of the items I add, but I can pretend. My main Sim couple consists of Emma, who has a large room on the second floor that works as a dance studio and a sowing studio, and Joel who has a room for all his gamery nerding, and a room devoted to his two interests, science and the paranormal. All of those are greatly enhanced by CC, because what EA offers isn't really enough make a proper room.

It is also common with garden shacks (hence the example xD) because my town is a gardening town. Everyone gardens a little bit, and then it makes sense to have some area devoted to tools required.

6. Are there any must have items, aside from the obvious (bed, toilet, fridge etc) that you tend to have in most homes?

Bookshelves will be featured somewhere, as will a Monique computer. I do plan to have more poor Sims in the future, and those might not get the computer, or the bookshelf, but everyone else does. I also always add a blender in the kitchen, but hardly ever a microwave. That stems from my early days when I'd get annoyed that my Sims would cook in the microwave instead of the stove.

1. How many bedrooms does a typical house in your hoods have? Do you have many families living together, or do they tend to get their own home?
At least 2; one for the owner/s and one for any children in the family.

2. How many bathrooms do you normally have? How does adding Sims change your opinion on how many bathrooms are needed?
I now have a standard 2 bathrooms, because everyone uses them-and I have a hack that allows the visitors to shower as well. Adding more people doesn't change a thing. It's 2, period.

3. What other rooms do you add to your houses, aside from bedroom, bathroom and kitchen?
I have a living room which is furnished like most-with the TV and a dartboard. The chess board is in the kitchen.

4. Do you have any non-traditional rooms, like a hobby room or a play room?
No.

5. Do you use a lot of CC to make room types that EA never intended, like a garden shack or something such?
No. Don't fancy extra rooms at all.

6. Are there any must have items, aside from the obvious (bed, toilet, fridge etc) that you tend to have in most homes?
Yes-the Lot SyncTimer, the batbox, Christianlov's visitor manager and TJ's visitor controller. I also have another hack that has shortcuts to the cheat codes, from the DMA Sims workers' set. It allows me to screen their phone calls, and give everyone a cell phone.

1. How many bedrooms does a typical house in your hoods have? Do you have many families living together, or do they tend to get their own home?
Every house usually has at least 2 bedrooms. Single sims are usually never single very long, and before they know it, there's a baby around. Though the 2nd bedroom doesn't have to be used as a bedroom. Some apartments are one-bedroom though. There's never a reason for more than 6 bedrooms in a residential neighborhood house. I don't think I've had more than 5 honestly. However, I do make Greek houses every now and then. And those I must have 8 bedrooms with 7 of them with enough space for a double bed.

Because I have a long list of families to play in rotation, I have been trying to merge families living together in ways that make sense (live with in-laws, best friends are roommates).

2. How many bathrooms do you normally have? How does adding Sims change your opinion on how many bathrooms are needed?
In a house, at least 1.5 bathrooms. In an apartment it can be 1.

3. What other rooms do you add to your houses, aside from bedroom, bathroom and kitchen?
Garages are a must (vacation homes, apartments, and dorms are exceptions to that). I also always have dining rooms, living/family rooms, study (a room that does not have noisemakers so sims can take a nap).

4. Do you have any non-traditional rooms, like a hobby room or a play room?
Lately I've been adding more walk-in closets. Unused bedrooms become hobby rooms.

5. Do you use a lot of CC to make room types that EA never intended, like a garden shack or something such?
Not a lot of CC, but I do use CC that I don't think I can talk about here to make a couple adult fun rooms for romance sims with extra money.

6. Are there any must have items, aside from the obvious (bed, toilet, fridge etc) that you tend to have in most homes?
Cars are a must. Computers are also a must.

1.Houses tupically have 3 or 2 bedrooms.I. never make large families,and large houses.
2.I usually make 1 or 2 bathrooms.
3.Sometimes i make the 'relax' room,with two recliners and many candles..
4.Relax room,play room and etc.
5.I don't use too much CC in houses.Only walls/floors and some decorations.I don't usually download objects..
6.Nope.There's nothing 'too special' xd