I was just curious how others built their houses. These are just a few of the questions .. if you can think of anything else to add please feel free as I love hearin about how others do things.

Are you more a place and design style builder? Such as putting the items down as you build sections of the walls for rooms.
Do you prefer more knowing how the design will be before starting, such as lookin at house plans and such?
Do you like to give space for the little 'extras' that round out a house to make it more realistic, such as a broom closet, pantry, place for a washer and dryer ...?
Do you like to build the houses first and then move a sim in, or move a sim on to a lot and then build to their desires?
Do you build more bare bones houses or ones that are .. well I don't want to say fully cluttered, but a good deal of the nic nac clutter?

I know that most times we tailor our houses to suit the sim, but I'm askin more on a generalization of the houses.

For me, I am usually a bare bones builder. I like minimalist, mostly as that's the easiest and cheapest way to go for a starter family. A lot of times I'll build basic shell houses and then tailor them after I move a sim in. I generally don't do much in the way of landscaping or even deco. I tend to play with walls down so since I don't see the walls I tend to not think of things like curtains and paintings. I know that I really should as some of the items give fun as well as enhance the room. I am tryin to change that part and do more ... but ... well ... it's so easy to do it the other way ... lol

That depends what I am building.

I have built by place and then build.
I have built to a floor plan although that usually ends up being quite different halfway through.
I have built by looking at various pictures or even other builds to get ideas then design my own.

I have left room for laundries and pantries on occasion.

Always build the house without the sim otherwise it will need cleaning. use a copy to play test.

For upload I normally add some deco but not too much. In my game sims need to buy their own deco from one or more owned shops.

For new families I tend to move them into one of Plasticbox's tiny lots. I hate building split levels and using lot adjuster so why not use well made ones already built?

Couldn't care less about house plans. I've never been much of a planner, so I tend to build as I go. I place walls, floors and any other house deco first, then furniture.

On the somewhat rare occasions when I build houses, I tend to start with a basic idea of what kind of family I want to live there. I usually have in mind a family of parents with 3-4 kids, because I have yet to have a family ending up with less than two kids in my game. The houses nearly aways have two floors, usually with a garage, and sometimes with a foundation. Kitchen and livingroom tend to be downstairs, bedrooms for the older kids tend to be upstairs (master bedroom and nurseries are occasionally downstairs to avoid the usual troubles with babies and toddlers getting stuck on the upper floor). I do sometimes add a laundry room. If I'm in the mood for it, I also sometimes add a usable tree house or play house for the kids, and perhaps a garden plot or some landscaping. Maybe even a swimming pool if the lot is big enough.

I like a spaceous outlay, where most rooms are a minimum of 4x4 grid squares, usually more. I take a lot of pictures, so I want to get in a camera without having to use the zoom function (it distorts pictures, and I don't like that).

As for style I like a modern but still somewhat timeless look (if that makes sense), simply furnished but with clutter to make the house look lived in and personal. Most of the time I'll add some basic furnture and simple deco to get a general feel of the outlay, save the house in the lot bin and as a file (always nice with a backup), and then personalize each copy of the house to the family meant to live there (aka. clutter galore).

I also don't care about prize, so the houses tend to range in betwen 100-500k. I mostly build the houses before moving in a family, so I can easier reuse the house.

@joandsarah77

What washer/ dryer do you use/ have? I have the PC Sims one and just saw the "working" one by MLC. I can't decide if I want deco or working.

I use Gummi's.

No linkage? :P

Oh okay...

http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=560452

I usually use floor plans with a certain family in mind.

Generally a single sims will have a one room house. Everything all in the one huge room, with dividers around the bedroom. Or some fancy one bedroom house all on a single floor. If they just came from uni, I throw a few of the clothes rugs around to make it look normal.

If it is a family, they will have 2 or 3 floors (depending on how many bedrooms needed).

I really like huge kitchens, so all of them get huge kitchens.

I usually furnish it before the family moves in, but I decorate it after they move in.

Are you more a place and design style builder? Such as putting the items down as you build sections of the walls for rooms.
I normally build a construction, then paint it outside and add a roof, add windows, stairs etc., furnish, and make a garden. Sometimes I can make a garden before furnishing, but that doesn’t happen often.

Do you prefer more knowing how the design will be before starting, such as lookin at house plans and such?
No, I’m random. I just place foundations and walls and hope it makes sense. It has happen that I recreated something, it was houses from TS1 in TS3, in TS2 I recreated my own house built on a different computer (it’s Ophelia’s House I uploaded here). It wasn’t as fun as building it for the first time though, I definitely do like being random.

Do you like to give space for the little 'extras' that round out a house to make it more realistic, such as a broom closet, pantry, place for a washer and dryer ...?
No I don’t care. I create houses that look nice and are playable, not necessarily realistic.

Do you like to build the houses first and then move a sim in, or move a sim on to a lot and then build to their desires?
I prefer to build a house and then move a sim it, but sometimes I can remake a house in which pre-made sims live, or build it partially, move sims in, and then finish when they have more money. I did that with Ophelia and Johnny’s house. I still left two empty rooms, and I plan to finish them when there’s a need for that. I keep a clean bot in one of them.

Do you build more bare bones houses or ones that are .. well I don't want to say fully cluttered, but a good deal of the nic nac clutter?
I’m not really into clutter such as newspapers lying on the table, cutlery etc., but sometimes I can place something like that (mostly kitchen clutter), however, I do place lots of potted plants and plant decorations everywhere. I also like paintings.


In general, I really care about landscaping. I just hate empty gardens and I only have them if my sims can’t afford one, otherwise I have really dense gardens on every lot, even on desert lots. Such dense gardens can cause lag, but I don’t care, I need my plants I also like putting them on the roof in modern houses, like here. When I was younger I used to think about studying garden architecture, but now I’m in my fourth year of computer science, so meh
I also have a weird habit with lighting. I absolutely hate lamps that give white light and I rarely use them (and in real life I couldn’t stand them too, I have lamps that give warm light). I use lamps that give really warm flame light, such as candles by Roxan. In addition to them (and when I build no CC) I use the porch lamp (I don’t remember in which EP it came, probably with Seasons as it came with a tiki set) and, given that I always play with walls up and that lamp rarely fits anywhere, I hide it in walls. If you ever downloaded one of my lots I shared here and used a view other than walls up, you can find those lamps there

I don't do a hell of a lot of building. I tend to build as I need, or just download houses that are superior to anything I could think of making.

Are you more a place and design style builder? Such as putting the items down as you build sections of the walls for rooms.
When I do build, yes I need some sort of proportion, otherwise the rooms end up being too big, so I might put down a double bed and a couch to get an idea, then go from there.

Do you prefer more knowing how the design will be before starting, such as lookin at house plans and such?
When I have a certain type of building in mind such as a Victorian house, church, a house found in only certain regions of the world, I'll look at pictures and house plans to get an idea but not necessarily use them exactly.

Do you like to give space for the little 'extras' that round out a house to make it more realistic, such as a broom closet, pantry, place for a washer and dryer ...?
No, I'm fairly minimalist.

Do you like to build the houses first and then move a sim in, or move a sim on to a lot and then build to their desires?
It depends. If they're a starter family I'll move them into a basic house and extend as the family grows or over generations. Other times I'll build a specially-designed house for particular Sims then move them in.

Do you build more bare bones houses or ones that are .. well I don't want to say fully cluttered, but a good deal of the nic nac clutter
I'm not very good at adding clutter. Sometimes I forget the basics such as lighting and phone!

I don't. After looking at a neighbourhood where I had some downloaded houses and some I'd built. My houses were the square boxes. Not my talent. XD

Sometimes I have a design planned out, other times I have no idea what I'm doing. How much design effort, clutter, and details I use depends on my energy levels at the moment. When I don't feel lazy, I can build moderately complex houses from scratch.

Fun fact: I'm not allowed to design my parents' dream house because when I have lots of energy, I get so involved in the aesthetics that I forget practical necessities like bathrooms.

That's ok. Just stick a peeable bush down outside. XD

I am definitely a bare bones builder, and in my own hood, there are a lot of square houses Also, knowing what will work for my play style, I do tend to build similar stuff - and may have the bedrooms on the left in one house and on the right in another, but that's about that . For me, a double door at the front is a must, and I will gladly give up other things for that.

Since I really do not like moving families all the time, I often start with a square thing and will build on over time. Foundations are seldom used in my game, I like toddlers to get outside quickly, and, for the same reason, there is often only one level (although I may build a second floor later on if I feel like it).

I do like space for a garden too, and may put down a couple of garden plots immediately, and a fruit tree, if it is affordable. Then, of course, I like to use certain walls, mostly Poppet's and Klaartje's, for the outside look so that my hood is colorful.

I love building competitions, because they take me out of my comfort zone

I am so far built only 2 lots:
1. Empty graveyard
2. A box-type community lot what I am so proud of...

Well, I like a little inspiration when I plan to build houses. Typically, I'll check out various buildings depending on the style I'm going for. For example, I'm thinking about adding a CAS sim that lives in an old English style manor. So I've been checking out different manor pictures and floor plans. I use those floor plans as a guide, but never fully go by them. My University Center at Sim State University was a gumbo of pictures, floor plans, and my own ideas for sims.

I prefer to have my buildings fully built before placing furniture. Unless it's a business, I don't place down anything until I have the building standing and the roof on top. It usually have my sims buy the houses bare bones. Counters, sinks, toilets, showers, oven and fridge. I always forget lights. Sometimes I add washer/dryer combos that go right into the kitchen or near the bathroom. (I like smaller houses.)

As for clutter? I use it because it makes the houses look more lived in. I don't really add clutter at the beginning. I add clutter to the sim houses over time. My sims are on a longer life span, so it makes sense that over time they'd accumulate more stuff. Like my sloppy teens have snacks on their desk while an adult that writes novels has papers, books, a printer, and other junk on his desk.

Well
Depends
If I build for a certain sim I build to their desire.
If I build for this website Ibuild room per room.

If you want to see my clutter just look at my uploads

Oh come on Frogz .. everyone can build a box house and even a box house is better than a Maxis one. Give it a try, I'm sure you can do better than what you think you can. Actually, why don't you give Jo's contest a try you have nothing to loose and lots to again ... and it should be lots of fun

Landscapin is my weak area. I'm not very much of a plant person in real life and I think that transfers over into my game.

When you use a Maxis house, do you do any sort of remodeling to it or just use it as is? If I pick to use a Maxis made house I will always, and this is somethin I can say with absolute certainty, do some bit of remodeling. I can not name even 1 Maxis made house that I truly like as is.

In my recent experience with the homes I've uploaded, I seem to be using floor plans as merely reference to get a firm grasp on how the house will look. Due to the limitations these Sims sometimes face with their pathfinding and the fact that some particular rooms (like a large walk-in closet) are not necessary in the Sims' world, I'd have to decide how to design each room to where they are reasonably roomy and simple. This may include omitting, merging, or sectioning off certain rooms, which makes the house gradually appear less identical to its original floor plan.

I actually need some kind of reference to get started on a house, otherwise I'll end up with something boxy and boring. My creativity flows best after prevailing that first obstacle. This same mentality works in every artwork project I've done lately.

I always build to how I want the lot to feel. So for example, I want to build something tiny and floral, like an old country cottage. Or I want a spacious, modern feel to the lot.

Usually, I start to build and make up the layout as I go along. It probably shows in most of my builds! But as long as the lot feels right I'm not too worried, as sims can always alter the house or move if it isn't right for them. The overall effect is what I'm mostly concerned with, and lot functionality is amusing when it's not good, anyway!

Nothing wrong with using the default Maxi houses. I use them too, some of them are very playable and often saves me a lot of time when my Uni grads come home.

It starts with an idea, as in "Hey ... I want a Marine Biology Center for my Uni." (This makes sense in my game. I have a Marine Biology major. Wouldn't students have to go somewhere to learn Marine Biology?)

I then figure how many people will use this lot. Is this Uni known for Marine Biology, for instance? (Or if it's residential and I'm building a house, does the area have many families? Is the lot near a busier area of town? What income level am I thinking of? Am I dealing with low-lying terrain that can get beachy or waterlogged if I add a basement? Etc. I find the lot size that I hope will do the job. (Occasionally I mess up, and have to resort to Lot Adjuster.)

Space to put things I forgot is a plus ... I usually forget something!

I imagine what such a place will look like. What do I think of when I think of a Marine Biology Center? Do I want a more modern building, for instance? I'm going with modern. This is a newer campus building. If it's a residence, is the family more traditional or modern?

What focal point or points are going to be in this lot, if any? In the case of my Marine Biology center, one of the Biology buildings on my daughter's real-life Uni campus has this really interesting staircase, and I wanted to create one inspired by it. I would also imagine labs, fish tanks (OK, not all campus Marine Biology centers have fish tanks, but MINE does!), at least one classroom. Yes, most real-life centers have more than one, but Sims 2 classrooms are rabbit holes. I use the Sophie-David lectern in the classroom. The Vocational Training mod might also work. There would be places to research and study, and at least one admin office. A deco computer goes in the admin's office for obvious reasons. A couple of vending machines ... students get hungry and thirsty. A little landscaping. Landscaping is one of my weak points, I admit. I don't worry about that. I can always jazz it up later.

Very, very often, I use online floor plans to get an idea how to lay rooms out. I will also look at pictures of actual buildings. Now many campus buildings are not known for exquisite layout, though residences may be. First concern ... ROUTING. I'd rather use double staircases and wind up with a chunkier presentation than have stompy Sims. I used to use the Targas Ascension portals, but really try to avoid that now. It seems a little cheat-y to me. In the case of my MB building, the staircase allows for ample routing as is. Whew.

Then it's CC shopping, if need be. My daughter's campus building has these exquisite shell lights, ARE there any exquisite shell lights for this game? (There are, by the way.) I try not to get too out of hand with CC now, though.

Marine Biology ... I'm thinking of blues, whites and greens in this case ... calm colors. I'm thinking of a serene feeling. I'm not usually into "the feels" in real life, but I do find them useful in lot-building. Listening to music akin to what I'm feeling about the lot can help.

After days ... yes, days ... of re-arranging and re-purposing (packaging frequently in case I mess up ... I can go to the previous package) ... my Marine Biology Center or whatever lot I've been working on is good to go. I give it a name and plop it in a junk hood for testing. I always mess up. That's the good thing about junk hoods. I fix the mess-ups and the lot is good to go!

Then I use that lot over and over again. One of these sessions for a particular type of lot is enough! And I realized I should have used a HOUSE as an example, not a community lot. Oh, well. Same goes for both, and there are times I've converted community lots to houses, and vice versa. Sometimes, after all is said and done, I realize the building would work better in another context.

I prefer to build before move-in so I'm not training them to want to buy things and they won't be in the way of anything I want to place.

Sometimes I freestyle, sometimes I work from a plan. I always have a general idea of the effect I want going in, but sometimes it's only enough to answer the first couple of standard questions: car or no car? Foundation or no foundation?

Step 1: Change view from cutaway to roof view, bird's eye. I may switch back and forth between views during the build, but the first steps are easiest in this view.
Step 2: Conditional. If there is to be a driveway, I place it first; otherwise I can't be sure of leaving room for it. Without a driveway I can go straight to the layout of the rooms. If there's to be a foundation, I start from the front porch, which I lay solid, and then start outlining each room. It saves quite a bit of money not to lay a solid foundation! If no foundation, then I will either buy and arrange the base required furniture - this is an especially good dodge when the budget is tight; make sure you have all the essentials before you decide how big the rooms will be - or use the four-walls function to build each room, including any outdoor areas that will need to be roofed. I build from front to back, and if there's to be upper stories bottom to top. I may have to place some floors and stairs at this point to make sure the upper floors are functionally arranged and in order to place all the walls on the first floor where the foundation is hollow, but these floors and stairs are placeholders, not a commitment. Adjust floor plans on the fly to accommodate sim reality.
Step 3: Roof the sucker. Roofs are hard. You don't want to half-unbuild the house because you made something you couldn't roof acceptably. If on a budget, remember that hipped roofs are cheaper than gables because you have to paint gables.
Step 4: Remove unnecessary walls, like those enclosing the porches so you could roof them. Fine-tune interior layout where necessary - perhaps you'd rather have a half-wall than a full one between the kitchen and living areas, or perhaps the house should be open-plan, or the adjustment you made to the houseplan during layout creates an awkward corner that needs adjusting to prevent route failure.
Step 5: Place doors, beginning with the back, interior, and garage doors, ending with the front door. The first solid style decisions about the architectural details are made at this point. The choice between a sliding glass double door or a single-tile screen door in the back has implications down the line.
Step 6: Place arches, if any. I like arches between the "public" rooms for ease of circulation - between kitchen and dining room, between dining and living and stair halls.
Step 7: Place windows. This is best done in head-on view from roof level, to make sure doors and windows are balanced harmoniously in both exterior and interior view. Balance is more important than strict matching. When in doubt, double-hung sash windows work most anywhere, but I've got lots and lots of window styles which can be combined, mixed, and matched with my door styles depending on the desired end result.
Step 8. Floors. Time to remove provisional floors and start making color and texture choices. You can use the design tool to change doors and windows, but not floorings, so the floor treatment sets the tone for the room. Floor treatments tend to be consistent per floor; if I have a tiled entryway, it's likely to be the same tile as the kitchen and bathroom, and all the carpeted rooms on one floor will have the same carpet. Upstairs may have cheaper floor treatments, but if the carpet in the hall is purple then the carpet in the bedrooms is purple. I am peculiarly fond of rooms with contrasting borders, though. Don't forget exterior flooring, sidewalks and patio paving and so on.
Step 9: Wall coverings, beginning with the exterior. Most of my foundations are skirted to match the wall they support. Sometimes gables contrast, or the facade and sides have different wall treatments. Stair halls have consistent wall treatments between floors. It's a good place to use a wainscoted version with a full-wall version of a wallpaper. Bedrooms are individually characterized, often even when I don't have an intended family. I automatically think: "This is the girl's room" or "this is where the twins lair" and decorate accordingly.
Step 10: Stairs, if any.
Step 11: Miscellaneous build category. Porches and stairwells need railings. Sometimes you need columns, or you left room for a fireplace, or there's supposed to be a swimming pool, or you want a fenced garden, or whatever.
Step 12: Furnish to desired extent. When building on a budget, this is the time to save and check to see if you're even able to add any more furniture than what you originally built the walls around. I seldom fully furnish a house when building except for apartments and CAS households. The basic build has lighting (I switch to night view for that), counters, plumbing, closets if any, and appliances. When building for a known quantity, like when designing a house for a particular character in a neighborhood built for sharing, that I have to cheat money for anyhow, I'll go whole hog with curtains and deco and clutter, but otherwise it's just what you'd find on moving into a real house.
Step 13: Yardwork. This may involve a return to the fencing, if I haven't left sufficient room for the vegetable garden or something. Ponds, greenhouses, flower and vegetable gardens, trees, kennels, play equipment, and so on happen at this time, so I'm bouncing around between build and buy mode.
Step 14. Terrain paint. Those little touches that make such a difference to the final look. The grass under the play equipment is worn; there's a trail shortcutting the neat rectangle of the front yard from driveway to door, the grass is thinner in the shade circle of the tree in a temperate zone, but greener in its root spread in the desert as the roots draw water toward it; and Grandpa has carefully mulched the rosebushes.

Final save. (You saved after every step, right? And every time you got up to see what the cat was whining about? Good.) Check it out in neighborhood view. If it's too expensive, let it rest and come back to rethink the wall treatments, extent of furnishings, etc., in a day or two.

My first order for building is knowing what I want before I start, I must have more than one bathroom, if it is two story one bath on both floor.
I also like for the Sims to have their own bathroom one that can be enter into from their bedroom, this I like for their children as well, like a boy or girl to have their own.

I like my ground floor to have the kitchen and dining area near by follow by the living room space. I also like adding a game room, a computer room etc.
It depend on the lot size I may add a swimming pool outdoor I once added a pool indoor.

Actually it depend on where you live at in the "real world" where we as players may pattern our designs of house building according to how things are setup where we live at in the world.
Like in America or any European countries, even Asia, every place in the world where their kitchen or bedrooms or living area may be different.

I love decorating each room as I go a long while the idea of what I want in each room is still fresh in my head.
Outdoor I also add trees, flowers or what ever work for outdoor like a nice pond. A Garage or a pathway for a car is a must have

One time I build a house and forgot to add "Lights" that happen a long time ago, I was wondering why my Sims was walking around in the dark. Oh and please always be sure to add a fire alarm and security alarm.
I don't worry if it is too expensive for a Sims to live in, starter homes I never care for because all the cheaper Maxis objects in it they tend to break down faster like the sink, toilet even the cheaper fridge run out of food faster.
If the house is to expensive for a Sims to move in Gee I will be their "Fairy God Mother" and do a cheat called Family funds.

Not sure what you mean by this. I usually build the rooms and then add furnishings that I think fit a room itself rather than general house style. I would be type of person to put Victorian furniture in a modernist type home.



I "Go with the flow" and let house build itself. I have no plan really ... only time I ever have plan was when I recreate a TS1/TS3/TS4 house.



No. Oddly I focus my attention more on light switches and walk-in showers.



I usually create Sims to fit the house. Not other way so lot then Sim.



All my homes start with basic furnishing... When I say basic I mean only counters and lights and plumbing. Rest of house usually left unfurnished until I move Sim in.