In 2008 David Byrne & Brian Eno released an album called Everything That Happens Will Happen Today which had, on the cover, a very simmish house:
This image is from that album and can be seen in David Byrne's online shop: here.
That had to be built. So, this is my interpretation of that house.
There are two versions of the lot: one unfurnished and the other furnished. The unfurnished is closest to the original illustration, while the furnished lot has lots of stuff added both inside and out. The interior layout, of course, can only be implied from the illustration so I have made a set of rooms that works in the space. The layout of each version is slightly different to each other.
Build CC and the Unfurnished Lot
I aimed to make the house as CC free as possible but it was impossible to get that bay window without some help so I used FifthAce's bay window set. The set is not included so you will need to go and get those meshes (link below). I have included white (or white-ish) recolours of those windows so as to get white-painted windows to match the source and I used the Redbrick Maxis wall on the bottom of the windows to match the walling used on the exterior. I also used, but also haven't included, an invisible driveway recolour because the ground underneath the driveway has been paved to match the paths to the front door. I use roddyaleixo's invisible driveway cover though there are several versions out there and you might already have one of your own. Finally, I originally put a grill on the gable end wall (see source picture) but removed it for the download version. If you want it to be closer to the original, you might want to put that back.
There are four bedrooms and two bathrooms in the unfurnished version. The floors are pale wooden floors or white tiles with the Paste wallpaper throughout. There is one custom wall included: an adaption of the in-game Redbrick wall with stone plinth. I have rearranged the plinth here to work for a foundation which means the actual stone plinth bit is about three-quarters of the way up the wall. Looks terrible used as a regular wall but works on the foundation.
The Garage
The garage was attached to the house built on a foundation using the ConstrainFloorElevation cheat. As a result, there are two wall blocks which are distorted near the front door and near the back door. I have 'papered' the walls with the Redbrick walls and, of course, the pattern distorts at these two points. I decided to go with that because the brick pattern fitted the source and to change it would change the character of the house too much for my tastes. However, you may not like this so may want to change the walling at that point. A nice plain plaster would work well round the garage.
Furnished Version
The furnished version is fully furnished throughout. I removed one of the bathrooms downstairs to make room for a range kitchen at that point. There is a dining area and a large lounge. Upstairs there are four bedrooms and a bathroom. Currently, there is a master bedroom, a children's bedroom and then a nursery and one bedroom used as a study. While I was decorating, I felt overwhelmed at one point by the grey-ness of Maxis textures and couldn't go on using Maxis wallpapers. So I have included three wallpapers and one carpet (details below) of my own to relieve the horror. These are entirely optional.
Garden
Finally, I started on decorating the garden and got carried away so the furnished version of the lot has the beginnings of one of my trademark cottage style gardens at least at the back. You may want to do some weeding because the way I build these uses a lot of plants in odd places and sims can't easily garden them. I thought I'd leave it there for you to enjoy - at first. Either that or use a hack like Perfect Plants to keep the garden looking as it should. That, of course, makes the furnished lot price rather high.
Lot Size: 3x3
Lot Price (furnished): 110,428
Lot Price (unfurnished):40,292
Custom Content Not-Included:
- Excell Exteriors - Bay Window System by FifthAce2007 - here
- roddyaleixo invisible driveway recolour - here
Custom Content Included by me - included in the Sims2Pack files:
White recolours of FifthAce's bay windows:
- baywindow_main_white recolour
- baywindow_double_white recolour
- baywindow_single_white recolour
Walls
- Redbrick Foundation is a wall created to work on foundations. This is a rearrangement of Maxis textures to produce a wall texture that gives foundations a stone plinth (not suitable for regular walls)
- Grecal Russet Stripe Wallpaper using a texture from John Lewis (pattern is no longer available)
- Philadelphia Wallpaper also using a texture from John Lewis (pattern is no longer available) Link: John Lewis
- Yellow Polka Carpet - texture by me - and
- Yellow Polka Wallpaper with Wainscot - both from my Pale Pastel Polkadot Patterned Wallpapers
So here is a second batch of stockable foods, this time things from the Deli meat counter and butchers. I did far less fiddling around this time partly because there are fewer files and partly because there were fewer problems with the stuff I have.
(HChangeri disappeared from the sims community some time ago and, as far as I can tell Retail Sims is disappearing or unstable, anyway, for the moment, Retail Sims items are here)
First Shelf:
Tinkle Hot Dog Buns and Hot Dogs (these were at BPS but when that closed she moved to Sim Pearls though these files don't seem to be posted there)
Second Shelf:
Butcher Packaging from Retail Sims, as above
With the butchers meats already available, this rounds out the meat counter in your shops quite nicely I think. Found in Appliances>Miscellaneous
Posted by: maxon - 28-11-19, 12:26 AM - Forum: Food
- No Replies
In my quest to Britishize my game, I’ve given many an idle thought to creating typical high street shops such as a deli or butchers. The recent releases of stockable food items have interested me and I have downloaded a good few. I like things like hunks of cheese and ham joints being made useable by sims – they can buy them in sims’ community businesses, take ‘em home and put them in the fridge. Excellent.
However, not everything that’s been released has suited me. My personal preference – and I mean personal, I’m not pointing any fingers of blame or censure here – is for things that are saleable should look like things that would be saleable. A lot of the recent food items has seen a range of items made stockable, from what I would think of as in-store display items, e.g. large cheese truckles, to individual portions of stuff (slices of cheese) through things like made (inedible, decorative) meals on plates. In my sims world, I want food items that look like something sims might have legitimately purchased – in other words buyable portions of food items and ingredients, not display arrangements or plates of food. And then there’s large cakes – I want those as items the sims take home and scoff, with or without their family. But that’s another issue and I will look into making them edible at a later date.
Because this is how I want things, I found I weeded the available stockable items quite a bit and, though I’m pleased with what I have, there’s not so much of it now. I also have quite a bit of other food CC that I’ve downloaded over the years that I’d like to be stockable. So, inevitably, if I want more food and more believable buyable portions, I’ll have to do it myself.
Hence, here’s a batch of cheeses to start with. There are (file name first and short description):
Cheeseslice – a slice of Jong Belegan (which I believe means aged (moderately) cheese rather than being a specific type)
Cheeseslicebetterandbetter – wheel of Dutch cheese with a quarter cut out
Gouda – a truckle of Gouda (do they call them truckles in Holland?). You know, one of them red balls.
GoudaHalf – a half truckle or half ball of Gouda
MESH_Simal_BreakfastClutter_SlicedCheese – looks like a slice of camembert, made by Simal at T$R (boo) here I’ve never downloaded that set, I must have got the mesh through a downloaded lot I think.
TSM-Cheese-Zx_Ta – a conversion from The Sims Medieval (LJ here)
Whole Dutch Cheese – a wheel of Dutch cheese complete (the file definitely renamed)
Camembert - a small camembert (simlished - the file name definitely changed)
There are recolours for the cheese slice (3), the cheeseslicebetterandbetter (1), the whole Gouda (1), the Simal Camembert (2 recolours from me – Cambozola and Port Salut – see below) and a recolour for the TSM cheese (also from me – a Double Gloucester)
Double Gloucester - hur!
I’m not sure who made the Dutch cheeses or the Camembert.
I’ve set all the cheeses to appear in Kitchen Appliances>Miscellaneous as many people seem to like food stuff there in the catalogue (my personal preference is to make the items invisible to the catalogue and contained in a collection but I’ve altered the settings back for this upload).
Pricing – I’ve repriced everything and have developed a rough scheme based on the size of the items. The food value each gives is related to size and value. My guide is as follows
Large things (the large display things – none of which I include here, plus the big bits of cheese) around $50 or more
Medium things (medium sized stuff like small truckles, i.e. more than a single portion but not the whole cheese) $40-50
Small things (individual portions, like a slice of cheese) up to $35 or so
CAVEATS
As always, there are caveats to my downloads and in this case quite big ones. If you’re going to download these, please read what I’ve said about what I’ve done with the files. I’m an inveterate file-fiddler and I’ve made quite a few changes, some of which you might not like. I’ve made the files to suit myself. Having said that, I’ve also done what I think of as ‘corrections’ here and there.
First of all, I edit nearly all the files I use according to my own general principles, changing prices to be realistic (no more cheese priced at $4000 a piece thank you), setting price degradation (especially with food items - ending at 1 or 0 – my idea being that sims eat the stuff and after a while there’s nothing left), changing wants categories (I do not want a want for ‘buy a sculpture’ to be fulfilled by a piece of cheese) and so on. I’ve set all these files to have no want category, prices are according to the above scheme. I also routinely rename files. Often not by much – removing spaces and odd symbols mostly – though I will rename a file more descriptively if the name is just ‘cheese’. But if you already have some of these items, you may want to look for the original files manually since the new versions of the files may not overwrite. I have not changed the GUIDs.
More specifically, I’ve altered some particular things with these files:
With the soft cheese (Simal), I edited the mesh because it was sitting partially below any shelf or table it was placed on – it looked like it had sunk into the surface. It now sits properly on any surface it’s placed on. However, I also remapped this item because in the original, the rind portion of the mesh was mapped inside the cheese portion which meant the rind used the same texture as the cheese. With the original item, this looked ok but I wanted to make cambozola and that didn’t work at all. As it’s been remapped, it now draws its rind texture from an unused part of the texture. I fixed the original texture (and also include two new recolours – a cambozola and a Port Salut). However, if you have any recolours of the original mesh, they will no longer work (though you could always send them my way and I’ll try and fix them or let you have a copy of the mesh map).
L-R, top row: Simal Camembert cheese slice thing including my Cambozola and Port Salut recolours; CheeseSliceBetterandBetter showing the rotation; the half Gouda; Bottom: Cheese slice with its recolours; the whole Dutch cheese; the Gouda ball/truckle whatever.
With the half Gouda and the cut wheel (cheeseslicebetterandbetter), I have rotated the original meshes because I wanted the feature (cut) side facing outwards when you placed it on a shelf. I also rotated the Camembert so the name faced forward instead of backward. I found out a couple of important things.
First of all, the half Gouda would become partially transparent when placed in a see-through shelf like the Decra-chill. This was a problem with the original version because the alpha for the texture for the cheese bit was set to blend in the TXMT but you couldn’t see it so easily when it was turned round (unless you rotated it). Much though I was tempted to add a textured alpha channel to give the cheese surface some variation, I decided against it. I set it to none instead which dealt with the transparency issue – if I really want to have some detail there, it could just as effectively be added to the actual texture. I had to tell myself, it’s just a small object, a piece of cheese! Stoppit! I’ve no idea how I got to be soooo fussy. (note from later: Sigh – so it bugged me so much, I remapped it, just the cheese bit so there’s a bit more detail on the cheese face. This will not break any existing recolours).
With the cut wheel (cheeseslicebetterandbetter), there’s something weird going on with the mesh there. It’s very oddly constructed and I struggled to do the rotation. However, I did manage it and also tidied it up slightly. I also remapped this but not in a way that would break any original recolours so this should be ok. It was definitely odd that. Awkward.
I altered the shelf stacking size of all the objects. All the small stuff should pack six to a shelf, while the medium sized cheeses will place two to a shelf and that large piece of TSM cheese should sit resplendent by itself. I also shrank the medieval cheese slightly because it had a tendency to overlap the edge of a square when placed -not a good look in the Decra-Chill..
I actually did quite a lot of work on these didn’t I? They’re just bits of cheese, for heaven’s sake. But once I start looking at stuff, I get all picky and just have to fiddle about till I’m happy (or happier) with it.
I liked these MM Storybook windows by DoReMiFaSoLaTiDo at MTS: here. But there was an issue with the shorter version of the 2-tile window. It would make the game crash if you placed a copy of the original 2-tile window and then tried to pick it up again. It was discussed on the download thread - several people had the issue - and it was suggested that it was a GUID conflict but I was sceptical. "That's not what happens with GUID conflicts" I thought.
Turns out, it was a GUID conflict (shows what I know).
So I fixed it - new GUIDs for that window and it seems to work. It also seems to me that someone else might have fixed that elsewhere - nice set and so on - but I've not seen them and I thought I'd upload anyway. If anyone continues to have problems, please let me know.
It's only the shorter 2-tile window that was the problem so I've only uploaded the two files for that (the straight shorter 2-tile window and its diagonal). If you want the rest, you'll have to go to MTS and get the other files from the original download thread. Just let my files overwrite the original files - I didn't change the name.
This was my submission for the July 2015 Monthly Around the World theme at MTS: a custom made Pagoda in the Shadows lot which is intended to be for use in a custom eastern vacation neighbourhood. It’s meant to be a prettier alternative to the standard EAxis Pagoda in the Shadows. In addition to the regular installation of this lot, there are a couple of steps to make to turn it into a proper vacation secret destination - please see the instructions given below.
The legendary Pagoda in the Shadows is said to be found far from the town of Takemizu on the edge of the mountains and forests, but is hidden in the mists. If your sims can find it, they will come into a small clearing amongst the lush vegetation where there is a tea house is set beside a beautiful pond. Your sims can perform a tea ceremony there and perhaps a mysterious Wise Old Man will join them as they sip their fragrant jasmine tea. Who knows, maybe he will reveal the secret of the Dragon Legend.
The lot is mostly CC free except for the lovely Japanese fences, columns and bench by TheJim07 (links below) and thanks must go to him for his liberal sharing policy and, not least, his lovely stuff!
Installation and Warning
The lot is currently just a regular community lot and can be installed in the usual way. I left it like this because I thought downloaders might like to edit the lot before it takes its final form in your game. There are a couple of extra steps to make this into a secret vacation lot which you need to follow (given below). Also a warning – please take heed. The lot was made in an otherwise empty AGS slot and is clean and healthy. You will require both BV (obviously) and OFB for the lot to appear as intended. OFB because the custom CC by TheJim07 was cloned from OFB originals so won’t appear unless you have OFB.
WARNING
This is intended to become a custom secret vacation lot – the Pagoda in the Shadows for the Eastern BV holiday destination. However, downloaders should remember that there can be only ONE secret vacation lot in each vacation destination. Thus, there is No Point trying to install this lot as a secret destination lot in the default Maxis Takemizu eastern vacation destination as Maxis destinations come preloaded with the original versions of the lots. So:
THIS LOT CAN ONLY BE USED IN A CUSTOM VACATION DESTINATION
Luckily, the game will not allow you to install it if you already have a Pagoda in the Shadows in your Eastern vacation location since you cannot have two lots with the same name. Thus, when you try to place the lot, the game will suggest a modified name to you (e.g. Pagoda in the Shadows 001).
INSTALLATION
To install this lot, follow these steps:
1. Install the lot normally:
Go to your custom Eastern Vacation neighbourhood (it doesn’t have to be called Takemizu village by the way) and find a place where you want to put the lot. Choose carefully and make sure you will remember where it is because the lot will become invisible at the end of the installation process. The lot looks better, btw, if surrounded by trees so you might want to place some neighbourhood trees (the ones that don’t disappear when you play) around the lot which will help you mark the spot where the lot is located. Most of the pictures here are without surrounding trees so you can see clearly what the lot is like.
2. At the moment, it is just a regular community lot (and you can use it like that if you want). If you want to change anything about the lot, this is the moment to do it. Go in, fiddle about as normal, save and then exit the lot. You might want to pack it at this stage so you have a copy for later. You might also want to delete the copy left behind in the lot bin from the installation because of what happens next. Skip this step if you don’t want to change anything
3. Go back into the lot once you are happy, get the cheat box up (press Ctrl-Shift-C together). In the box, type:
changelotzoning secretvacationlot
just like that.
DO NOT SAVE AT THIS POINT - the save option should be greyed out now but even if it isn’t DON’T press it.
4. Exit the lot and return to neighbourhood view
5. Pick up the lot and put it into the lot bin using the lot-binning tool
6. Replace the lot in the spot you have chosen once again – it should disappear once you have placed it (if it doesn’t, you missed something or spelt the cheat wrong). Or if you can’t see what the issue might be you can try the alternative SimPE method (given below)
7. The lot is now ready to use. Once your sims have found the map, they should be able to visit the lot as normal. You should find the Wise Old Man hovering on lot when you arrive (he’s usually over by the tea table). Do the usual things: get a sim to make tea, talk to him, do tai chi with him, fish etc. etc. If he seems a bit reluctant to come out into the open to fish or do tai chi, move your sim over to the open space, click on him and call him over. The one tile bridge can restrict movement a bit (it looks better aesthetically which is why it’s narrow). Once you build up enough relationship points with him, he will tell your sims the Dragon Legend (see pics)
Alternative SimPE method
1. Once the lot is in place in your neighbourhood, exit the game and load up SimPE
2. Load your neighbourhood and sub-hood – that is (see picture), choose your neighbourhood in the neighbourhood browser but use the drop down box on the dialogue box to get the right sub-hood. I called my test custom BV location for this example New Eastern Place but you can call it whatever you want
3. Once the hood has loaded, go to
- Lot Description (top left hand box – see picture 1*)
- Find your lot and click on it (top right hand box – 2*). You should get the lot details in the bottom box as shown
4. Find the Lot Type drop down menu – choose VacationHidden – 3*. This makes the lot into a vacation secret lot
5. Find the U01 number and add 0x00000010 to it – 4*. In that case the number would become 0x00002041 (instead of 0x00002031). This hides the lot from view. Commit and save.
I was making - a few months back now - a pet bed for the Pets Theme at MTS and, well, life got in the way. I'm still not finished but I wanted my pet theme sticker so I thought I'd post these which are some recolours for the Comfy Pillow Pet Bed that came with Pets. My new pet bed is slaved to the Comfy Pet Pillow and I was going to release them together. But nevermind - look out for that coming.
There are two sets of recolours
a plain set - blue-green, light green, pale blue, pink, yellow, orange, dark gray, plum cord, red (dark pink really). I wanted some alternatives to the bright (and sometimes garish) original colours
a set in plaid patterns - blue-green, bright red, burberry (hur!), green, orange, pink, red, yellow - because ... plaid. y'know
They have a dirty state and everything.
The plaid set has some free patterns taken from Naldz Graphics
I was in the MTS TS2 forums a while back swapping ideas about favourite picture sources when Amura mentioned Luiza Vizoli. Lovely art. I wanted to make something for the seasons theme and I whipped up a long narrow picture mesh to take four lovely paintings by Luiza Vizola called Seasons which can be seen here.
These are gorgeous paintings and Vizoli seems to be fond of making triptychs, quadritychs and more - so the picture shows how the paintings are ideally displayed - going winter, spring, summer and fall - though each one is lovely on its own.
They can be found under Decorative>Paintings and cost $900
This was my contribution to the Maternity and Beyond theme at MTS. It's a set of 10 recolours of the painting Albert's Discordia which came with Apartment Life. It is found in Decorative>Wall Hangings and is priced at $1400.
The images are from a website called Petit Collage which is a company which makes delightful wooden toys and decorations for babies, toddlers and children. These images were from their 0-2 years range of wooden pictures for nursery walls - though the company no longer sells them. The images are so cute though.
The pictures are in two groups. The first has a theme of transport with trains, planes and boats etc.
The second has the theme of natural world (though how natural a mermaid is is debatable).
Both sets of files are clearly labelled so you can delete any you don't want.
So this is part three of a set of things for my Arcady Ice Cream Parlour. I made these so that there are some useful recolours of objects which might fit a shop selling my ice creams. There are four sets of recolours here. Please read down the page for information about required meshes and items included. The other parts of the set can be found here:
Awnings
I have created a set of four awning recolours matching the wallpapers for my Arcady Ice Cream Parlour. These are recolours of Windkeeper's Awning Superset which can be found here. You must have the original meshes from Windkeeper to use these recolours. It's TSR unfortunately.
Pictures
I have created a set of four recolours of Shoukeir's Painting 36 which can be found here. I have included the base mesh with the recolours here so you don't need to go to Shoukeir's archive to get it but the set of recolours for that painting are very nice and you might like to have them.
Shop Signs
There are two recolours of the plain OFB shop signs to match the paintings and bucket design of my ice creams (the wording colour is picked up).
Bistro Table and Chairs
To be honest, I am not sure about these recolurs. I, personally, don't think the design gells well with the rest of the set but I finally decided to include them in this upload because, in a technical sense, the recolours came out well. It was a new technique/process to me for recolouring and I like the design - I just don't think they quite fit. But you might like them anyway. Maybe I'll make myself some nice plain recolours instead.
Collection File
Finally, I added a collection file which includes the object recolours and the walls and floors (if you have them) so you can find them more easily.
Additional Credits:
Windkeeper and Shoukeir for the meshes of course. Most of the images and textures were created by me but I got the textures for the tables and chairs off the net and then messed around with them in Paintshop Pro.
I wanted to contribute something to the Performing Arts theme at MTS, so I went back to some lovely images I had collected a while back and made them into some recolours for the in-game Nightlife Pineapple Posters (I've made quite a few of these now!).
Please note - recolours of the Pineapple poster need the CEP and you will need to have Nightlife - the Pineapple poster came with that EP and was not originally recolourable.
The Pineapple poster costs $850 and is found in Decorative>Wall Hangings
There are six posters: two for dance; two for music and two for theatre.
Dance
Music
Theatre
The images used are from the following brilliant creators:
Ballerinas - are from one of my favourite commercial graphic artists Eleanor Grosch. I don't quite know why I love her work so much but it really speaks to me. I think these two ballerinas are very pretty,
Piano and Violin - are from The 1Gallery. I love that random, rainbow colours silhouette effect.
Theatre Masks - the regular theatre mask image is also from 1Gallery (as above) and that looser intriguing, emotional and stylish interpretation of the comedy-tragedy theatre masks is from Marion Bolognesi.
All worth your time to go and have a look at their sites - some lovely images there. I recommend strongly.
