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How do you build a house?
listles
Posts: 1,167 Member
I am a very bad builder but I want to become good builder but I always make my house boxy and too big so there is loads of space! Can you please tell me how you build houses so I can try your technique also is it wierd to go through ideal home and real home magazines to get ideas?
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I've set up a specific game save just for testing builds and techniques. You don't even need a Sim living on the lot to build, Edit Town mode is available at the start of any new game, all you need to do is go to the Options menu (... Button) and select Edit Town... The you just pick any empty lot or an empty house and click on the build mode button (hammer and saw crossed over a house). Using this method, you don't have to care about money and can build whatever you want. This is the only way to edit and create community lots (parks, beaches, bars, gyms etc.) since you cannot have Sims living on them.
If you want to edit an occupied house (somebody is alredy living in it) you must either evict them first and then edit the lot, or select them as your active household and then enter Build Mode from within Live Mode. Note that in this case you are limited by whatever funds the household has.
It took months before I got to the point where I don't need to count every little square to make sure I'm getting stuff right, I still find myself counting though because I like things perfectly centered.
It's basically trial and error.
Give a it go, you will soon discover your own style and the best way for you to build.
Don't be hard on yourself if you only build boxes (that's a called contemporary *winks*).
I don't tend to use EA pre-builds or the pre-builds of others for inspiration because I'm not a fan of clutter or the over use of "MOO" (move objects on) and many of those build do those things extensively. I also really like to stick to a particular color palette throughout the entire house. However, when I was learning to make things (like dormers and Victorians) I did study how EA made the houses in Moonlight Falls. Then I carefully recreated the houses by counting out the grid boxes and did it a few times till I was sure I had it down and then I was off to try and make my own houses.
The one thing Sims 4 has over Sims 3? Is that you can just move the entire room if you mess up instead of having to demolish and start over. Minor thing given everything else we have, lol.
After that you can save the house then place it on a larger lot if you want more space to work on the terrain.
It always helps when you imitate from real floor plans with furniture arrangements in it, so that you can know for sure how much space and what kind of shapes of rooms are needed. I did this a lot when I started to get obsessed with building and I even try to build houses from other games.
There a lot of building tutorials online. For example, I read these and found them very useful:
simension.de/category/sims-3-english-tutorials/
nene.modthesims.info/forumdisplay.php?f=609
Or you can watch tutorials and speed build clips on YouTube, which are also interesting and inspiring.
PS: When you are ready, you might want to try some custom contents (CCs) made by other players. Some players avoid using CC while others embrace it. There are a lot of gorgeous CC furnitures and building stuff that really complement the game contents, especially modern furnitures (I think) that the game lacks. I don't use CC in builds because I don't want to put too much pressure on my poor computer, but I did try it out for a period of time and it was awesome. Now I only watch pictures of beautiful houses with CCs built by other people lol.
Not just rooms. Ever wondered what the whole house would look like if it was turned around on the lot? Yeah, you can do that. In Sims 3 you'd be madly flinging around with the sledgehammer, but in Sims 4 you just go "lemmesee", select the whole house, rotate and plunk it back down in it's new orientation.
Yeah, you can move things easier.
But....you can't recolor (no color wheel, no create-a-pattern, very limited choices, most furnishing don't match....sighs). You can't have basements. You can't have the house on a foundation with a garage that has no foundation.
One thing, not really worth it to me. I do wish at times that I could move things like that in Sims 3 but then I consider everything I would have to give up and just hug my Sims 3 game even closer.
Back to the topic at hand....
I forgot to mention (but then remembered when I read it in a post above) that I will often build on 30x30 or smaller lots. The reason is that it forces me to build small. It also makes it easier to plunk that house down anywhere. If I want to make it into a ranch? Plunk it down on a bigger lot and add a stable. It makes the house more versatile. I never build on anything larger than 30x30 because then I'm hunting around for a big enough lot.
I hide my stuff in the basement as well, I also tuck their cars away in the basement if I run out of room above ground since I like to build on smaller lots. Basements will serve as rec rooms with a garage to the side.
If you are new to actually building houses in the Sims game, it is good to start with "training wheels" sometimes.
Instead of starting from scratch ... Take few existing lots and remodel them.
Rearrange some of the doors and rooms ... Redesign the exteriors and interiors ... Add a basement and so on.
Get familiar with the tools and how to manage the build before you jump off into a blank lot.
When you do start building a house from scratch ... Just take your time and do it right.
If you don't like the way something looks, or if the walkways don't work out ... Don't get frustrated.
Tear down and redesign what you need to ... And save often when you get to a point you are satisfied.
The best part is that the more you build, the better you get at building.
Where you may get some help from outside plans ... Visit the Creative Corner and look at what some people have built.
The stuff in the Creative Corner has been built in the game and to game parameters ... And you can get a lot of ideas.
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Now some of the houses that I had built are ones that I am familiar with the layout/floor plan of the house because I had been inside of them. Take for an example the house in my avatar is my childhood home. I did have a hard time trying to get it right but I finally did and I love the way the house turned out. The first house that I did build was my in-laws rambler house. I had even built the apartment building that I live in which is a rambler style building in TS2, so I tried to build it in TS3 but couldn't make it fit on the biggest lot there is. So I ended up just building the unit that we are in but I don't have any photos of it.
This is my in-laws house which I chose to do as it was the easiest to make. This is the front side of the house. It looks small compared to this photo but it has a lot of room on the inside..
This is the backyard of the house...
And this is the layout of the house. Over the years, my father-in-law added the 2 back rooms which is the family room and the bedroom and in-closed the carport to make it into a small living room where he watches his TV at. Now when I started building this house, I started building it from their master bedroom and worked my way around the house...
This here is my Grandparents trailer that they had when they were still living. I spent a lot of time there and think about their place quite often, so I decided to build it in TS3. I also built their place in TS2...
And this is the floor design of the inside...
And the other 2 houses you see in my signature are ones that I used my imagination with when I wanted to build a couple of houses for my sim that I made in CASt to look like an alien even though he is not a real one. So I wanted to build some houses that kind of looked like space-type homes...
http://store.thesims3.com/myWishlist.html?persona=lisasc360
My stories on this site:
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/991317/my-sims-stories/p1?new=1
Yeah I had a friend point that out after I took these pictures. So now I try to remember whenever I want to take a screenshot but sometimes I do forget every once in awhile...
http://store.thesims3.com/myWishlist.html?persona=lisasc360
My stories on this site:
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/991317/my-sims-stories/p1?new=1
He is a great builder and they have good tutorials. Plus he does really funny Let's Plays as he's a builder basically and has no idea how to play the Sims. He usually just builds. So when he does try to play he doesn't know what is going on half the time usually to funny results.
We all start out making boxes, since it was a Colonial inspired world there are many of those houses that were built so boxes as I'm just making the interiors better now that I know a little something more about it all.
Just wanted to point out that boxes can be a style, too.
@everybody-I've noticed most of you have added things the EA builders don't add like back doors to the houses.I've remodeled a few EA houses by adding the missing back doors to the house.
Looks a lot like someone I know. The reason why I don't need an avatar like that is that I have one of those cuties IRL, and that one looks very much like him. He likes sitting on my old desktop computer now and then. Haven't seen him bow out that far, unless I scratch him under his cheekbone.
As you can see from my Avatar, I also tend to prefer the Feline side of life.
Then I adjust the layout and furnish and decorate according to requirements of the particular game, or just because I may get fresh ideas as I go along. My houses are in a constant state of redevelopment.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuW44b3uCMtCSaq4gwC8EZg
outrun / blog / tunglr