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  • MiaSkywalkerMiaSkywalker Posts: 3,436 Member
    edited February 2017
    Nothing stu-...silly (ah, now I understand the bolded letter LOL) about it! Different places have different architecture features :)

    A dugout basement is where you put a foundation in, delete all the interior foundation pieces leaving just a perimeter, then sink the ground in the middle to a full wall height and put a basement inside the foundation walls. There's a tutorial at the bottom of this page:
    carls-sims-3-guide.com/buildedit/houses/multilevel/

    A walk-out basement is the same idea, but the house is on a hillside so part of the basement is exposed as wall. It's also known as a daylight basement. I live in Washington state, we have these kinds of basements all over the place!

    I'm putting a dug-out basement on ciane's build. It's a way to basically get a lot of free space, you already paid for the foundation walls, sinking the ground is free, now you have a whole additional floor for nothing!
    Bolding a letter gets around their silly censorship. It's the only way you can actually say the name of their OWN Booty heels from the Sims store. Silly, that they would censor a word that is used in one of their own products!

    You can actually get a FREE LEVEL? I had no idea! Basements using the tool are actually a bit on the expensive side, which is why I generally wait until my family has made a bit by painting or writing before I build one for them.

    I have often used an outside staircase to a basement, but I've never figured out how to make it work on a slope so you could actually have a door from it. With the basement tool I think you can't do that, because, iirc, I think it levels the ground for you automatically. (Which is actually a problem if you have a pond or moat on your lot.)

    I am going to HAVE to play with this sometime! After I finish my current build, of course. I'm not entirely sure what you're describing about deleting the "inner walls" of a foundation and just having the outline, so I'm obviously going to have to read that tutorial carefully. :)

    We don't have basements here because of earthquakes. Because we don't tend to have the weather related disasters that some places have (hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, etc.), we don't need them anyway. Homes here are generally built with very open kinds of architecture, and often a lot of arches. Windows are made to fall outward instead of inward, although everyone who grows up here is trained to move away from windows and stand under an archway if you can.
    (When I lived in Seattle, there was an earthquake there one day, and since those didn't generally happen there, my colleagues all ran to the windows to look out, while I crawled under my desk. When the earthquake was over, and I saw them all at the windows, my first thought was, "Darwin." That's always my first thought when I see someone do something so incredibly stupid that you know it's going to get them killed someday.)
  • KgaffKgaff Posts: 1,614 Member
    @MiaSkywalker I have made some changes for you

    First change is to the fence surrounding the stable. I went with this one because it looks sort of like stacked stones.
    Screenshot-34_zpsxnakehb5.jpg

    I also changed up the kitchen, I took out Gretel's stove and went with the coal burning stove and added the baker's oven, I also got a little creative with the colors ;) There are some added clutter pieces too like the churn and a water bucket I found.
    Screenshot-33_zpsf13nblw7.jpg

    Here's what I have so far outside, I had a huge hay bale at the side of the house and decided to change it to a wood pile
    Screenshot-38_zpsn82cti3n.jpg

    Screenshot-37_zpsza8narmc.jpg

    There are more changes I have made but haven't done pics yet. I think you will like it :)

    I really love the light in Dragon Valley, it makes everything look so good!! :)

    I'm working on the upstairs now and will get some pics tomorrow.
  • creativemetaphorcreativemetaphor Posts: 1,543 Member
    @MiaSkywalker Yeah, we don't get a lot of earthquakes of note up here, but apparently we're sitting on one of the biggest faults in the whole US. When it goes you can pretty much kiss the NW goodbye. LOL

    Anyway, here's an example of a house I did for a friend (hence the name hehe) which uses a foundation to create a basement. The foundation walls are only around the exterior of the house leaving the center open to build in. So instead of using the tool to drag a whole rectangular foundation beneath your house you would put in the foundation in single width sections around the exterior, leaving the center open. (or, sometimes easier to drag a full foundation and delete the central part for the same end effect). The basement piece creates a 'double wall' effect, where you can hide the slope of the ground so the ground on either side is flat and the slope happens entirely in that one-square-wide section.

    l0wu_original.jpg

    You can then add interior walls and doors and such and make a full floor. This also shows where I did some window wells - deleting one foundation square and adding a wall with a window. You see the slope of the ground there but you get some natural light in.

    Here's the exchange link if you want to explore it a bit. :)
    Suppi's AI Palace

  • creativemetaphorcreativemetaphor Posts: 1,543 Member
    @Kgaff That's brilliant! Very true to your reference pic! I love the breezeway :smile:
  • cianeciane Posts: 16,996 Member
    edited February 2017
    Looking great, @Kgaff!

    Nice build, @creativemetaphor. I left a wreck behind.

    So, while I've been working on the lot (and sneaking outside to enjoy our sunshine), you've all had a really nice chat and I didn't get to answer any questions.

    Here's what it's looking like right now. I of course have only just started, but if you see something you'd rather was different let me know.
    screenshot-272.jpg

    I'm glad that everyone is learning and relearning things. That's what this round robin is all about.

    I remember reading that you thought basements were expensive, @MiaSkywalker, and I meant to question you about that when I logged back in.

    I use the basement tool to make basements on homes without foundations for starters all the time. It's only the walls that you add that cost money.

    I also use the foundation to build a house upon. Then I delete all the center foundation and one outside piece. You have to have an "open" space in order to use the stairs to "dig" down. Put in three sets of four steps and you'll be down far enough that the foundation is wall height.

    I like to add windows to my basements too. So, I can delete foundation sections and put in a wall to add a window there. The space outside that windowed wall will be severely sloped and I add some tall flowers or flowering shrubs there to fill in the hole.

    I find basements to be the best use of space. :mrgreen:
  • creativemetaphorcreativemetaphor Posts: 1,543 Member
    @ciane That's looking great!! I love that brick you're using, and that porch is enviable :mrgreen:
  • MiaSkywalkerMiaSkywalker Posts: 3,436 Member
    Kgaff wrote: »
    @MiaSkywalker I have made some changes for you

    First change is to the fence surrounding the stable. I went with this one because it looks sort of like stacked stones.

    I also changed up the kitchen, I took out Gretel's stove and went with the coal burning stove and added the baker's oven, I also got a little creative with the colors ;) There are some added clutter pieces too like the churn and a water bucket I found.

    Here's what I have so far outside, I had a huge hay bale at the side of the house and decided to change it to a wood pile

    There are more changes I have made but haven't done pics yet. I think you will like it :)

    I really love the light in Dragon Valley, it makes everything look so good!! :)

    I'm working on the upstairs now and will get some pics tomorrow.
    Oh wow! Like @Kgaff said, that really looks like the reference pic, all right. It's beautiful!

    I use the churn and wooden bucket a lot, too. That kind of clutter gives a nice medieval look. :) Not really all that useful for modern builds, at least! Certainly I don't know anyone who uses a butter churn! :lol:

    I agree, the light in DV is very nice. I think that one of the problems I've had with some of my medieval builds looking too flat is that I've always built in small build worlds, and I may have a lighting mod that's too harsh. I may want to change that. Looking at your pictures certainly encourages me to, because yours look much warmer than mine.

    Ah, the coal burning stove! Then there are a total of four stoves that look good in medieval builds. I've used that one, but I hadn't thought of it when I listed the ones I use. I also hadn't listed the Retronator, because I had forgotten about that one as well, but those two - and the two I mentioned earlier - all work really well in medieval builds. We just have a variety to work with. And I noticed you included the baker's oven. Yay! I love having my Sims make pies. My favorite is chocolate, of course, because chocolate. :)

    Putting the hay in the yard and the wood pile by the house is a good choice. There are two different wood piles (maybe 3? Can't recall) available, and I vary them up in build to build. They need their wood, though, if they're going to cook. ;)

    I love the little touches, like the bushes and the tree. I always forget to add stuff like that, but they really help make it look more natural.
  • MiaSkywalkerMiaSkywalker Posts: 3,436 Member
    edited February 2017
    Btw, I've removed @hannahc1023 from the list of participants. Both @ADWilson and I messaged her several days ago, and gave her until this morning to contact us. She never did, so we have to presume that either she has forgotten about it, or is no longer interested.

    ETA: She isn't going to be excluded from future RRs. Since it's right at the beginning like this, we're just figuring life got in the way. She can join in a later one, presuming we do this again. (Which I think we will.)
    Post edited by MiaSkywalker on
  • MiaSkywalkerMiaSkywalker Posts: 3,436 Member
    Anyway, here's an example of a house I did for a friend (hence the name hehe) which uses a foundation to create a basement. The foundation walls are only around the exterior of the house leaving the center open to build in. So instead of using the tool to drag a whole rectangular foundation beneath your house you would put in the foundation in single width sections around the exterior, leaving the center open. (or, sometimes easier to drag a full foundation and delete the central part for the same end effect). The basement piece creates a 'double wall' effect, where you can hide the slope of the ground so the ground on either side is flat and the slope happens entirely in that one-square-wide section.

    You can then add interior walls and doors and such and make a full floor. This also shows where I did some window wells - deleting one foundation square and adding a wall with a window. You see the slope of the ground there but you get some natural light in.

    Here's the exchange link if you want to explore it a bit. :)
    Suppi's AI Palace
    I am really going to have to try doing this at some point. Thank you for the insight! Now I've learned something today. :)

  • creativemetaphorcreativemetaphor Posts: 1,543 Member
    @MiaSkywalker Have fun! Took me quite a bit of trial and error at first to work out the kinks, but now it's a pretty easy addition to my builds, so go easy on yourself if you don't get it right away!

    Looks like we're all learning a lot already, so your thread is absolutely living up to its purpose! <3
    And I noticed on Hanna's profile she hasn't posted in several weeks, so perhaps life just got in her way and she hasn't been able to come back.
  • MiaSkywalkerMiaSkywalker Posts: 3,436 Member
    ciane wrote: »
    I'm glad that everyone is learning and relearning things. That's what this round robin is all about.

    I remember reading that you thought basements were expensive, @MiaSkywalker, and I meant to question you about that when I logged back in.

    I use the basement tool to make basements on homes without foundations for starters all the time. It's only the walls that you add that cost money.

    I also use the foundation to build a house upon. Then I delete all the center foundation and one outside piece. You have to have an "open" space in order to use the stairs to "dig" down. Put in three sets of four steps and you'll be down far enough that the foundation is wall height.

    I like to add windows to my basements too. So, I can delete foundation sections and put in a wall to add a window there. The space outside that windowed wall will be severely sloped and I add some tall flowers or flowering shrubs there to fill in the hole.

    I find basements to be the best use of space. :mrgreen:
    I could swear they were. Expensive, I mean. I must be remembering wrong. Sadly, I am starting to have memory problems, so that's not new for me. So, if they're not, then a basement is a good way to add room without costing much. Hm... something to keep in mind. Maybe I'll add a basement to the one I'm working on right now. Would be easy enough, with some minor changes, I think. :) I don't think I'll be able to do it the way you show... although maybe I will, at that. Or is it too late once the actual house is in place?

    That's such a neat looking house! Are you combining both a hipped and gabled roof on the top? It looks good like that.

    I love the way you have the house inside a slope. That's something I've never really been able to do. My current build is the closest I've ever come to it, by using stilts over a pond. Did you have to use CFE to do that? Or is it some other technique? (Like the one we've been talking about with the basements.)
  • cianeciane Posts: 16,996 Member
    edited February 2017
    @MiaSkywalker - You can add a basement with the house already in place. Of course it's easier to do it right away. The basement tool method adds no problems to the house unless it's on a foundation. Then you have the challenge of a landing or extra long stairs using the ALT button. You have only to delete the section of foundation where the stairs go. Deleting foundation will delete the floor tile above it. If something occupied that space, it will be deleted too. So you have to move things hanging on a wall there even though the wall stays.

    Yes, I have a hipped and a gable on top. I like mixing those two styles. I had lots of fun with this roof because of that one section on top sticking out farther than the other and I needed to fill in the gap.

    Regards CFE... yes, I did have to use it. I built up a hill and smoothed it. Then after placing the foundation from the tallest point out, I placed a wall down on the lot. I used CFE and the leveling tool to bring the foundation down to wall height. That should have been all I needed it for, but, of course, it wasn't. Stairs and even foundations can be picky. So a few times I turned CFE back on to level terrain. As long as you only turn it on for one thing and turn it back off again right away, all is well.

    I use CFE only when I have to. It's great for attaching foundation to walls when adding a garage to a house on a foundation. It isn't needed at all for digging out a basement and I wouldn't have needed it if got the hill at the exact height needed. (Yeah, that wasn't go to happen.)
  • ADWilsonADWilson Posts: 6,755 Member
    Wow! Lots of progress has been made since I last peeked in here.
    LOVING the sharing of tips & tricks/advice and am learning quite a bit :)

    Speaking of sharing...

    @creativemetaphor
    Have been able to do a little bit today and wanted to share a couple of pictures & get some feedback.

    Am liking how the front of the school is turning out.
    Screenshot-189_zpsoov7bqnr.jpg

    Fiddling with the stands. What do you think of the special box seating for this side?
    Screenshot-190_zpsmsn9nvnm.jpg

    The soccer field has two rows of seating now & I'm really loving how the ticket booth turned out.
    Screenshot-191_zpslupmuarc.jpg

    What do you think?

    A couple of questions:
    1. Do you own The Now & Then Century Manor venue? Saw some shutters that would look great on the second floor.
    2. Are there particular colors you like or don't like? Not ready for CASting, but want to start considering palettes.

    I'm sure I'll have more questions and pictures as things continue moving along!
  • creativemetaphorcreativemetaphor Posts: 1,543 Member
    edited February 2017
    @ADWilson I squeed!!!! OMG that looks so awesome! <3 I love the second tier seating! That football field/track is so cool :mrgreen: The school itself is coming along nicely, also!

    Oops missed the questions there! lol
    I... think I do? Yes. Go ahead and use them.
    I love earthy colors for Monte Vista. Basically, the pallet that's already there - stucco, terracotta, reds and browns and whites, etc.
    Post edited by creativemetaphor on
  • creativemetaphorcreativemetaphor Posts: 1,543 Member
    @ciane @MiaSkywalker Very odd, I just tested the actual "basement" tool and it cost me 25 per square.



    Also @ciane, have more pictures for you to look at! I got the ALT to work for putting those blasted stairs in!! w00t

    Let me know what you think of the colors, for the living furniture I'm currently just emulating those of the reference house but can easily change them to other colors if you prefer. (also note I haven't recolored everything yet)

    I also rearranged how the basement is situated so it's walk-out on the side instead of fully sunken. I am currently a little over 30,000, due partly to some of my furniture choices. The modern Scandinavian look ain't cheap :mrgreen: I may ditch some of the decor or go cheaper on some items... but not quite yet.
    Screenshot-10_zpsaqsl3e1e.jpg
    Screenshot-11_zps5ufxs5x5.jpg
    Screenshot-9_zpsovtt5g3t.jpg
    Screenshot-7_zpsnitqfm4k.jpg
    Screenshot-13_zpsr06q2cch.jpg


    And last shot just to show off the view :smiley:
    Screenshot-14_zpsgqvio574.jpg
  • ADWilsonADWilson Posts: 6,755 Member
    edited February 2017
    I squeed!!!! OMG that looks so awesome! <3 I love the second tier seating! That football field/track is so cool :mrgreen: The school itself is coming along nicely, also!

    Oops missed the questions there! lol
    I... think I do? Yes. Go ahead and use them.
    I love earthy colors for Monte Vista. Basically, the pallet that's already there - stucco, terracotta, reds and browns and whites, etc.

    Super HAPPY that you like what you see!

    Here's a little sneak peek of what I've done so far this morning...
    Screenshot-187_zpsvfqrwmt0.jpg

    Chose school colors for Scuola Metafora's Mighty Marsupials (took inspiration from one of the UNI posters), hope you like the names & the colors.

    Earth tones works really well with Monte Vista & was actually what I had in mind for the exterior, but if you prefer something different from what I used please let me know.

    Ended up not using the shutter from the venue because I found a non-store window I liked and then also luckily stumbled across a non-store shutter. Because of sizing & placement, I wasn't able to get three windows upstairs and tried to make two look purposeful instead of "Oh, no! I can't do what I really want to do so what in the SimWorld do I do now?" It looks better than I thought it might. What do you think?
    Post edited by ADWilson on
  • cianeciane Posts: 16,996 Member
    It looks great, @ADWilson!

    Ditto @creativemetaphor! I love the way the building came out and the bedroom loft is awesome too. Love the soft blue green color. It's nicely accented by blue too.
  • creativemetaphorcreativemetaphor Posts: 1,543 Member
    @ADWilson It's beautiful!! And yes, those windows look very *purposefully* placed! :lol: I love it! It's the perfect aesthetic for Monte Vista! <3


    @ciane I'm so glad you like the colors! I was waffling between using those or going with a pale, almost 'bamboo' green shade. (though let me know if you want that.)

    After I posted the pictures, since of course one does not just 'stop' building in the Sims, I went on to add lights (whoops!), and landscaping, and then "Oh, that would look beautiful here, and gee this corner needs a little something, and hmmm, that wall really wants an interest, and oh, oops, I just added 10,000 to the cost" :confounded:
  • ADWilsonADWilson Posts: 6,755 Member
    It's beautiful!! And yes, those windows look very *purposefully* placed! :lol: I love it! It's the perfect aesthetic for Monte Vista! <3

    Fantabulous! LOVE knowing that it works for your game :mrgreen:

    More questions:
    1. Do you have the Orange Tree? It comes with Grandpa's Grove.
    2. Do you have the Baker's Station? It comes with the Deliciously Indulgent Bakery.

    In case you're curious about this round of questioning, am currently looking at the school garden (situated outside the science classroom) which in my mind serves two purposes ~ science/gardening experiments and fresh food for the cafeteria.
  • ADWilsonADWilson Posts: 6,755 Member
    Thanks, @ciane :)

    Everyone is making beautiful builds! I will definitely be snagging more than the ones 'marked as mine' ;) lol
  • creativemetaphorcreativemetaphor Posts: 1,543 Member
    @ADWilson
    More questions:
    1. Do you have the Orange Tree? It comes with Grandpa's Grove.
    2. Do you have the Baker's Station? It comes with the Deliciously Indulgent Bakery.

    Love what you're doing! I *do* have Grandpa's Grove, I just got it when it showed up on DD a few days ago, I haven't even installed it that's how recent it is! :lol:
    I do not have the Baker's Station *sadface* But it is on my list to get sooner or later. Go ahead and put it in, it won't load but it'll be there for your vision and when I get around to getting the Bakery I can re-add it!

  • MiaSkywalkerMiaSkywalker Posts: 3,436 Member
    After I posted the pictures, since of course one does not just 'stop' building in the Sims
    ^^ This! Particularly when you're still working on it. :) One of the reasons I took SO MANY pictures of my current build (so far) is that I would take a picture, then see something I had missed and needed to change. I would change it, then take another picture (intending to delete the first, but then forgetting). :)

    I also don't know how many times I've tweaked something "just a little bit more" because I would find something-or-other that I wanted to change. I think that's why for so long I never uploaded anything to the Exchange; I just wasn't satisfied with anything.

    Finally, though, you end up having to decide "it's done" and then upload it. :)
  • creativemetaphorcreativemetaphor Posts: 1,543 Member
    @MiaSkywalker
    Finally, though, you end up having to decide "it's done" and then upload it. :)

    I'll be done when the deadline says I am :lol:

    But yeah, I also tend to throw in a lot of things, then go back over it and take out what isn't needed, what looked good at first but now doesn't go with something else I do want to keep, thinning out plants to try to make the landscaping more realistic... it'll go back down again when I'm done, though it does fluctuate so much in the middle.

    After I put the pictures up I realized I had lost one of the windows somewhere along the way and had to add that back in. And when I flipped the day/night toggle is when I remembered I needed to add lights! All in all, I was up until 11:30pm (which is WAY too late!! but, but, but... build/buy!) But I'm really happy with how it's turning out! A lot closer to my idea than I thought I'd be able to get. Just need to be mindful of costs and weigh the needs vs. wants.
    This was after I had to rebuild the house from scratch because for some )%*@#( reason I saved after I killed the sim (even though I had saved it already in a good state, I wasn't even thinking and overwrote the good save!) and then I couldn't get rid of the Grim Reaper smoke and the smoke I think was messing up trying to re-add the platform for the deck, then the saved copy wouldn't place on a new lot and I was about ready to throw the %*( computer out the window, and all this after I had to load Sims twice because the first time even though I *made sure* my EPs were checked it didn't load the EPs... it took so long just to get into the game I might as well have just gone to bed and done nothing at all if I didn't stay up too late!
  • KgaffKgaff Posts: 1,614 Member
    edited February 2017
    Hi guys! Looks like there has been lots of progress! I'm almost done with @MiaSkywalker 's medieval stable/house, I just need to think of a name for it.

    @ADWilson Your school is coming out great! I like the way you did the track and field, the whole thing melds with the soccer field. At first glance it looked like one lot. :)
    @creativemetaphor Your house is looking really good. I think your proportions of windows and wall is spot on. I love that view you have too!
    @MiaSkywalker That's a great use of those skylights! I never know what to to do with them, I usually just make a sculpture out of them :)

    @ciane, it's looking good, but, I do have one request. Do you have the "The Sims Classic Return to Three Lakes Set"? There is a column in it that might look real nice for that fabulous wrap around porch. It's called "The Sims Classic - Heimitey" cost is 150. I've not used it yet but I think it looks nice MOO'ed onto the the Gentle Fence AND it's recolorable. Here's a picture with a couple of other choices.
    Screenshot-48_zpsvurfb24z.jpg
  • cianeciane Posts: 16,996 Member
    I'll look for that column, @Kgaff. I used the that first one (column de Mish) because of the block foundation "columns" under the posts. So I was matching the blocky brick. I had looked at that gothic column too.

    @creativemetaphor - you need to use "save as" instead of save. You can recover to an earlier save that way AND you have less chance of a corrupt game that way as it always makes a new save.

    I was working on the stable. I think I might need another height angled in there yet.
    screenshot-303.jpg

    I've started adding some pet stuff. I'm not sure about the hay storage yet. There are some single bales stored in the hayloft too.

    screenshot-291.jpg



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