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The Pixel Atelier

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grallonspheregrallonsphere Posts: 153 Member
edited March 2016 in The Sims 3 Builders
I've used the S4 builder extensively but since I found that game lacking I'm now playing S3 and I've built/renovated/decorated a number of places yet now I've embarked on my most ambitious project to date: Crawley Manor in the mountains south of Bridgeport (where the spa resort used to be). Since I use loads of CC, both from the store and from mods, I don't expect to be able to share it (unless someone knows of a program to list and package the CC used in any given creation?), so I can at least showcase what I can do, despite the temperamental build mode (...).


This began when I looked at the map and found the best spot in Bridgeport was occupied by a community building nobody ever visited so I destroyed it and changed its type to residential. I increased its size from 50X50 to 64X64, thinking to make a large park around it; but as the saying goes, 'the story grew in the telling', and now I have this enormous affair which, in my head canon, I imagine was the successive additions made by the landlords over the generations.


1) Overview


And overview of the site:


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2) The Estate

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a) where number 1 is the original residence, built by Theodore Crawley in the early XIXth century. He was a friend and business partner of Ebenezer Alto. Frugal by temperament, he made his fortune in shipping with the old continent and built the initial manor to please his young wife, which he married late (here the main entrance is shown).

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b) where number 2 is the first addition. Built by Theodore's grandson Benedict, after the Civil War during which the Crawleys benefited immensely from using their shipping fleet to supply the northern armies.

c) where number 3 is the second addition built by Benedict' son James, during the 1890s. James and his wife Gloria had been very prolific and he needed room for him, his ten children, their spouses and their own children plus all the servants.

d) where number 4 & 5 were the third additions built by James' grandson Christoper in the late 1930s. His passion was traveling the world and exploring. That is why he commissioned the building of this enormous and outlandish interior pool (4), inspired by both Roman bathhouses and Gothic architecture.

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He was also the first Crawley to maintain an extensive car fleet for which he needed a large garage.

It was after a visit in France that Christopher decided to renovate the old manor and transform its first floor into a reproduction of the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles (here seen from the gardens side next to the baths).

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3) The Interior

As of now I only have completed one room (apart from the interior pool): the main dining room. It is referred to as the 'Ladies Room', because here are displayed the portraits of the prominent female Crawleys.

a) The most feminine room in the entire mansion, the grand dining room is where the Crawley women rule. In this picture we see Ilsa Crawley, née Goodwin, the young wife of Theodore the Founder. In the background we can see Gloria Stewart, wife of James Crawley.

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In fact I'm thinking of adding a ghost of Gloria, a forceful woman if there ever was one, as a member of the current family, which is now reduced to Jonathan, the last surviving Crawley, and his nanny Anna Karlowitz, who raised him since he was 11 years old. Rumor has it that he is Anna's biological son - the product of an indiscretion between her, who came to the manor as a maid 30 years ago, and Jonathan's father John, who died with his wife Isabel in mysterious circumstances, while investigating an archaeological dig in China.


Well this is it for now. I welcome all comments and criticisms.
Post edited by grallonsphere on

Comments

  • rosemowrosemow Posts: 163,479 Member
    Crawley Manor is looking very nice! :) Very nice design of the exterior of the home ! The layout of the build is very nice! It was great reading the background story details of the family and their additions to the home. The tiling patterning in the interior pool room looks very nice! Very nice dining room! The portraits look very nice on the wall. The long dining table looks very nice in the room with chairs placed either sides of it. Sims will enjoy dining there together. The candles and flowers are nice touches on the table for sims to see whilst enjoying eating a meal.
    The build is looking very great! :)
  • grallonspheregrallonsphere Posts: 153 Member
    Thank you Rosemow for your 'very nice' words ;) I must say this is more of a sketch than anything still. There's hardly any landscaping done as of now.
  • LordkiribatiLordkiribati Posts: 201 Member
    very cute ^^ I personally loved the pool, it looks so fancy XD
  • grallonspheregrallonsphere Posts: 153 Member
    Well the work is progressing, despite increasingly long loading/switching times from live to build mode. I have refaced the manor with new stonework, most of the landscaping is done and I've completed a few more rooms.

    1) Here's an overview

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    2) The main entrance

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    3) The gardens

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    here are a couple of shots of the Fairy Garden

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    here is the Belvèdere to dine outside during the summer

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    4) New Interior shots

    a) the Atrium (main entrance)

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    b) the Grand Ballroom

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    c) the Gentlemen's Lounge

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    d) The Marine Gallery
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    e) The Gym

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  • rosemowrosemow Posts: 163,479 Member
    The build is looking very nice! :) Very nice landscaping work! The trees and plants in the outdoors areas look very nice! The fairy garden is a very nice outdoors area in the build. Very nice water feature at the front entrance to the build. The outdoors dining gazebo looks so very, very nice! Sims will enjoy sitting at the dining table there eating meals in the outdoors air. The floor patterning looks nice. Very nice furnishing of the interior rooms and areas! The flooring in the atrium entrance looks nice and it is nice that there is a sofa seat sitting nook. The plants and flowers either sides of the seat are nice for sims to see when resting there. The Ballroom looks very grand! The hanging ceiling lights give such a nice feel and look to the room! The blue colour scheme and the floor/wall textures of the room looks very nice! The Gentlemans lounge looks very nice! The brown colour scheme gives a great look and suits the type of room well. Sims will enjoy playing pool there. The pictures are look nice on the walls. Very nice marine gallery! The nautical themed pictures look great on the wall there! The blue and white floor tiling complements with the theme well. Very nice gym. It is great that sims can choose which type of training that they would like to do, to keep fit using either the weights or treadmill machines. The hanging robes are a nice touch on the walls.
    The WIP is looking great! :)
  • grallonspheregrallonsphere Posts: 153 Member
    I'm afraid I've killed that game with all the landscaping. :( It's very slow to load in live mode but I can still manage it. However the game now crashes as soon as I switch to build mode. Too many trees and plants and flowers I assume - unless I corrupted it. This pi$$es me off mightily. I'll try some memory management options to see if I can salvage it. Otherwise I'll have to move my Crawleys in a large urban apartment atop a skyscraper. Hmmm.... yes I think that's what I'll do. Gloria will have to stay behind though - no point having a ghost outside the ancestral mansion.
  • rosemowrosemow Posts: 163,479 Member
    I am sorry to hear that you are having issues with the save game. I hope that you may perhaps be able to find a workaround to stop it crashing in build mode.
  • grallonspheregrallonsphere Posts: 153 Member
    edited March 2016
    Well I've started another game and edited Bridgeport but I couldn't get my mansion out of my head so I rebuilt it again, this time on the original 60X60 size lot. It is leaner and more proportionate. All in all I think it's better than the first version. I've made sure to restrain myself on trees, shrubs and flowers when I landscaped the property, using paint instead of plants whenever suitable. The game still runs relatively smoothly. However I haven't touched the interior at all so we'll see...




    The Main Courtyard

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    The Fountain Court


    The formal gardens were commissioned to honor Gloria Crawley (the ghost that haunts my Sims's family). We can see a statue of her represented as Aphrodite. Her husband James worshiped her until the end of his days.

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    The Belvedere

    I was able to reproduce it almost exactly as it was.

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    The Children's Court

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    The Park

    The park occupies roughly 25 percent of the property's total area. I wanted a lake so the Crawleys could go fishing in the summer and skating in the winter.


    Here you can see the entrance marked by the Elvhen Gate (Elven set by Hekate999 found here: modthesims.info/d/429222), coming from the Belvedere, with a path to the southern gate that opens on the mountain lake beyond. I tried making a small beach in the World Editor but I couldn't place a lot halfway in the water. It must be edited in CaW I think but I'm not quite ready for that just yet!

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    Here we see the resting place of Gloria Crawley.

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    Finally here is the Founder's Mausoleum, at the deep end of the park, where Theodore Crawley rests in peace.

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    By the way, I need to name the property so I'm open to suggestions.

  • rosemowrosemow Posts: 163,479 Member
    It is great that you have rebuilt your mansion! :) The exterior of the build looks so very nice! Very nice outdoors areas! Each of the garden areas look so great! Very nice landscaping work! It is nice reading the accompanying descriptions of the areas as well. The main courtyard and the sunken fountain court are very nice! The water fountains, flowers and plants look very nice how they are designed and placed there ! Nice seat bench sitting area for sims to enjoy relaxing in the sunshine, enjoying the very nice outdoors setting. The children's area looks great! The kids will have fun playing on the swings, in the sand pit and in the treehouse there. The greenery arches look nice how they are used in the build.
    The build is looking very nice! :) I hope that you have no issues with this new build and save game.
  • grallonspheregrallonsphere Posts: 153 Member
    The work is progressing. I've used a great many CC so I'd like to take a moment to thank all those wonderfully talented creators for their hard work. In no particular order: TheJim07, CashCraft, ShinoKCR, Mutske, CycloneSue, JohnSims, Severinka, Deeiutza, Pilar and all the others I might have missed.



    So I'm done with the basement...

    The Service Area:

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    1- Pantry & Storage
    2- Laundry Room
    3- Wine Cellar


    The Vault (accessible by elevator only from the master suite on the top floor):

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    The Recreation Area:

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    1- The underground pool
    2- A recreational room for adults...
    3- The Spa
    4- A communal bathroom


    ...and the main floor.

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    1- The Atrium
    2- The Rose Room (or the Ladies' Room)
    3- The Blue Room (main living room)
    4- The Lounge
    5- The Kitchen
    6- The Commons (daily dining room with stairs down to the service basement)
    7- The Gym (with stairs down to the recreation basement)
    8- The Garden Alley


    The Atrium

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    The Rose Room

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    The Blue Room

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    The Lounge

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    The Kitchen

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    The Commons

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    The Gym

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  • rosemowrosemow Posts: 163,479 Member
    The build is looking so very nice! :) It looks very grand! Very nice flooring in each of the rooms! Very nice layout and furnishing of the rooms! The WIP is looking great!
  • grallonspheregrallonsphere Posts: 153 Member
    edited March 2016
    My goal is that each room be unique, different from all the others. That is why I use CC all the time.
    Post edited by grallonsphere on
  • grallonspheregrallonsphere Posts: 153 Member
    I will play one day! For now here is the second floor of Crawley Manor.


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    1- The White Room (the family's private living room)
    2- The Macau Room (a Chinese inspired guest suite)
    3- The Sutton Room (a guest room conceived and named after a visit from Lord Sutton in the 1910s)
    4- The Library
    5- The Ruby Room (Left untouched after the death of Gloria Steward-Crawley in 1916 - and still inhabited by her ghost a century later)
    6- The Punjab Room (an Indian inspired guest suite)
    7- The Music Room (faintly Art Deco inspired)
    8- The Marine Gallery


    1) The White Room

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    2) The Macau Room

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    3) The Sutton Room

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    4) The Library

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    5) The Ruby Room

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    6) The Punjab Room

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    7) The Music Room

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    8) The Marine Gallery

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  • OmpabopOmpabop Posts: 168 Member
    I don't think I've ever built something half as impressive as that.
  • SimburianSimburian Posts: 6,902 Member
    A very impressive build and in some pictures looks almost lifelike.

    If only Sims3 could be re-organised or rebuilt so that it could cope with the load I wouldn't need Sims4.
  • grallonspheregrallonsphere Posts: 153 Member
    @Mchap353 I know what you mean - I've said it before I find the builder in S4 much better than this one. Even if there's less options it's so much easier to use. You don't fight the interface, it's not sluggish and it doesn't stutter constantly like the S3 builder. But the game itself, S4, is so dull! So I put up with the shortcomings.
  • grallonspheregrallonsphere Posts: 153 Member

    I've just completed the Master Suite.


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    1- The vestibule
    2- The Master Bedroom
    3- The Office Library
    4- The Bathroom
    5- The Hidden Gallery (with the elevator going into the vault)



    1- The Vestibule

    I love this room because it features 'The Murder of Caesar' by Karl van Piloty, which TheJim07 created at my request (thank you again Jim!)

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    2- The Master Bedroom

    The Crawley's love affair with France dates from the early 20th century. Many features of their house mirror or copy architectural details found in buildings and monuments seen during their numerous visits in Europe. Here the theme is the French royal lilies. The whole room is made of stone with lilies carved in the walls and the flooring.

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    3- The Office Library

    By contrast I wanted this room to be warm. In fact more often than not the master of the house spends as many nights sleeping there than in his actual bedroom.

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  • grallonspheregrallonsphere Posts: 153 Member
    I'm finally done with Crawley Manor! Here is the third and final floor.


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    The first four have already been mentioned (see above).

    1- The Master Bedroom
    2- The Office Library
    3- The Master's Bathroom
    4- The Hidden Gallery


    5- The Flower Gallery

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    6 - The Lady' Suite

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    6a- The Lady's Bedroom

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    6b- The Lady's Boudoir

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    7a- The Children's Play Room

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    7b & C- The Children's Bedrooms

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  • rosemowrosemow Posts: 163,479 Member
    It is great that you have finished Crawleys Manor! :) Each of the rooms and areas are so very nice! The furnishing of each room looks very grand! It is such a very detailed build!
  • grallonspheregrallonsphere Posts: 153 Member

    That large mansion proved unwieldy after all so once finished I moved my main out, along with his faithful dog, into the penthouse atop Centennial Tower (there was a lounge there before I turned it into a residential lot).

    The story goes that once the head of the Crawley Family is of age (21 or above and after achieving a university degree), he's given control of Centennial Tower. Built in the 1920s, originally as the head quarter of Crawley Enterprises; it has since been transformed into a residential high rise after the Holding moved its main offices in Boston. The first test of his/her business acumen is the management of this prestigious residential skyscraper. The penthouse atop the tower becoming the Crawley's home away from home. Only when he/she reaches 30 does he/she inherits the ancestral manor, alongside control of the bulk of the family's fortune.

    In this case, Jonathan, last of the Crawleys, has just returned from University with a business degree. But wanting some time alone away from the family, and its constant pressure to marry and produce an heir, he took up residence in Centennial Penthouse.



    The Tower


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    The Atrium

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    The First Floor


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    1- The vestibule
    2- The Dining Room


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    3- The Kitchen

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    4- The Living Room (Art Deco palette)

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    5- The Laundry Room
    6- The Guest Bathroom


    The Second Floor

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    7- The Master Bedroom


    7a) The Bedroom
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    7b) The Bathroom

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    8- The Guest Suite

    8a) - The Bedroom
    8b)- The Bathroom

    9- The Study

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    The Crawleys themselves


    - Jonathan, heir to the Crawley name

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    - Gloria Stewart-Crawley, died at 80yo in 1916. She has ben haunting Crawley Manor ever since. Here she appears as she once was.

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  • ThePoeticPreacherThePoeticPreacher Posts: 531 Member
    @grallonsphere great work i'm blown away....
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  • rosemowrosemow Posts: 163,479 Member
    It was great reading the background details of Centennial Penthouse. The build is very nice! :) Jonathan will enjoy living there. The furnishing of the rooms and areas looks so very nice! The floor patterning and tiling gives such a great look to the build! Very nice red and black colour scheme of the kitchen. The flower boxes feature in the middle of the atrium looks very nice. The blue and grey colour scheme of the bedroom gces a great look to the area of the penthouse
    The build looks great! :)
  • grallonspheregrallonsphere Posts: 153 Member
    filler...



    I wanted a prestigious restaurant that would cater to the needs of Bridgeport's elite in my Crawley game. So I bought the 'Business as usual Bistro ' CC from the Store and began building something out of one of the existing shells - but I was left dissatisfied. So I perused TSR and found the 'Regency Plaza ', created by Orlov:

    ( thesimsresource.com/downloads/details/category/sims3-lots-residential/title/the-regency-plaza-/id/1160048/ ).

    It was more or less what I was aiming for in terms of looks. I wrote to him and asked for his permission to mod his own work and he granted it gracefully. His own version was designed to be a luxury hotel transformed into a high class apartment building. In my version the Regency is still a hotel but was recently renovated to accommodate a 5 stars restaurant - The Medici - on its top floors (It is *quite* a pity the game doesn't allow us to have multi-function lots because there is space to spare for 2 magnificent penthouses next to the restaurant!).


    In any case, here it is.




    Built at the height of the Roaring 20s (1926) by the famed European architect R.A. Orlov, the Regency has changed hands numerous times since its construction. It was initially commissioned by the Altos, in a bid to bolster their waning fortunes yet sadly, that gambit failed and the magnificent tower ended up as one of the latest addition in the real-estate portfolio of GlobeHouse Holdings, the multi-national conglomerate controlled by the Crawley Trust, once the friends and allies of the Altos...



    The Regency

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    The vestibule

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    The First Floor

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    1- The Foyer and reception of the Medici
    2- The private elevator of the first top-floor penthouse
    3- The main kitchen (rabbit hole)
    4- The Kyoto Room (specialized in Japanese cuisine)
    5- The Manhattan Room (specialized in American Fusion cuisine)
    6- The Lyons Room (specialized in French haute cuisine)


    1) The Foyer & Reception

    The Medici was named after, and dedicated to, Cosimo di Medici, Duke of Florence and First Grand Duke of Tuscany (of which we see a portrait here).

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    2) The private penthouse anteroom
    3) The Main Kitchen


    4) The Kyoto Room

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    5) The Manhattan Room

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    6) The Lyons Room

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    The Second Floor

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    1- Top floor private penthouse anteroom
    2- The Bistro Kitchen (rabbit hole)
    3- The Gatsby Lounge
    4- The Chicago Terrace


    1- The top floor private penthouse anteroom
    2- The Bistro Kitchen


    3- The Gatsby Lounge

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    4- The Chicago Terrace

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  • rosemowrosemow Posts: 163,479 Member
    The Regency Plaza is very nice! :) Very nice furnishing of each of the rooms and areas in the build! They look very elegant! The rooftop terrace is very nice! Sims will have very nice views of the outdoors when sitting at the tables there. It looks very nice the way the tables and chairs are set up in the areas of the build. Very nice colour schemes that you have used.
    It is a very nice build! :)
  • grallonspheregrallonsphere Posts: 153 Member
    .


    Your constant encouragements are greatly appreciated Rose :).

    I also forgot to mention this build features BuffSumm's fantastic Simperial collection (Hotel & Restaurant) -> thesimsresource.com/artists/BuffSumm/downloads/details/category/sims3/id/1182375/.
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