Build-n-Share Weekly Challenge #40 - My Backyard Wedding

Anjubee · March 2010

Welcome to the Build-n-Share Weekly Challenge!

The Build-n-Share challenges will be posted Wednesday of each week and run through the following Wednesday. Results will be posted approximately one week after all entries have been submitted in the Winner's Circle thread.

The benefits:
Each entry into the competition will receive an automatic rec (recommendation) and download on their entry lot.

First place will be awarded at all levels. If there are at least eight entries in a category, up to four places will also be announced. In each category, first place will receive 3 recs, second place will receive 2 recs, third place will receive 2 recs, and fourth place will receive one rec. Winners may request recs on a particular build/s by providing links to the related lots once results are posted.

Weekly challenges also create an opportunity for community on the forum site. We get to know one another’s names, share news, builds, and positive words. This is a chance to get your name out there, and hopefully make a few friends along the way.

What makes this challenge different from all the other ones I've seen?
We have been hosting this weekly challenge since the first week the game was released. We have many levels of builders in our community and welcome them all. This group is truly a product of all its great members!

Within the first few challenges, our group was recognized by the gurus that be, who have helped the weekly challenges gain even more popularity be stickying both Build-n-Share threads. Since then, we have had at least one featured creation almost every week, and our list of featured members continues to grow.

With 3 successful collaborative neighborhoods (Gnomelandia, Summer of Love, and NYC) just about completed, Build-n-Share hopes to bring more creative challenges and new neighborhood ideas to the community with the help of our dedicated participants who willingly contribute and help each week to make sure each challenge runs smoothly.

The rules:
All entries must be original work. Any competitor who submits another builder’s work will be disqualified and banned from any future Build-n-Share challenge. These competitors will also be removed from the Builders' Boulevard related websites if they have chosen to join (membership to the site and the Yahoo! group are not required to enter a Build-n-Share challenge).

Please announce your official lot posting using the entry form below. Make sure to leave the "Official Entry" label big. If you need to reformat it, you can do this by highlighting the desired text and then selecting "Big" in the font box above. This will help us see the entries in a sea of posts with no pics to guide us.

Entries must be submitted by the deadline, 7 p.m. Wednesday evening (eastern time, USA).

A description of the three major level categories:

Beginner--I have a little experience, but I'm still figuring a lot of things out. I would not call myself an official "builder" at this point.

Intermediate--I have been building for awhile. I know the basics and maybe a little more. I enjoy building, but it is not my primary focus with the game.

Advanced--I know the Sims, and the Sims knows me. My name is familiar to a lot of veteran players, and I've competed in and won some building challenges and maybe even been recognized in a community showcase or two. I know most of the cheats AND I know how to use them.

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Two additional opportunities:
Love to build? Come join us at http://www.buildersboulevard.com . The site offers an additional forum for advertising lots, share tips and tricks, and participate in collaborative neighborhood projects!

We also have a Yahoo! Group for builders. It can be accessed at http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/buildersboulevard/ . You do not have to be a member to enter. This group will be used primarily as an announcement center and for some of our more complex polls, and possibly, databases.

Anjubee · March 2010

This Week’s Challenge Specifics:
Challenge deadline: Wednesday, March 14th at 7 p.m. (Eastern time)

...

My Backyard Wedding

Katy and Rich have just purchased their first place together after getting engaged. The house isn’t ideal, but they have dreams of taking their savings and fixing up the place to their liking. Hoping to start a family soon after they wed, they would like to ultimately turn this 2 bedroom / 1 bath “shotgun” into a 3 bedroom / 2 bathroom family home with a 2-car garage. What they loved about the house is the spacious backyard and they can imagine having their dream wedding right in their very first place together. However, with renovation expenses, they won’t have much to spend on their wedding.

They have set aside 10,000 simoleans to spruce up their yard and their perfect wedding and another 40,000 simoleans to renovate their new house. Your challenge (should you choose to accept) is to help them plan and set up their dream wedding and have Richard carry Katy over the threshold of their renovated house.

This message will self-destruct in one week!

Some notes: The household with house can be downloaded http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=2079972

Please note that this is an original EA starter called the "Shotgun Style" house in Sunset Valley, so it wasn't built by me. Go nuts and knock down as many walls and add anything the budget and lot size allows. The lot size is 30x40 and shouldn't be any larger.

This couple is loosely based on some friends of mine and I hope to direct them to some of your media so make sure you have some really nice pictures to show off!

Anjubee · March 2010

Please include the following info in your post:

Official Entry

Name:

Link to the posted asset:

Link to media (required):

Optional Challenges entered?:

Experience level:

Lot Name:

Lot address, size, and final cost:

Details and Rational:

Credit to any simmers for custom content you used:

To make it more searchable, we would highly appreciate it if you include Build-n-Share in the description of the lot.

Anjubee · March 2010

Screenshots: Tips and Tricks

Since judging will now be based on screenshots, we figured this would be a good time to go over some tips and tricks in taking good screenshots to help showcase your lovely builds.

1) Camera Man Mode - This is a must in taking good shots! You will have to be in live mode to do this, but just hit "TAB" to enter this mode. Once you are in this mode, you can use the mouse to freely control the angles and use "W, A, S, D" buttons to move forward, backwards, and side to side. "Z" zooms in, "X" zooms out. "Q" moves up and "E" moves down. "C" to capture the shot.

2) Find the perfect angle - With photography, it is all about finding the right angle. Spend some time in camera man mode to find the perfect angle. Get down to a sim's point of view to take the best shots of rooms.

3) Walls up - Most people play with walls cut away, but when you are taking pictures of your lot, try to keep your walls up to make your shots look more realistic.

4) No grids - Unless you need to show the grid for a specific purpose, make sure no build/buy grid is visible when you take your pictures. You can avoid this by taking pictures in live mode or by hitting the terrain paint button in build mode.

Ok, those are the basics! If you want to further your simatography skills, we highly recommend you visit http://simatography.webs.com for more tips and tricks and to see some excellent shots taken by professional simatographers!

Please try to keep this thread as photo free as possible and either create a story, a slide show, a separate thread, or use the stickied photo thread to post shots of your lots!

Anjubee · March 2010

Judges and Keepers of the Thread

Your official judges are Tota, Robodl95, and KitKat7145.

Your backup judges are Fidlerten and Robb.

Freynas is the official organizational guru collecting entrants' names, levels, links, and results!

Judges will post their results in the winner's circle thread: http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/47204.page

Look for results typically a week after the deadline.

Big thanks to our judges and helpers!

Freynas · March 2010

Freynas · March 2010

Results

Beginner http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/780/47204.page

1st Place: knittygritty
2nd Place: soloushen
3rd Place: xmccxx
Honorable Mention: Scoiattolo

Intermediate http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/750/47204.page

1st place: Karima

Advanced http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/750/47204.page

1st Place - Freynas

Freynas · March 2010

That is so cute!!!!

knittygritty · March 2010

I would really like to participate, but I can't download the household because I don't have WA. Any way you could make them so that base game players can participate?

Freynas · March 2010

knittygritty wrote:

I would really like to participate, but I can't download the household because I don't have WA. Any way you could make them so that base game players can participate?

I don't think you need WA for this lot. Is an original house from the game and if I don't mistake is locate on 58 Water Lily Lane.

Anjubee · March 2010

knittygritty: No WA items were used. Everything is base game compatible. According to the exchange page, it doesn't say it requires WA expansion.. just for your game to be updated. Is it telling you WA is required when you try to download and install?

knittygritty · March 2010

The OP posted a linnk to the family and the house with the correct funds for the build...I think it's the family members that make it for WA. Anyway, I would like to use the download and have the couple for pictures.

EDIT: I see what you mean now. It downloaded fine, but that little blurb on the exchange page is confusing!

AlexKnr · March 2010

aaw
I'll go in this one. It's seems a bit lighter than others

BluebellFlora · March 2010

Sounds like a goodie Anju! I have a couple of questions though:

- Can I knock down the lot completely, start from new, add however much the lot WAS worth onto the 50k?

- Do I have to play them and set up their wedding or can I just build their house and garden in preparation for their wedding? I am so bored of actually playing the Sims, I normally only ever play with 1 Sim so playing with 2 would be far too complicated for me!

Thanks Anju

EDIT - Oh, sorry, EA confused me, on the exchange is says it is unoccupied so I assumed that we downloaded the couple separately, now I see that they do come with the lot. Can I kick them out? (Absolutely NO offence to your friends!).

Anjubee · March 2010

Hi BluebellFlora!

Here are the answers to your questions.

Can I knock down the lot completely, start from new, add however much the lot WAS worth onto the 50k?

For the sake of keeping it as "real" as possible, even if you do get money back from demolishing the entire lot, it cannot be part of the renovation cost. You can, however, demolish the entire lot if you choose, but keep in mind that they purchased the property due to it having a nice large yard.

Do I have to play them and set up their wedding or can I just build their house and garden in preparation for their wedding? I am so bored of actually playing the Sims, I normally only ever play with 1 Sim so playing with 2 would be far too complicated for me!

You do not have to play them at all if you don't want. Just note that the couple is already set up and engaged, so there isn't much you would have to "play" to get them to marry. Since simatography and taking good pictures is a big part of the challenge now, they would make nice props to set the scene. Their formal outfits are even in wedding gear, so you wouldn't have to play around with that either. It's up to you whether or not you want to do that though. I would prefer they be kept on the lot (even if they are just off to the side) while you are building though for simolean control. Their family funds is basically what you have to renovate with and if you move them out, their funds go with them. Once you are done though, feel free to upload without the couple.

golden_glow · March 2010

I'll definitely be joining this week. I missed out last week because I really don't like big builds, I just lack the imagination. But I love renovating projects. This one will be a challenge for me because I don't normally use large lots so we'll see how it goes.

Also if anyone is interested I have a challenge going on too. Just click my siggy and it'll take you to this weeks challenge

BluebellFlora · March 2010

Thanks for the answers Anju

ciaracaff · March 2010

Can't wait to get started with this challenge!

Might get caught for time because I'm busy with college at the moment
but I always seem to find time for Sims for some reason!

Will try and get it done though as soon as possible...

Edit:
I've just started a while ago. Is $52,229 the budget!
Just wondering as you said $40,000 for the house and $10,000 for the gardens.
I have placed the lot already and when I went into the house there it said my funds were $52,229. Is this a mistake?

Leebeejeebee · March 2010

Lovely challenge - I love weddings!

tristarin · March 2010

Is the deadline extended on this challenge? I haven't been able to get into the forum in days.

AlexKnr · March 2010

Is there going to be an extension to this one cause of the forums being down..? I hope yes, because I still have a lot to go

And I was assuming the budget was $66,000... because I demolished the house. Sorry I couldn't get onto the forums so I didn't know... I might still get it under, maybe? Thing is I just spent $16,000 on the kitchen and dining together hahah.
Oh well, they're just gonna have a really pimped out kitchen!
Alex

golden_glow · March 2010

Official Entry

Name: golden_glow

Link to the posted asset: http://gb.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=2098218

Link to media (required): http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/0/178629.page#2128334

Optional Challenges entered?: none

Experience level: intermediate

Lot Name: my backyard wedding

Lot address, size, and final cost: 2 upper street, 30x40, $56,000-$67,000

Details and Rational: I knocked down most of the original building and used the money from that to build my house. When I was finished it was around $66,000 and then after the wedding it was $56,000. Also it says household funds is $11,000 but just before I uploaded it, it was only $400 so I don't know where the extra money came from, I did not use any money cheats or play with the household except for the wedding itself so no money was earned.

The house has a 2 car garage, large living area, large kitchen diner and a downstairs toilet. Upstairs there are 3 bedrooms, one master, one guest and a nursery, and a family bathroom with separate bath and shower.

Credit to any simmers for custom content you used: I didn't use much cc in this. I think just the curtains and the bathroom sinks and I got both of these from TSR

lizjordanuk · March 2010

I admit I didn't think about how we shouldn't use the funds from the unwanted furniture etc., and I've only just read the forum as it's been down for so long, which made me realise I've done wrong, so it's a bit too late for me.

Most of the outside walls of the original property are still there, doors and windows were re-used as was some of the furniture. The wall coverings and carpets weren't sold back. But I didn't think to discount the bits I did get rid of from the budget. I don't mind if this disqualifies me though, I had fun with this one.

Official Entry

Name: lizjordanuk

Link to the posted asset: http://gb.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=2081570

Link to media (required): http://www.thesims3.com/contentDetail.html?contentId=180038

Optional Challenges entered?: a few wedding photos including Rich carrying Katy over the threshold

Experience level: Intermediate

Lot Name: My Backyard Wedding - lizjordanuk

Lot address, size, and final cost: 58 Water Lily Lane, 40x30

Details and Rational: Renovated Rich and Katy's house into a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2-storey house with double garage. It's set up ready for their backyard wedding.

Credit to any simmers for custom content you used: None

ciaracaff · March 2010

I'm going to have to skip this challenge actually. I have gone away over budget...spent it on just building the house and doing up the kitchen!
Won't have enough time either but I'm going to finish it anyway sometime hopefully.

Maybe the next challenge with no budget I'll be able to do! Never seem to be able to stick to any budget!:(

linday · March 2010

Official Entry

Name: linday

Link to the posted asset: http://www.mediafire.com/file/zh25kitm2bz/linday's BnS Backyard Wedding.Sims3Pack

Link to media (required): http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/195/135517.page

Optional Challenges entered?: If wedding pics count as an optional challenge, then yes!

Experience level: advanced

Lot Name: linday's BnS backyard wedding

Lot address, size, and final cost: 30x40, I had §20 left after completing the lot...

Details and Rational:
Really had fun doing this one! I decided to keep as much of the original home as possible, the first floor have had only one wall square knocked down in order to give room to the staircase. The garage is added to the side, and then the rest of the house is built on top. I decided to keep the original exterior colors, as they had some kind of charm

The furniture from the original house has also been kept, except from some lamps, and re-used for this house. The outside structures for the wedding was pretty heavy on the wedding budget, leaving not much for additional landscaping, but hey, that's how it is when I try to manage with a budget!

I had major launcher issues this week, so I had to upload the lot to mediafire.

Credit to any simmers for custom content you used: All CC used is from TSR and MangoSims and will transfer with the lot.

lmsmbulfrog · March 2010

Seems like a place to test if I can actually post again now after 3 months. At least I can read them again! Can't wait to see if this actually shows up. If it does I want to say this is such a creative challenge and I can't wait to see all the entries!

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Build-n-Share Weekly Challenge #40 - My Backyard Wedding

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