I present to you: Modern house basegame
A modern/mid century modern house with a foundation that's smaller than the actual house, giving a special look to the build. Link to slideshow
How to make the foundation smaller than the house
First, you need to build your entire house on the first(second) floor, not the ground floor! Then you drag the entire floor down, leaving a foundation height gap between the floor and the ground. This gaps you fill in with roofs, much like you would construct basement windows. In this case, I also added some debug walls for their special structure and the opportunity to place it halfway a grid tile, providing me with the look I wanted. You can already obtain all information you need by downloading and taking the build apart. I also uploaded a mock-up, just showing the basic technique
Modern House Basegame is a lovely modern family home! Very stylish exterior design, colours and great layout! The flowers and plants along the fencing , and the flowers/tree bed are pretty! The pool and water fountains area is lovely! The back wall flowerbox windows and the outdoors dining and kids play area is very nice! Great gardening boxes nook! Very lovely furnishing of the interior! The open plan layout of the living areas and the grey, orange, white colours are very nice. The kitchen design is great! Very nice island stools counter and the wall tiling is pretty! Very nice windows dining nook to enjoy eating in sunlight or moonlight. The windows sofa and armchair sitting is lovely for chatting or reading books with outdoors views. The plants are nice nature touches on the table. The tv and seating area is very stylishly nice! The kids bedroom is colorfully great! The colorful wall pattern, double study desks, double activities tables, and bunk beds are very nice! The soft toys are cute! Very nice teens and master bedrooms.
It is a very nice family home
Modern Style Museum is a great museum build for the challenge! It looks very nice the way you used the walls! Very lovely exterior design, great glass windows used and the tower is very nice! Lovely black and white colors! The water fountains feature is pretty
I found myself referring to this post I made earlier way too often now, so I'm gonna put it here to make it easier for me to find again:
edit 01/06/2021: I turned this entire workaround upside down and divided it into different parts, depending on your need and willingness to suffer a bit
A little background on the issue if you want it:
The issue arose around the time platforms were introduced. It is possible that by introducing a difference between "ceiling" of the lower floor and "floor" of the upper floor (needed for platform levels), an issue was introduced with the usual way people make lofts. This way deletes the floor of the landing, but (unless the loft is exploded) not the roof of the floor below. This discrepancy makes the sims think there is still a ceiling and they can't use the stairs, because they 'bump their head into the invisible ceiling'. It appears that staircases only remove the "ceiling" of the floor below if they have a "floor" on the landing to remove as well. This is how this workaround is made.
First when working with an existing (broken) staircase: determine whether your loft is 'exploded' or not! If it is exploded, see point 3), if it is not, see point 1) b) for a fenced loft. The same method can be used for a non-fenced loft if it is not exploded.
How to check whether a loft is exploded?
In general exploded lofts are counted as outside, so they will influence the 'darkness' of your room, allowing light from outside to enter through the missing ceiling. They will also behave strangely with seasons and any kind of trims.
Remove one piece of railing from your loft, if it shows the ceiling from the floor below (red), your loft was NOT exploded, just use undo to go back to your non-exploded loft.
Another way is to select the room below the loft, go up to the loft floor and click the yellow ceiling edge. If it says "Build ceiling", your loft is exploded. If it says "Remove ceiling", your loft is ok.
1) Easy: Loft with fence
This is like you would have done before, but with 1 single extra step
a) Create a spot surrounded with fence where you want your loft (yes, this can also be full walls/half walls or whatever you like. Place the stairs over the fence, where you want it to be and delete the floor in the loft area (so far, just like you would have done). This loft already looks like a normal fenced loft, but if you select it, it selects the entire open area, including where the staircase is and it is NOT functional
!! I didn't place the stairs first, just so you could see the area, but you might want to place it before removing the floor.
b) Add a platform over the stairs, you can see when you lower it where you put too much, the tiles will remain visible where they were too much. !! THIS is the step you need with a non-functional staircase in a non-'exploded' loft!!
c)Drag the side of the platform back towards the stairs to cover any visible tiles with the removed floor (basically only necessary if you added too much platform).
d) Add the fence next to the stairs to finish your nicely fenced loft! Don't worry if you accidentally dragged the fence over the entrance to the stairs again, they will still be functional. Are they not functional? Just remove the stairs and replace them, sometimes it just needs to recalculate (maybe you added the stairs after removing the floor? ;-) )
2) Difficult: Loft without any fence surrounding it (necessary if you want to build a debug fence for example)
a) Create a spot surrounded with fence where you want your loft (yes, this can also be full walls/half walls or whatever you like. Place the stairs over the fence, where you want it to be and delete the floor in the loft area (so far, just like you would have done) !! I didn't place the stairs first, just so you could see the area, but you might want to place it before removing the floor. This loft already looks like a normal fenced loft, but if you select it, it selects the entire open area, including where the staircase is and it is NOT functional
b) Add a platform to the sides of your loft, all around.
A single row of platform will not do, it will just lift the fence
You will have to drag the platform through the fence to make the fence disappear.
Red: the area where the platform touches the outside wall: the outside wall disappears! Just click it and choose: build full wall, no problem. Also, you can already see the stairs cutting through the platform, we will come back to this later.
Blue: My mid-room loft was too small to put platforms all around in one go without losing the open space altogether. Either start with a bigger opening or -as I did here- Drag the platform outside once placed to create room again to place the platforms on the other side.
c) Finish your platforms all around your staircase (left) and lower them (I already did this on the right one)
Blue: you can see on the left staircase the platform was placed on the left over the staircase, but by dragging the right platform out, there is still a bit of open space in the middle now!
d) Lower all the platforms. For the left staircase, you see there's one tile too many covered to make a nice open loft: Drag the 'open space' out one tile to cover this. (Blue circle) Make sure the open space does NOT cover the staircase! It should be next to it/around it.
This will be a bit more annoying with the right, this is a corner staircase. We already covered the upper part of the stairs with platform, but how much do we actually need to cover? Drag The arrow of the previous platform (blue circle) down to cover more of the stairs
e) The left loft is done!
The right one was covered too much, you can see the floor tiles over too much of the area. Drag the platform back up one tile.
f) Sometimes you get in a spot where you can't use the arrows to drag anymore to make the shape you need. We just need to get rid of that one block next to the staircase, but the arrows only allow to drag both the block we need to remove and the block that has to remain over the staircase
Solution: build a piece of platform on the bit you want to remove, this will give you more options!
You now have two arrows, one over the staircase and one over the raised piece of platform. Drag the arrow up over the raised piece of platform to finish your loft.
g) Both lofts are now finished! You can keep dragging the empty loft out (be careful NOT to cover your staircase again) or add pieces of platform to get the exact shape you like. You can also add fences if you like. However, if you want to remove a fence, either replace with another using the replace tool or go back to point b) to remove it completely.
Keep in mind, once you do place a wall or fences, if you remove them again by clicking, sledgehammering or ctrl+wall build tool, you 'explode' the room (no floor + removing walls constitutes not a room). Best to refer to 2) b) to remove them again (or just use the replace tool instead if you want a different type of fence/wall)
3) Fixing an "exploded loft"
Basically this means you have to remove the exploded loft altogether and build a new, functional one. This is how you do it:
a) Select the room below the exploded loft and click "build ceiling". This fixes the ceiling from the room below, but not the loft itself yet, it is still exploded.
b) Click the area with the exploded loft and drag the walls in until they touch, so the exploded loft is completely gone.
Pick either part 1) for a building a fenced loft or 2) for building a loft without separation.
4) The murder that is 'platform stairs'. Weirdly, the April patch fixed this, but the May patch ruined it again... A staircase made completely of platforms or a double staircase with a platform landing... don't work anymore
This is what we're going for:
1) if we drag the platform over the staircase AND the platform, the ceiling stays above the platform...
2) If we just draw the platform over the staircase, somehow, sims still 'bump their head' in the ceiling above the platform, much like they would if you don't put the floor back over the staircase.
3) I'm sorry, but there really isn't a good fix, since platforms do NOT remove their own ceiling, the only thing to do is lower the landing to a height where the sims could stand on it if it had a ceiling. Then the normal loft workaround does the trick (see 1) or 2) and just take into account the staircase leavind the landing, the other one is not important.
Didn't make a full slideshow, since I don't have my good computer
The build is based on this amazing picture I found:
And this is how it turned out:
More images
How most is done:
1) The black in front and the overhanging white ridge over the plants are just freeplaced shelves and debug columns
2) The skylights are made in the same way as 'roofs on half a wall' or 'drawing on facade with roofs' by lifting the roof on top of the platform on the upper floor. Here is the video tutorial. I put the roof another floor up, so it is technically on the 4th floor, so it doesn't disappear when changing walls or other structural elements in the house. I did also add a tiny, almost invisible clear glass roof in the middle. This part provides the horizontal white divider and keeps the 'ceiling' there, so there are no issues with weather or seasons.
3) The carport is made using a tiny piece of roof with a super long eave on one side (shift + drag that eave). In order to get it to curve like that, click the roof and use shift + C to add another inflection point.
Modern House Basegame is a lovely creatively designed family home! Your sims game version of the real life home is very great! You have reflected it very well! The carport design is very great! Very nice balcony sitting area! The lavender and water fountains feature is pretty! Very nice outdoors dining and pool area.
I thought I would address another important issue: Roof clipping. It's been a pain since... forever and so far I only found a full workaround using TOOL, console players or modless players can download invisible doors here. Here for the video tutorial!
So: why does roof clip and how can we avoid or fix it?
1) The roof is covering a (part of) the room on the floor above:
Sadly, roof is visible on the floor it is placed on AND any floor above. While you can keep the roof from clipping into fully walled rooms on the floor it is in, it will remain above it (since it is NOT enclosed in walls on that floor!) and can severely obstruct the view this way.
These are 2 similarly built houses, right?
Not really though, the left uses a single triangle roof over the ground floor level (obstructing the view of the floor above), while the right uses 3 pieces of roof: 2 slanted roofs on the ground level and a triangle roof on top of the floor above. TIPS: use shift + click/drag on eaves to only remove/lengthen the upper eaves in the triangle if needed. Also use alt + drag the roof height to adjust the roof freely (instead of in predetermined height steps), making it a lot easier to fit perfectly. Also, when you want to use curved roofs: try clicking the roof and using shift + C, this will give you another curve point, making them easier to match up when curved.
2) The horror that is roof clipping with lofts/fenced areas/platforms
Yeah, I am sorry to say there is no true fix for this. I will explain why it does this and how it works/how to avoid it.
Imagine having this nice building with a round window/porch in front. As long as the room above is fully walled, no problem!
If we now add a loft, fenced area or a platform to the front wall, we experience "roof clipping".
This occurs NOT because of platforms, but because the upper floor is now divided into 3 rooms: an E-shaped room around the fenced/platform areas, the fenced area and the platform. See that EACH of these rooms has at least one not-full wall! EA made it so that roofs do NOT disappear when a room is constructed with not-full walls. On the one hand, this allows you to create fenced roofs, on the other hand, it makes building with fences and platforms inside a living hell.
Build your roof AROUND the floor:
By replacing the hipped roof with a half-hipped roof and using shift + drag on the eaves inside the house, this roof piece does not clip anymore. However, there are no half round pieces to work with
So what are the options when you can't build your roof AROUND the floor?
If you build The fenced areas/lofts/platforms INSIDE the walled room, the issue is much less present. Why? the outer walls are forming the entire floor enclosed in full walls, so no clipping. The places where the roof DOES still clip is INSIDE of the fenced area/loft/platform if they overlap with the roof placement. (Again, a roof will show inside any room that is enclosed in anything else than all full walls).
Then, how did I fix the fenced area that touches the wall? (NOT a loft, just a fenced area!). You can draw nearly the entire fence, leave one spot open. Draw a one-spot piece of fence and add it in between the open spot. This will make all of the fences separate walls, they won't form a room (hence, avoiding the clipping issue). Because it is not a room though, you won't be able to remove the floor in that spot and create a loft... Also, if you create another room on the same floor, the game recalculates everything and will turn this thing into a room again, so best to leave finishing those for last. So far I haven't had any issues with it becoming a room again when uploading to gallery/leaving the lot or placing it elsewhere.
But I do want a loft/fenced area/platform touching the outside wall really badly?
The only way to avoid clipping of roof part that can't be built otherwise (like round pieces) is to build a fully walled room around this roof piece and have the loft/fenced area/platform outside of this area. This means no lofts 'behind' a round porch against the front wall, sorry, you will have to move it against the back wall (and enclose the roof in front in a room!) or to the middle of the room, far enough from the inside part of the roof not to clip.
How am I sure this is the issue and not the loft or whatever?
Look at this "workaround': don't use it, it doesn't last!
Take the area with the loft in it and use the custom room tool to conect the corners of the floor:
The area is fully walled (no roof clipping), but still has a piece of missing floor in it, so lofts are not the issue here. This will automatically recalculate anytime you leave the lot and replace the floor, so this is NOT a lasting fix.
The boathouse is very lovely! Very great exterior design! Very nice colour and the port hole windows look great! Very nice outdoors dining and bbq area on the front deck, for sims to enjoy eating in the sea air. Sims will enjoy painting on the easel on the other deck. Very nice layout and furnishing of the interior!
Funky Modern home is a very creatively designed build! The roofing is great! Very nice exterior design, white colour and the flowerboxes are pretty! Lovely flowers along side entrance edges. The hedging is great! Very nice outdoors dining area on the back porch. The interior furnishings and design are lovely! Very nice blue, white and black colours. The split level tv watching, gaming and reading area is very nice! The shelving is great either sides of the tv! Very nice design of the kitchen with a great round table dining area.
It is a lovely modern home!
Been a long time since I last uploaded something new. I've built quite a bit in the meantime though. However, today I will share a new build using a new type of technique as well!
Industrial type home is a lovely industrial style home! Very great exterior design, wall texture,and very nice windows! The curved sitting porch nook is very nice! Very nice pool and outdoors dining, bbq patio, to enjoy eating meals outside Very nice design of the patterned ground! Very lovely furnishing and layout of the interior! The grey, white and red colors are very nice. Very nice sunken area.The staircase looks great!
It is a stylish family home
Comments
A modern/mid century modern house with a foundation that's smaller than the actual house, giving a special look to the build.
Link to slideshow
How to make the foundation smaller than the house
It is a very nice family home
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/817478/hello-come-and-introduce-yourself
http://tinyurl.com/OneRoomOneWeek
http://tinyurl.com/rosemow
My Showcase thread https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/948861/rosemow-s-rooms-showcase
Had some great fun turning it into a modern style museum
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/817478/hello-come-and-introduce-yourself
http://tinyurl.com/OneRoomOneWeek
http://tinyurl.com/rosemow
My Showcase thread https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/948861/rosemow-s-rooms-showcase
I found myself referring to this post I made earlier way too often now, so I'm gonna put it here to make it easier for me to find again:
edit 01/06/2021: I turned this entire workaround upside down and divided it into different parts, depending on your need and willingness to suffer a bit
A little background on the issue if you want it:
First when working with an existing (broken) staircase: determine whether your loft is 'exploded' or not! If it is exploded, see point 3), if it is not, see point 1) b) for a fenced loft. The same method can be used for a non-fenced loft if it is not exploded.
How to check whether a loft is exploded?
Remove one piece of railing from your loft, if it shows the ceiling from the floor below (red), your loft was NOT exploded, just use undo to go back to your non-exploded loft.
Another way is to select the room below the loft, go up to the loft floor and click the yellow ceiling edge. If it says "Build ceiling", your loft is exploded. If it says "Remove ceiling", your loft is ok.
1) Easy: Loft with fence
a) Create a spot surrounded with fence where you want your loft (yes, this can also be full walls/half walls or whatever you like. Place the stairs over the fence, where you want it to be and delete the floor in the loft area (so far, just like you would have done). This loft already looks like a normal fenced loft, but if you select it, it selects the entire open area, including where the staircase is and it is NOT functional
!! I didn't place the stairs first, just so you could see the area, but you might want to place it before removing the floor.
b) Add a platform over the stairs, you can see when you lower it where you put too much, the tiles will remain visible where they were too much. !! THIS is the step you need with a non-functional staircase in a non-'exploded' loft!!
c)Drag the side of the platform back towards the stairs to cover any visible tiles with the removed floor (basically only necessary if you added too much platform).
d) Add the fence next to the stairs to finish your nicely fenced loft! Don't worry if you accidentally dragged the fence over the entrance to the stairs again, they will still be functional. Are they not functional? Just remove the stairs and replace them, sometimes it just needs to recalculate (maybe you added the stairs after removing the floor? ;-) )
2) Difficult: Loft without any fence surrounding it (necessary if you want to build a debug fence for example)
b) Add a platform to the sides of your loft, all around.
A single row of platform will not do, it will just lift the fence
You will have to drag the platform through the fence to make the fence disappear.
Red: the area where the platform touches the outside wall: the outside wall disappears! Just click it and choose: build full wall, no problem. Also, you can already see the stairs cutting through the platform, we will come back to this later.
Blue: My mid-room loft was too small to put platforms all around in one go without losing the open space altogether. Either start with a bigger opening or -as I did here- Drag the platform outside once placed to create room again to place the platforms on the other side.
c) Finish your platforms all around your staircase (left) and lower them (I already did this on the right one)
Blue: you can see on the left staircase the platform was placed on the left over the staircase, but by dragging the right platform out, there is still a bit of open space in the middle now!
d) Lower all the platforms. For the left staircase, you see there's one tile too many covered to make a nice open loft: Drag the 'open space' out one tile to cover this. (Blue circle) Make sure the open space does NOT cover the staircase! It should be next to it/around it.
This will be a bit more annoying with the right, this is a corner staircase. We already covered the upper part of the stairs with platform, but how much do we actually need to cover? Drag The arrow of the previous platform (blue circle) down to cover more of the stairs
e) The left loft is done!
The right one was covered too much, you can see the floor tiles over too much of the area. Drag the platform back up one tile.
f) Sometimes you get in a spot where you can't use the arrows to drag anymore to make the shape you need. We just need to get rid of that one block next to the staircase, but the arrows only allow to drag both the block we need to remove and the block that has to remain over the staircase
Solution: build a piece of platform on the bit you want to remove, this will give you more options!
You now have two arrows, one over the staircase and one over the raised piece of platform. Drag the arrow up over the raised piece of platform to finish your loft.
g) Both lofts are now finished! You can keep dragging the empty loft out (be careful NOT to cover your staircase again) or add pieces of platform to get the exact shape you like. You can also add fences if you like. However, if you want to remove a fence, either replace with another using the replace tool or go back to point b) to remove it completely.
Keep in mind, once you do place a wall or fences, if you remove them again by clicking, sledgehammering or ctrl+wall build tool, you 'explode' the room (no floor + removing walls constitutes not a room). Best to refer to 2) b) to remove them again (or just use the replace tool instead if you want a different type of fence/wall)
3) Fixing an "exploded loft"
a) Select the room below the exploded loft and click "build ceiling". This fixes the ceiling from the room below, but not the loft itself yet, it is still exploded.
b) Click the area with the exploded loft and drag the walls in until they touch, so the exploded loft is completely gone.
Pick either part 1) for a building a fenced loft or 2) for building a loft without separation.
4) The murder that is 'platform stairs'. Weirdly, the April patch fixed this, but the May patch ruined it again... A staircase made completely of platforms or a double staircase with a platform landing... don't work anymore
1) if we drag the platform over the staircase AND the platform, the ceiling stays above the platform...
2) If we just draw the platform over the staircase, somehow, sims still 'bump their head' in the ceiling above the platform, much like they would if you don't put the floor back over the staircase.
3) I'm sorry, but there really isn't a good fix, since platforms do NOT remove their own ceiling, the only thing to do is lower the landing to a height where the sims could stand on it if it had a ceiling. Then the normal loft workaround does the trick (see 1) or 2) and just take into account the staircase leavind the landing, the other one is not important.
Didn't make a full slideshow, since I don't have my good computer
The build is based on this amazing picture I found:
And this is how it turned out:
More images
How most is done:
2) The skylights are made in the same way as 'roofs on half a wall' or 'drawing on facade with roofs' by lifting the roof on top of the platform on the upper floor. Here is the video tutorial. I put the roof another floor up, so it is technically on the 4th floor, so it doesn't disappear when changing walls or other structural elements in the house. I did also add a tiny, almost invisible clear glass roof in the middle. This part provides the horizontal white divider and keeps the 'ceiling' there, so there are no issues with weather or seasons.
3) The carport is made using a tiny piece of roof with a super long eave on one side (shift + drag that eave). In order to get it to curve like that, click the roof and use shift + C to add another inflection point.
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/817478/hello-come-and-introduce-yourself
http://tinyurl.com/OneRoomOneWeek
http://tinyurl.com/rosemow
My Showcase thread https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/948861/rosemow-s-rooms-showcase
So: why does roof clip and how can we avoid or fix it?
1) The roof is covering a (part of) the room on the floor above:
These are 2 similarly built houses, right?
Not really though, the left uses a single triangle roof over the ground floor level (obstructing the view of the floor above), while the right uses 3 pieces of roof: 2 slanted roofs on the ground level and a triangle roof on top of the floor above. TIPS: use shift + click/drag on eaves to only remove/lengthen the upper eaves in the triangle if needed. Also use alt + drag the roof height to adjust the roof freely (instead of in predetermined height steps), making it a lot easier to fit perfectly. Also, when you want to use curved roofs: try clicking the roof and using shift + C, this will give you another curve point, making them easier to match up when curved.
Imagine having this nice building with a round window/porch in front. As long as the room above is fully walled, no problem!
If we now add a loft, fenced area or a platform to the front wall, we experience "roof clipping".
This occurs NOT because of platforms, but because the upper floor is now divided into 3 rooms: an E-shaped room around the fenced/platform areas, the fenced area and the platform. See that EACH of these rooms has at least one not-full wall! EA made it so that roofs do NOT disappear when a room is constructed with not-full walls. On the one hand, this allows you to create fenced roofs, on the other hand, it makes building with fences and platforms inside a living hell.
Build your roof AROUND the floor:
So what are the options when you can't build your roof AROUND the floor?
Then, how did I fix the fenced area that touches the wall? (NOT a loft, just a fenced area!). You can draw nearly the entire fence, leave one spot open. Draw a one-spot piece of fence and add it in between the open spot. This will make all of the fences separate walls, they won't form a room (hence, avoiding the clipping issue). Because it is not a room though, you won't be able to remove the floor in that spot and create a loft... Also, if you create another room on the same floor, the game recalculates everything and will turn this thing into a room again, so best to leave finishing those for last. So far I haven't had any issues with it becoming a room again when uploading to gallery/leaving the lot or placing it elsewhere.
But I do want a loft/fenced area/platform touching the outside wall really badly?
How am I sure this is the issue and not the loft or whatever?
Look at this "workaround': don't use it, it doesn't last!
The area is fully walled (no roof clipping), but still has a piece of missing floor in it, so lofts are not the issue here. This will automatically recalculate anytime you leave the lot and replace the floor, so this is NOT a lasting fix.
Custom fences from half walls
gallery link
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/817478/hello-come-and-introduce-yourself
http://tinyurl.com/OneRoomOneWeek
http://tinyurl.com/rosemow
My Showcase thread https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/948861/rosemow-s-rooms-showcase
I fairly recently started streaming, so this one is completely built on stream!
It is a lovely modern home!
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/817478/hello-come-and-introduce-yourself
http://tinyurl.com/OneRoomOneWeek
http://tinyurl.com/rosemow
My Showcase thread https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/948861/rosemow-s-rooms-showcase
it is an Industrial type home
The "special feature" is a floating loft, in this case a staircase landing. I made a video tutorial on how to achieve this.
It is a stylish family home
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/817478/hello-come-and-introduce-yourself
http://tinyurl.com/OneRoomOneWeek
http://tinyurl.com/rosemow
My Showcase thread https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/948861/rosemow-s-rooms-showcase
inspiration
Result