I've been helping Pescado set up the Cheezeserver fundraising mechanism for this year; as many of you know, we had a horrible experience with PayPal in 2006, and it took a year to recoup the money. Hence, Pescado (and many of us) are loathe to go with them again to raise the $2500 needed this year.

We've been searching for alternatives to PayPal, but for various reasons, either the alternatives are dead, not open to US customers, or completely dodgy. One option we explored was so awful it makes meeting in dark alleys and exchanging suitcases of money sound HONEST.

Thus, I've been asked to pose the question to you: should we accept that PayPal is the behemoth of online money transactions and hope for the best? Should we open a post office box somewhere, have you mail money in and we'll manually process the checks and money orders? Should we offer both options? Or do you know of something we might not have found that doesn't have exorbitant fees and doesn't make us feel dirty (and allows for US customers)?

Well done. There's only one thing missing from your castle - alligators in the moat.

Agreed. It's pretty awful as is, but has a lot of potential. Emma, please consider using this for August anyway.

Sweet remodels, all. Now I'm all excited about next month's, and we haven't even picked out a house yet.

I swear I read his post three times and still I missed it. I admit that I'm at a loss. I think at that point, I'd back up my files and start again.

Have you removed your groups.cache? It usually won't let me load the game at all, but yours may be a bit slower on the draw.

Don't. I get so in a rut with certain content, I forget - or don't even realize - there's something I want in there. These challenges force me to look at Maxis content, and I always find something I didn't realize was available. (It's usually decorative, as some of the items are harder to see in the thumbnails.)

Floppy, I LOVE the reflecting pool! In a million years that never would have crossed my mind (but now I will shamelessly steal borrow, with credit, that idea for an upcoming lot).

Hmm. I thought it was Seasons - look in Decorative/Sculptures. If not, then it's BV. It's just a long thang that sits in your pool or pond.

Goggalor, great entry! I never would have thought of the decking.

Mine is rather modern. This version costs §115.5K - 2 bed, 2.5 bath



Construction changes:
-removed roofs and replaced with flat roof
-extended house on left side
-added greenhouse on first floor
-removed all interior walls; rearranged top floor, added half-bath to bottom floor
- changed stairwell
-opened second floor area for fountain-gazing
-created kitchen area with half-walls
-extended front balcony, added side balconies

Landscaping changes:
-flattened most of lot
-extended ponds as shown
-added awesomespec fence
- added trees and other plants
-removed most terrains

More exterior shots:






Ground floor:






Second floor:







(If Maxis had full-length blinds, I wouldn't have had to do all this masking with plants. Bah.)

Ground Floor Plan:


Top Floor Plan:


What I know is not to awesomespec:
- kitchen; I just couldn't bring myself to close it up!
-stairwell; I did not block it off
Also, I seem to have forgotten to add a chair to the one desk.

Download here.


(I plan to make a cc version at some point, as now that I've made the changes to the lot, I rather like it.)

Should we continue this new challenge in this thread, or suggest that the first person with an entry start a new one? One one hand, it keeps this set of challenges nicely contained; on the other hand, the picture-heavy thread does take longer to load for those with slower connections.

Works for me.

Oh, good choice. I was thinking of one of those Uni houses that doesn't have enough room for a bed upstairs.

I'll add my 'want please' to this as well; I forgot Marhis had even developed this.

Is it possible to get some daytime pictures? I believe your nightime shots, while moody, don't show off the house's features, which I'm sure are many.

Pedestrian, nothing. That's great! Well me, Roux.

Why thank you. Yeah, that roof bit is wonky, but it's the way EAxis makes the eaves on the asian-inspired roofs. It's maddening! I suppose I could have shortened that section, but then I'd have been mesing too much with basic structure. Oh well. Maybe a tall pine there will hide it.

I forgot about the chimney thing - so if you're judging, I am disqualified. But Emma and Saraswati made me post it, so here it is. (I can haz peer preshur?)



Structural Changes: removed fireplace/chimney; squared off bay window; changed stairwell, doors, and windows; reconfigured both floors. Note the fenced-in lot, lockable kitchen doors, and groovy new roofline.

It's lightly furnished, to show where the infant sleeping pod, bathrooms, and kitchen would be. If I were to really furnish it, I'd use the preponderance of Asian-inspired stuff from Simcastic and SimsDeisgnAvenue. Lot requires EPs through BV for the garden goodies to show up. There's room for a driveway, but I didn't put it in because, well, I didn't put it in. 



First Floor:


Second Floor:


More pics

Download

Edited to add floor plan pics to the post.

Well good, 'cause with Emma, you never know.

:::runs::::

I love that you're doing this - so many people just give up and don't ever build. (It's why I have download traffic.  )

I think the roof problem is that what you have now separates the building into two, and it feels disjointed. Going back to the first one (because I like the gabled roof), redraw the hipped roof, only go to the MIDDLE of where the gabled roof is. The hipped roof will look as though it emerges from the othe roof, thus tying it together better (I will find a pic for you if my description fails).

I'm also concerend by the one solid awning in a world of stripped awnings - it's one thing for window sizes and styles to vary a bit (take a drive and look at houses), but the decorative features don't change that significantly.

Finally: I'm not sure why your balcony goes out the front; it looks more like a storefront than a house done this way...especially with the heavy railings. Again, it's worth taking a drive and looking at houses just to get a sense of what people really do.

The inside looks fine - I think the layout is okay and up to awesomespec. I'd love to see some regular interior shots, to see decorative detailing.

Edited - damn grammacites.

That dome alone makes a huge difference! I'm reminded of the monastery at New Skete (where the dogs are trained), which has rounded roofs painted gold. It's very awesome.

Oh, what a great idea!

Too bad you can't send some of the sons off to war....

I like your remodeling - well met.

I was about to ask you why there would be a need for a monastery in your hood, but now I can see - you're keeping the rogues out fo harms way.

I'm finding the lots are huge anyway...I've tried a few different versions (as befitting my unofficial title), and all of them wind up being bigger files than I'd like. Of course, I'm also trying to decorate each office differently, and that requires a lot of CC.

I think that many of us have 4shared/mediafire/personal servers we can load the stuff on. But no matter how that happens, I do think there needs to be a warning issued with each lot about size and lagability.

That sim must be an F. A T would have just kicked it and laughed.