I have a plan when it comes to developing Ely Corners and the rest of Wilshaw County (what I’m calling the whole map), but I’m not approaching that plan very methodically. I have lists of Sims I want to create, lots I want to build, and gameplay things I want to try, but I work on them in a very haphazard fashion, according to whatever mood I’m in when I boot up the game. So these blog posts will probably seem kind of random for awhile.

Last weekend, before my Fran interlude in Riverblossom, I added another family to Ely Corners. Moira Trivett used to work as a corporate drone in Pigeondale, but is now a freelance photographer and collector of rocks.

She’s also a new mom.

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I’ve been working on another family — they’re the main farmers of my town, and also the owners of the local pub. They live in the Homewood, where I was originally going to put the Deshannons. I gave it the quick and dirty decorating treatment because I was eager to work on the pub, so it’s mostly EA stuff; I’ll probably spruce it up later on.

This is Will Sothers, the younger son of the family.

He’s trying to watch the game, but his parents, Hannah and Owen, insist on dancing right in front of the TV.
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I’m still plodding along on turtle speed (whoa, Sim City flashback) in Ely Corners, and finally finished the Deshannons’ house. It is based on another 1920s Sears Home, the Vallonia, which I also did in TS2.

By the way, I am really lovin’ the new landscaping set from Simply Styling – it’s nice to have some more “filler” plants that aren’t flowers for my yards.
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Hey all, thanks for your comments and feedback on my last post! I’ve decided to go with the Tamo eyes and skins. The Aikea Guinea ones were great, but it was time for a change.

Progress on the homes and families in Ely Corners is moving slowly but steadily. This past week I worked on a new family and their home, and also began a new home for the Deshannons (I decided that Doug is no longer the town’s farmer).

For the new family, I was inspired by Velvet’s jazz paintings and baufive’s Salvaged/Antiques set, so I created a jazz musician/music teacher/recording engineer/coffeeshop owner (Sims have to play mutiple roles in Ely Corners, since it’s such a tiny town) named Jerry Dufreyne, and his wife, a sculptor/painter/collector named Bianca. They have one child, a boy named Kitt, but I have a feeling they’ll have another kid at some point, since Jerry is Family-oriented.

Jerry Dufreyne
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Hey all, I hope you had a fantastic holiday season and are enjoying the new year so far. I thought I’d share a little bit of what I’ve been working on Sims-wise lately. First off, an unfortunate happenstance: I won’t be posting anymore of Morna in Los Aniegos, because I started receiving an Error 12 whenever I tried to save her game. It’s likely that my computer doesn’t have enough memory to handle such a large world. It’s too bad, because what I saw of Los Aniegos was quite promising, and for that big city feel, I preferred it to Bridgeport. I guess I’ll have to save my Simoleons and splurge on some RAM!

So, saying adieu to Morna for awhile, I started up a project in an empty version of Riverview. I’ve never had any save problems in that world (knock on wood!), and I’ve always liked the countryside/farming community feel of it. Plus it’s an EA world so I feel better about mucking around with it and making it my own (I’d have a hard time refashioning a gorgeous custom world like Redcliffs for my own use — it just wouldn’t seem right to mess it up). With the in-game World Editor we can now delete and add lots, so I’ve been using that quite a bit, but I save often because sometimes deleting or adding a lot can really hose up the roads, at least graphically.

I’m going to build up my version of Riverview very slowly in small, manageable bits, starting with that little area across the river where the Brokes had their trailer park. Since the primary road there is Ely Road, I’m calling it Ely Corners for now. It’s my “founding” neighborhood, and where my first families will live. I’m basing all of the houses in Ely Corners on houseplans from my 1926 Sears Roebuck book (probably my favorite houseplan book ever, which won’t surprise those who remember some of my Sims 2 houses!).

The Walton
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