Hey all, sorry for the lack of updates! Life has been busy for me this week, plus I’m housesitting so I’m in a bit of a limboland. I’m still working away happily on my Royal Kingdom Challenge — all of the houses have been built (finally!) though some remain unfurnished and unwallpapered. Since I won’t be able to do a story update for a few days yet, I thought I’d post pics of the houses as a little preview. (I kind of jumped the gun with the Dunnavants — I still haven’t cycled through the rest of the families as far as gameplay goes, and I wanted to play them each for a few days before doing another story.)
We’ll start with the lowly “peasant” houses of Annabel Island…
Whidbee Farm
This is Whidbee Farm, though it isn’t much of a farm yet. I only had the §20,000 to work with on this lot, and I had to build a house big enough for four people (I’m starting some of the families with kids for the sake of variety). So there wasn’t much money left over for chickens, but the Whidbees have great hopes for their little farm, and fully expect to have chickens, horses, and much more in the near future.
Merrifield Cottage
This little cottage is home to the Merrifields, also a family of four. Like the Whidbee house, the Merrifield Cottage was built out of a peach-colored stone which is native to the island. Unlike the Whidbees, however, the Merrifield family has no great hopes for their modest little plot of land — they’re more interested in seeking enlightenment than expanding their empire.
Iverson Cabin
The Iversons built a little cabin pioneer-style and kept it as small as possible so they wouldn’t have to waste their time keeping it clean. As you can see, even the poorest residents of Annabel Island have curbside garbage service.
Moving from the poor side of the island to Main Street, where the “merchant class” dwells, we find two shops and a community park.
Carmer’s General Store
The Carmers came to Annabel Island hoping to make their fortune selling anything that anyone could possibly need. They live in a cozy apartment above the store and are already anxious to expand.
Portela’s Market
Next door to the Carmers is Portela’s Market, which sells anything food-related. Mr. Portela and his teenage daughter also live above their shop, but they’re very comfortable and have no plans to expand just yet.
Edmund Park
Edmund Park, the first park built on Annabel Island, is one of Dr. Dunnavant’s many gifts to the island’s residents. At its opening ceremony, he declared that anyone on the island, regardless of financial status, is welcome to stroll the park and enjoy the flowers and fountains. The entrance to the park is on Main Street, right across from Carmer’s General Store and Portela’s Market.
Here’s an oddity — an empty house for sale! Its former inhabitants left the island before the Dunnavants arrived. Dr. Dunnavant seems to take special interest in the house and always includes it in his daily tour of the island.
And now we have the houses of the wealthier citizens, the “nobles” of Annabel Island.
Montellano House
The Montellano House, occupied by an affluent bachelor of scientific bent, is the smallest of the houses on the well-to-do side of the island. It has the distinction of being right next door to the Dunnavant mansion.
Bruney House
Across the corner from the Montellano House is the home of the Bruneys, newlyweds who are already having marital problems. At least, that’s the rumor.
Fonnesbeck House
And finally we have the residence of the Fonnesbecks, otherwise known as “Party Central”. This house faces the Bruney house across a wide expanse of trees, so their respective towers are in a perpetual staredown.
You’ve already seen the Dunnavant Mansion, so that concludes our tour of Annabel Island’s houses. Hope you enjoyed it, and have a GREAT weekend!
Oh wow! You are such a great builder! My sim’s houses usually turn out to be 2 square rooms and a roof, because Im so awful at building houses, and I cant download houses, because I dont have the right installer thingy.
I especially love the cute little Peasant houses! They are so homely looking, real little sim farms! ^^
Cant wait to read more!!!
Jen, if I were able to build anything ten times less pretty than your houses, I would be a very happy simmer…. Unfortunatly, I’m not that much of a builder, let alone sim decorator, I can’t seem to be patient enough…
Good job on making everything look victorian, it must have taken a lot of time and hard work!!
Oh my, all of those houses look amazing! And I can already see some of the interesting things you’ve been able to find to aid your stories, the broken wheel and the wooden cart for example. This is really an inspiration. Now I want to play in the victorian era. hehe.
Oooh, pretty! Can’t wait to see the story!
The homes are all beautiful. Even the poor little cottages. It is my desires that the one family aquires a plethora of chickens. I mean, I hope those people get lots and lots of chickens. :) I wonder what is going to go down at the party house? That sounds interesting. Thanks for the pictures Jen:)
Amazing work! Great houses. I’m so glad you put up some pictures!
Now, if you’d put them up for download… hmm what can I offer :)
Gethane
Jen, I really adore the houses. This really makes me want to start the RKC too, if I didn;t have problems with the game. I can’t wait to find out about your families and their stories.
Truly amazing Jen! You never cease to blow me away with your creativity and beautiful creations! I love the design of your homes. Great job and I can’t wait to meet all the residents of Annabel Island!
Holy cow Jen, I cannot believe how beautiful your houses are. I have never really spent time decorating the outside of my homes, or making really pretty homes in general. But you have inspired me to do so now! Fantastic job with this challenge so far!
Awesome!
Where on earth did you get that green scaffolding?? I haven’t been able to find any for my wouldbe-Victorian houses! And I love the towers in staredown.. :D
I myself am the most interested in that newly wed couple already having problems. Do I smell a Romance Sim locked in matrimony? ;)
I’ve been reading your blog for the longest time and I’ve never left a comment. But I think I will now. AWESOME HOUSES. I wish I could build houses like this, but I’m not allowed to download anything. Sucky. Do the Portela’s and the Carmer’s really live in the community lots? How’d you manage that?
Thanks for the comments! I’m glad you guys like the houses, and I hope you’ll like the families just as much.
Catootje, I’m pleased that you like my RKC so far, since your blog is the one that inspired me to try the RKC in the first place! Good luck with your computer, and I look forward to more of your stories, whether they be RKC or Legacy. :-)
Kay, all of the Victorian siding comes from Holy Simoly. It’s gorgeous stuff (you should see the lovely houses they have in their screenshots) and I’m glad they made enough colors so that I could do a bunch of houses with it. :-)
Alice, hi and thanks for your comment! Would you be able to download any houses that are all-Maxis, no custom content? I’ve been thinking of doing a few Victorian-style houses with all Maxis stuff and uploading them to the Exchange. As for the Portelas and the Carmers, those are just residential lots that I’m “pretending” are community lots. If they want customers they’ll either have to call them up and invite them over or accost them as they’re walking by. Victorian street hawkers!
Well, I’m off to sleep a little before my busy weekend. I’m hoping I’ll get to play Saturday night & Sunday, and maybe even update Sunday night. HOPE being the key word…
Wow the houses are breathtaking…you should be and architect or interior designer or something. No kidding. Thanks again for that page and i will try and fix my beloved sims game. Thanks so much. Have a great weekend yourself.
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=42789 You know that annoying little thing where there’s no ceiling that you can see so if you have a great shot of a sim but in the background you see the wall cutting off and the sky? Well, that’s a ceiling. Maybe you already saw the link on Bringing Up Daisies but I thought it would be a nice tool. I also found more ceilings but I don’t remember the link. Your houses look gorgeous but I still say you could make it more realistic by deleting the sidewalk and road and using ground covers to make it look like a dirt road. I also saw the cool stone ground covers at Aussie Topenders so since you’re doing the challenge in Victorian style it might be better to have stone or brick roads. I haven’t gotten to play my game much because of studying so that’s why I wrote such a bigger comment than I usually do. And I don’t have school over the weekend so I think it’s safe to say that I will have a GREAT weekend!
But if you delete the sidewalk and road, then it looks weird when you’re in the neighbourhood view with the houses having one type of road and then getting cut off and replaced with pavement etc in the rest. Plus, wouldn’t deleting that risk the chance of accidentally deleting the invisible objects that lets people enter your lot? :o
I’ve actually deleted the road before and it worked fine for me. From neighborhood view it still looks like the road is there. It’s totally up to you but I thought it looked cool when I tried it. It’s true that the road surrounding your lot would still show up but I just think that if you angle your camera correctly then it would look even more victorian than you’ve got it. Your game might be different than mine so if you want to test it to see if it messes up cars or people getting on your lot then go ahead. If it turns out it doesn’t work as well for you then just don’t save the game. *shrugs* I still think it would look cool.
Jen..thanks so much for the link. Turns out it did help me and i can now blay my beautiful sims. Thanks so much. You are the nicest person i know..or dont really know. No kidding. Haha thanks Jen.
Nita – Cool, I didn’t know you could delete the road. I’ll have to play around with that.
Eva – Hoorah! I’m so glad you can play your Sims again. :-D
Wow, wow, wow! As always, I’m impressed by you and your creations. I can hardly wait to hear about the inhabitants of Annabel Island. I love Holy Simoly’s victorian siding as well. It’s perfect for this kind of project.
I updated! At least the first half. *dabs at sweaty brow* 70 pictures, man. It’s more pictures than words to be sure. :o
Lovely houses!!!
Great job, like always :)
:) I know it’s totally cool isn’t it?
I looked in your archives just now and realized that it’s been almost a year since you opened your blog. August is nearly over. Just a stupid spur of the moment idea but maybe Mt. Geneva should have a birthday party when September comes. Stupid, I know, but it might be a fun story to write. There’d be a holiday in the neighborhood and Maude could tell the story of that night. All the Maude’s tales families, satilite houses and the two Shaney legacy houses could be celebrating the town’s birthday. Maybe Maude would even like the Shaneys more if she got to tell their story. Maybe I’m wrong about the last part but I still think this would be a fun thing to do. It’s not a challenge but it might keep you entertained. If you’re too busy with May Green and Annabel Island then that’s okay too. Back to the challenge, I eagerly await your next update!!!