Hey, all you crazy Simmers. Sorry I’ve been away for so long. My brain was crunching away on what to do about those darned Ravelos. But I’m back on track now, and happy to report that I’ve transported them safely to Shady Bluff, so hopefully no more crashing problems. *crosses fingers, toes, and eyeballs*
Here’s what I did, if you’re interested in the details: I moved the Ravelos out of Grunewald Estate and onto an empty lot. I packaged up that lot and installed it on my Shady Bluff account. I did the same with the Grunewald lot, now devoid of the family and whatever custom content might have been making it crash. Of course, story-wise, the Ravelos are still in Weatherby, so I’ll have to ask you guys to just pretend they’re not in Shady Bluff yet. That’s right. These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.
In the meantime, I had to refurnish Grunewald since I’m still using it for Ravelo pictures. So I figured I might as well fill it with mostly Maxis content and put it up for download! This offering comes with a warning, however: Grunewald was crashing when it was in Weatherby, but I’m pretty sure that was either because of the Ravelos being buggy or some conflict with custom content on the lot. It’s clean now, so it should be fine, but I just wanted you to know. Please do let me know if you have any problems with it.
There are three windows from MTS2 that I used, but otherwise everything is Maxis content. The windows are NOT included in the file so you will have to download them separately. I’ve listed the links at the end of this post.
I took a ton of pictures, so you can think of this as a little tour as well. Aaaand…we’re off!
Welcome to Grunewald Estate! This house is based on an actual mansion from the Victorian era — you can see it on the front cover of American Country Houses of the Gilded Age. I varied the floor plan to make it more modern and Sims-friendly, but the exterior is fairly similar.
As you can see, this house is ginormous. Mondo. Huge. I left several rooms empty because the lot is slow enough without them full. So fill them at your own peril! And if your computer can’t handle large lots, you might want to skip this one.
I apologize for the grid lines in the next picture. I didn’t notice them until just now. D’oh! But it shows you a close-up of the exterior.
Now to the rear of the house! As you can see, there’s not much landscaping. Again, I didn’t want to slow the lot down even more. Also, I kept the fall foliage because the Ravelos are still in autumn (well, a weird version of autumn in which tulips bloom).
You can see the driveway leading to the garage here. Yes, it’s an insanely long driveway, but I kind of like having the garage tucked away in the back.
And now we switch to nighttime! I have GunMod’s Light Mod installed in Shady Bluff, and sometimes the rooms get over-bright in the daytime, so I just let it be night (the Ravelos moved out at night, so it’s kind of stuck there at the moment. I had to use a trick to get the daytime pics above [as evidenced by the little terrain circle you see in the backyard].)
Here’s a close-up view of the front door:
The main stairway leading down into the foyer:
The living room:
The dining room:
A view of the kitchen:
Another view of the kitchen:
And here we have the pet room! The nice thing about the pet room is that even though the Ravelos have 5 animals in the house, they all pretty much stay in this room, so I don’t lose track of them. And they can get to the yard easily when they have to piddle. There’s a doghouse just outside for breeding purposes as well.
Here we have the nursery, outfitted with its own mini-kitchen (to make bottle-feeding easier) and a bed for sleepy parents.
The rest of the nursery:
Here’s a bathroom (Grunewald has 5 finished bathrooms, and rooms for 2 more):
This particular one is just off of the nursery and pet room, so it’s a good spot for giving baths.
On the other side of the house (across the driveway), we have the “entertainment” rooms. Here’s the view into the poker room from the billiard room (there’s a bar in the billiard room, but you can’t see it in this pic).
Just upstairs from the billiard room is the music room:
I’ve furnished four bedrooms in the house, but there is room for a few more, if you need ’em. Here’s Melly Ravelo’s room:
Another view of Melly’s room:
Ravi and Anastacia’s room (it used to be Trent and Tristen’s, but Ravi and Ana moved in after they passed away), also known as the “master bedroom”:
Ravi and Ana’s old room:
Tennyson’s room:
And now for some bird’s-eye views of the whole she-bang…here’s the first floor (or at least two-thirds of it):
Here’s the other third (you can see the unfinished bathrooms and a painting room):
Half of the second floor:
The other half:
Sorry if the pics are a bit dark — they looked fine on my computer at home, but not so much here. I’ll get that light mod figured out yet.
The details:
- Cost: §317,596
- Lot size: 5 x 6
- Mostly furnished
- EPs required: University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets
- Download Grunewald Estate (please make sure you also download the custom content listed below)
Custom content needed:
- Two Tile Arched Window and two tile version of the Eclectic Expressions window by macarossi @ MTS2
- Lafenetre Short Window by windkeeper @ MTS2
Enjoy! (And yes, this does mean I’m working on the Ravelo update. I have no idea when it’ll be up, but it’s on the way!)
Great house, Jen! I really loved the bathroom, how you made the cheaper tub look awesome with that half wall. Glad to see you’ve successfully moved the Ravelos. Hope you don’t have anymore problems with them.
YEAH!!! THIS IS THE COOLEST HOUSE YET!!! I LOVE IT!!! And I am SO HAPPY you’re working on the Ravelo update…HALLELUJAH!!! I can’t wait for it, as long as you do it in 2007…heh, I know you’ll definetely do that. CANT WAIT, JEN!! YEAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OMG that’s such a beautiful house! It’s so cool! I love how the house has kind’ve a bridge over the driveway! It’s awesome. I’m so excited about the upcoming Ravelo update! I miss those sims!
Jen, a little tip to get gridlines out…
Go into buy mode, click the day/night toggle then click the recolor (swatch) tool. Takes out the gridlines no problem.
Or I just use the sethour cheat (a LOT!) take pics then leave without saving. *Le shrug*
How the heck do you play this lot? Wow! Even my new computer would probably chunk on that!
is this sims 2 family stuff ?
Woooo, return of the Jen! :D I love looking at your houses. I’m also very curious: how do you usually go about building? Whenever I follow a picture I always seem to end up with something a lot clumsier, unfortunately. You have good build fu, ma’am. A+!
sooo pretty
Hi. Another brillant house. I may have to re-read the Ravelo stories though as I found I’ve forgotten who most of them were!. Don’t worry I’m a quick reader and I’ld probably just read the lastest ones to refreash my memory.
Great work I like Melly’s room best nice and girly.
keep up the great work.
See ya
The Ravelo house? Oh what a dream come true!!! Thank you Jen. This is a gorgeous house. I can’t wait to go poke around in it! What an awesome design, and kudos to you for making Maxis look so GOOD. you are such a talented decorator/builder. Your houses are filling up Legacy Land (it was almost bare before) and they look GREAT!
That is an amazing home. I love the stone columns in the kitchen.
I can’t wait to try it out. Thank you!
Lovely house, Jen. The half-wall in the bathroom is a neat idea, and the drivethrough the splits the ground floor remings me of a French Chateu. Awesome!
YES!!!!!! I love it! it is so nice. although i have to say: big much? but it is stil a WOW, i mean its beyond a wow, its an AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I might download it, but i have to sift through my downloads and lighten up a bit, i think its slowing down my gameplay. AWSOME!
Yeah, to be completely honest, the house was too big for my gameplaying needs, but people had requested it, so I thought I’d make it available. It might be the kind of house people download once to look at and then delete — and that’s fine by me!
I cant wait for the next update! i think thats what ill probably do, look at it move a family in for alittle gameplay, then delete it. (sry, its just too big)
I love love the pooltable/billiard area! Using all the green gives it a neat “english club” type feel. (maybe, not that I’ve ever seen an english club, but I do read a lot of regency romance novels :))
I also really love the shape of your master bedroom.
Beautiful job!
if the EPs with this house were mentioned, i missed it, are there stuff packs? I only have OFB, Nightlife, Pets and University.
nevermind, i found them
Hey Jen, guys! well I love BIG houses, I guesse I’m really lucky because they d’ont seem to slow down my lots when I play with them, anyways I have been waiting for this update for SOOOOOOOO LONG! its great to have the privilage of having with house (wich I do!) thanks so much, by far the BEST house I’ve personaly ever seen (even the real ones!) thanks so much, I’ve got the perfect family for that house!
Holy Smokes!! Look at that Mansion! LOL Absolutely stunning, and how cool is it that there is a disco room on the third floor? Heheee…well not Disco per se, but you know what I mean.
I wish I could play in a house THAT big- I would be all over that place with my Sims. Right now, my computer cringes everytime I just look at those pictues. hahaa.
Too beautiful though!
LOVE the driveway/garage setup!! Absolutely brilliant.
I love the house though how do you install the windows i thought i’d check before downloading
Yeah I coudn’t seem to download the windows, the house worked fine, but when I added the window files and checked it out on my game they weren’t there, so I’d also like to know how to download them!
Sorry, forgot to add, if someone could tell me how to download that custom content I’d really appreciate it!
Abby and kitty – To install the windows, do the following:
1. Click on the link to go to the site. Download the .ZIP or .RAR file containing the file you want. For example, for the Two Tile Arched Window by macarossi, you would download the file called “EEKitchenWindow_2Tile_macarossi.rar” (it’s about halfway down the page). Just click on that file to download it. Save it to your My Documents –> EA Games –> Sims 2 –> Downloads folder.
2. Unzip the file, using a program like WinRar 3.61 (there is a trial version that you seem to be able to use for quite awhile). Make sure you unzip the file to your My Documents –> EA Games –> Sims 2 –> Downloads. If you have WinRar installed, the easiest way to do this is to right-click on the file and select “Extract here”. Once you’ve extracted the files, you can delete the .rar or .zip that you downloaded.
3. When you boot up your game, make sure that custom content is ENABLED. You may get a screen before you select your neighborhood which asks if you want to disable or enable custom content. Make sure it is enabled. If you have to change it from disabled to enabled, none of your custom content will show up until you quit out and restart the game. If that screen does not come up, let me know and I’ll help you with that.
Hope that helps! Let me know if there’s some part of the process that isn’t working for you, and I’ll do my best to clarify.
Yay! The tour of the Ravelo house I was hoping for! What a brilliant set up. I love the stairs in the entryway. The entertainment side of the house is awesome. I’m also a big fan of the half wall in the bathroom. I use those in my bathrooms all the time to make massive showers. This house would probably kill my computer but it’s great inspiration. I use a lot of your ideas in my smaller houses. One of my favorites is the use of stone walls in the kitchen. It gives it such a warm, homey feeling.
Jen – you rock! :-) Keep up the good work.
This house is immaculate. The house looks almost real. I wish they I could have a house like this. 10 out of 10
beautiful, great job! i know i speak for everyone when i say im about to pee my pants in anticipation for the next story update. what…no one else does that any more?
Hey Jen, thanks for the steps, I was able to understand them and download the windows!
thanks a bunch!
Those lucky Ravelos! That house is beautiful Jen! You did a great job building, and it really does look a lot like the real house! I love the way you decorated, and you have really mastered those stairs with landings! I can’t wait for the Ravelo update now!
I am absolutely borrowing that garage-in-back feature! I also love your stairs. Jen, please share how you built those wickedly killer stairs!
The stairs are quite easy to build! I just used the “stage” tool or whatever you call that thingy that builds a foundation on top of your foundation. I think it came with OFB…but I could be wrong. All of the EPs are blurring together in my head. So I put two squares of that at the bottom, then used the modular stairs tool to create a double staircase heading down to it. Then I put in the two stairways at the bottom and finished off everything with railings/fences. Pretty slick!
thanx Jen.By the look of Ravi and Ana’s old room you need glamour aswell but you never put that on the list, not a problem for me but other people might not have glamour.It is a lovely house and your explanation was beautiful
or is it from pets