I decided I’d rather have one blog than two, so Greetings from Mt. Geneva has been un-retired, and Gnomesby has been merged with it. Now all of the Franchesca Diaries stories are in one happy place, yay. And since I like the WordPress layout I had at Gnomesby so much, I’ve decided to use it here, too.
Currently I’m working on a Fran update and a few other things that are just for kicks. One of the things that falls into the latter category is a retro ‘hood I’m calling Holiday Hills. It’s a throwback to the 1950s (with a little late 1940s and early 1960s mixed in) — not the actual 1950s, of course, but kind of an impressionistic rose-colored glasses Simsian view of the era. A fantasyland.
I’m not sure if I’ll actually play with the ‘hood or just build stuff and take pictures (because it’s funnn!), but anyway, I thought I’d share a few of a work-in-progress. Here we have a modern ranch house on the beach.
(Ha, you can see where I forgot to continue the foundation wallpaper underneath the decking.)
Wicked stairway, eh? The cliff was formed when I used the new Modifyneighborhoodterrain cheat (great tutorial here) to lower one edge of the Bluewater terrain in order to place beach lots. Well, that didn’t form the cliff, exactly, but the street was far above the water, and I had to level the lot in order to build. That cheat is AWESOME, by the way, though it can be kind of scary (no undo button!) and tricky to use.
I’ll post more pics once I get the thing furnished.
I’d definitely class that as a wicked stairway :) That cheat is a particularly scary one – it doesn’t seem to do what I want it to do yet, but I’ll take a look at that tutorial next time I try to tackle it.
Love the photos and I’ve enjoyed Fran’s latest stories. I’m dipping my toe back into the simming waters again too – life, other games, falling behind in expansions, and a possibly too ambitious simming project has slowed me down. Such a big, intimidating job getting the 5 billion mods that make the game great up to date again!
Enjoy your unretirement :)
Yay for merging!
Wow … love the pictures you took, and that’s a great car. Where’d you find that “109” to put on the side of the house?
And that’s totally WICKED your stairs leading down to the beach. I’m too afraid of that cheat code to use it. :O)
Wow! What an amazing home! I love that cliff and the how part of the house juts over it. It’s got to be a beautiful view from those windows.
Hel – Yeah, it was fun and a little scary figuring out how to use that cheat. One thing the tutorial I linked to doesn’t mention (I think) is that you can use “P” to smooth terrain, which is great for keeping roads from being too steep and such. And yeah, keeping the game up-to-date and playable can be quite a chore; I hope you have fun with whatever you do. :-)
Angelia – Heya!! The house numbers come from The Sims Cave (further down in that thread) — I discovered Sherry’s stuff the other day and downloaded just about everything she’s made! And the cheat code isn’t too bad — you could always play around with it in a throwaway ‘hood until you get the feel for how it works.
Bluemoon – Thanks for you comments! I’m glad you liked the house. :-)
Jenba, I would read a technical manual if you were the person writing it. I love Mt. Geneva and I love Gnomesby. The 2 together is as good as a Reese cup.
I LOVE THE SMURFIN’ STEPS TO THE BEACH. THEY”RE SOOO SMURFIN’ COOL. I definetelyy want to tryy that for myy hood. But i’m almost kind of scared that it won’t turn out that wayy, and instead give me problems. But I guess it’s worth a tryy if i want to have a beach-themed neighborhood. I’ve always been quick with making hoods but now i think i’ll take myyy sweet time and work as best to myy ability =P Thanks for the ideas as always Jenba . & great update, i love it when you update these beautiful homes and locations. you have a veryy creative mind. =P
Oh Jen, that house is lovely! I cannot get over how awesome you are at building houses and landscaping. I just learned how to make a Mansard roof in the game, which is like the easiest thing ever and I was pretty proud. But then I look at your house with that beautiful sun room extending out over the cliff, etc…and it makes my little Mansard roof look like a pre-schooler made it! Hahaha, you always blow me away. Great job and I really hope you keep up the 50s neighborhood. I’d love to see what else you create for it. And thanks for the congrats on my new baby! He’s getting bigger everyday, and I’m getting more and more used to being a mama. It’s a lot of work and definitely cuts into my sims time (heehee), but he’s oh-so-worth-it!
Jen the house is A-W-S-O-M-E! i love it they stair ways pretty cool too. Great idea of merging both of them together.cant wait to see more.
This house is gorgeous. And it’s a good idea both to merge the two blogs and to build a 50’s hood. Of course, if you wan’t to be realistic, there are things that must belong to the 30’s and the 40’s ’cause not everybody bought exclusively brand new things each decade. Your building skills are amazing ! It must be said !
Hi. I’m glad to see you’re enjoying playing the sims again :)
lovely house you built by the way.
glad to see you’re having fun.
See ya
Thanks, everyone! I’m glad you like the house so far.
And gab75, I am definitely going to build earlier era stuff for the ‘hood, too. I just have to get the ultramodern ranch homes out of my system, since I have never built any – it’s something new. There is a lot of GREAT modern furniture out there. But yeah, there are going to be some regular old 2-story homes, bungalows, an art-deco-ish school, etc.
Jen! Super excited that you are back. But I was looking at your credits page and thought you might like to know that Siluettasims has moved to a subscriber only site at TSR. All of her stuff is now pay. I didnt know how to comment on your Credits page so sorry for commenting here. Just thought you’d like to know! I love the merged sites FYI!
i love your houses, and bulidings their so absloutly amazing!
i love the stairway!
Very very nice. Will you be offering the houses up for download? I can just picture the suburb in my megahood now.
Rose – Thanks for reminding me about Siluettasims. I’ve updated the credits. :-)
chloe – Thank you!
Oydie – Thanks for stopping by! I have thought about putting the houses up for download, but they’re usually so full of CC, it takes awhile for me to make a shopping list. I have a long list of homes I want to build without CC (or with minimal CC) and put up for download, though. So keep watching!