The Deshannons Acquire a Home

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.

Ely Corners

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.

Ely Corners

Doug Deshannon is eco-friendly (quick showers, yay), so I put a clothesline in the backyard. You can also see the garden signs where Doug hopes to plant some tomatoes and lettuce (his daughter Joann is something of a tomato enthusiast).

Ely Corners

Inside, we find the kids – Gail, Kirby, and Joann — hanging out in the living room, watching TV and chatting. They’re supremely bored because there’s nothing to do in town yet. I plan on building the local pub next, but that still won’t do much for teens and kids, so they’ll just have to be patient.

Ely Corners

(I changed Kirby’s hairstyle to look a little more “jock”-ish, but I don’t know if I like it…this is why it takes me so long to do things — I can’t make up my danged mind!)

Here’s another view of the living room with nobody occupying it. The wicker trunk that looks like a coffee table in the middle of the room is one of Around the Sims 3’s new chest-likes – they’re based on the treasure chests from World Adventures, but you don’t need WA to use them. There are no animations for them, but Sims can store inventory in them, which makes it easier to share things among the whole household. I haven’t tried them in-game yet, but I love the idea! There are several different styles of chests, and most of them have slots on top, making them doubly useful. Sandy comes up with the BEST stuff.

Ely Corners

Here’s the hallway leading to the bedrooms, bathroom, laundry nook, and the side porch, for easy access to the driveway. I forgot to make a spot for the washing machine originally, so I had to carve a little space out of the girls’ bedroom and then add an archway so it wouldn’t be right IN the hallway. Now my side door looks like a front door with a vestibule. D’oh.

Ely Corners

The dining room, still stuck in the 1920s, but Doug likes it that way:

Ely Corners

And here’s the kitchen, which is rather shabby looking and in need of renovation (why yes, I did that on purpose – I have become rather obsessed with shabbifying things!):

Ely Corners

Down the hallway, we come to the master bedroom, which is also where Doug does his writing. His specialty is historical paranormal noir, which is a genre I made up about five seconds ago but suits him perfectly. I gave him a comfy desk chair, a computer, and a view of the river, so he should be pretty contented in there. I mean, what more do you need?

Ely Corners

Across the hall, his two daughters share a room. Instead of forcing his usual palette of browns and greens on them, he let them go shopping (online of course – there isn’t much in the way of local retail yet) and pick out their own bedding and furniture. (They didn’t bother to make their beds this morning, tsk tsk.)

Ely Corners

Kirby, by virtue of being the only boy, gets his own spacious room up in the attic. Lucky kid. Oh, and he didn’t make his bed, either.

Ely Corners

I didn’t bother with pics of the bathrooms, because they’re teensy and hard to take pictures of, but I did them in a 1920s style also. Basically, very simple with a lot of tile.

Here’s a pic of Doug on the back porch, enjoying the fine late summer/early autumn weather (I’ve decided it’s always September-October-ish in my world, at least until we get real weather):

Ely Corners

Finally, here are some progress pics. The first is an overall view of what I want to finish up before I start playing.

Ely Corners

There’s Ely Corners, of course, which still needs abour four more houses and a few community lots. Then Carroll Island, which is going to have an old spa hotel, four or five old cabins, and a lot of trees. Last but not least, the Old Lumberyard area, which has the old lumberyard, the old train depot (now the recording studio/coffeehouse), and a few old lumberyard worker houses.

The lot up on the hill (at the top of the winding path) is a church/cemetery that I built back in October (before Late Night came out — my, how time flies), but I need to put some graves in there and possibly change the roof. Hey, I just remembered I have a pic of it — here you go, a work in progress:

Ely Corners

Oy, I have a ways to go. Notice how this project has tripled in size over the past week…I blame my non-Simming friend Michelle, who gave me a ton of cool ideas for my town. Darn you, Michelle! I’m having a blast with it, though. I just have to learn how to build and decorate more quickly so I can keep a good pace here and not get overwhelmed. It takes me a long time to create Sims, too, but fortunately I have six more families done already – they just need homes.

Some shots of Ely Corners:

Ely Corners

You can see Doug fishing in the river in the above pic – I need to figure out how to make the water a less turquoise-y blue – it doesn’t look very river-like! I’ve also been trying to give those houses along the river back porches so they can enjoy the view, but I forgot to do that on the Avalon, the last house on the right. I’ll have to make a note to do that.

Ely Corners

All righty, that’s it for now. I hope to speed up my progress, but I might linger over building the pub – I’ve been looking forward to it, and I want to get it just right. Until next time, Happy Simming!

23 thoughts on “The Deshannons Acquire a Home

  1. Ok, I am seriously in love with this current project of yours Jen, every single home looks AMAZING!! Wow, 6 more families to find homes for, plus community lots, I’m in awe of your planning and building abilities, I would never have that kind of patience or imagination, Ely corners is already looking fantastic! Btw I still would love to have some of your sims for dl if you ever felt like sharing, I just love the personalities and back stories you give them. I think that’s why my own attempts at hood building fail. I love making over ea hoods and sims homes so much as opposed to building my own, as I’ve got a direction to go in and sims to please :) I love prepopulated hoods too but I always want to makeover every single lot and I don’t want to destroy someone elses hard work!

    • Oh, I would be happy to upload some of my families, if you want them! I’ve never done that, so I’ll have to check it out next time I’m in-game. :) I totally hear you on preferring to do makeovers — doing a whole world from scratch is insanely time-consuming (and I’ve never gotten very far with it myself). Thanks so much for your nice comments on my project so far, it means a lot!

  2. Heavens, what an ambitious project! Dang, I’m loving that house, it’s super-gorgeous. And your plan for the town is so cool! It’s so fun to watch you go through this process. :D

    • Thanks, WebbyMom, I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I think the town will be pretty cool if I ever finish it…but that’s a very big IF!!

  3. Dang, jenba. You always make it look so easy … but I can hear your frustration between the lines. ;O) Hehe. I still wish I could build and decorate as well as you. I stole the links you provided to those object websites. When I get back into simming, which I hope is soon (once I update my OS to Windows 7 and reinstall EVERYTHING … *whimper*) … we’ll see how that goes. The church is nice, but I’m not sure about that roof steeple. It looks a little large, but … what do I know? *LOL* Other than that, the neighborhood is REALLY coming together! Rock on, girl!

    • LOL, you know me well, Ange! There is definitely frustration involved…and I haven’t even gotten to the hard stuff yet (community lots and the no rabbitholes thing). Ack, you have you reinstall everything?? Is because you’re upgrading to Win 7? I’ve thought about doing that myself…but XP is working just fine for me at present, so I dunno. I agree with you on the roof steeple — I don’t like it much, which is why I’ll probably redo it. Actually, I might build something completely different — like a temple to the Sim gods! Heh.

      • Yeah, if you’re going from XP to Win7, you have to do full resinstall (even though you are still able to buy the upgrade price version). If you’re upgrading from Vista, you don’t have to worry about it. I’m doing it mainly because for a lot of the “next gen” PC games, they are no longer supporting XP. So … I just want to make sure that my computer will be good for several more years to come.

  4. I remember The Vallonia! (Apollo and Meadow Thayer live in this house!) It’s absolutely amazing in Sims3. Wow. Do you think You’ll ever build Shanley Manor?? I can’t wait to see what develops in this little town.

    • Yay, Apollo and Meadow! How cool that they’re living in the Vallonia. I feel very honored. You know, I actually thought about building Shanley Manor in TS3, based on the “tour” I gave of the house in Gen 4 or whenever that was. I think it could be kind of neat. Maybe it could be part of the next stage of development in Ely Corners/Riverview…

  5. Lovely! I do like progress and it looks like you’ve made a ton. This is such a beautiful town Jenba. I too like the shabby/dingy look; it seems especially suitable for these old homes.

    Did I ever say that I really like your seamless combination of maxis and cc? Not everyone can achieve that look; you make it work so well together. And your families are realistic too. I like the back stories you’ve created and can see why you spend so much time in creating them.

    btw – Did has Jerry Dufreyne developed a phobia of outdoor bass playing? I still crack up at the thought of him. lol

    • Heehee, poor Jerry — yeah, he’s a piano player now, he won’t be playing bass to the trees and birdies for a long time! ;) Thanks so much for your kind words about my project; it helps to keep me going!

  6. Jen, this whole project just gets better and better. I truly envy you the patience it takes to start from scratch – I’m like Jo, and would rather make over than start over – and my own sims have always bored me senseless so I take the easy route and adopt whoever seems interesting the EA hoods.
    I love how this neighbourhood has a theme flowing through it, without being themed (that made sense in my head)! It all fits so well together and I am soooooooooooo diggin’ that church!
    If I trash my Riverview, can I have yours???? Huh? Huh? Can I?

    …dammit, just remembered I’d have to kill Betty off if I did that. I’ll have to stick with what I’ve got :P

    • Yeah, whatever you do, don’t kill Betty off! She completely and totally rocks. :) I am usually impatient and easily bored with my Sims, so I don’t know how long this project will last, but I’m still having fun with it. I just have to make sure I don’t get sidetracked…

  7. Oh wow, I love how the Deshannons’ house turned out. It’s so adorable……..*sigh* I wish I had your building talent. I’m so-so with the decorating, but the building……well, lets just say it needs work (“,).

    I’ve always loved the map of Riverview, but never knew there was a clean version. I might have chosen that instead of Barnacle Bay had I known. But after spending so many points on the darn hood, the purchase feels better now that I’ve revamped it. Anyway, the point of that ramble was that I’m really looking forward to seeing what you do with Riverview. Sounds like a sleepy little town I’d like to stay in…..*shrugs* I’m a sleepy town kind of gal.

    • I’m a sleepy little town kind of gal, too. I’m actually probably making it TOO sleepy, and nothing interesting will ever happen, but oh well, it’s a blast right now! I think you’re awesome at decorating — I don’t recall seeing any of your builds, but I’m sure you’re better at it than you think! Hope you’re having fun in Barnacle Bay — I love reading about Mr. Gatsby so far. :)

  8. I really love how well you build your homes! I’m having terrain problems in my game so for now I can’t do any building in my game :( I did some fix tips I found but nothing. I will just wait till i end my legacy to Install the game again.

    • Thanks so much, ani_! I wish I could get it done faster so I can actually PLAY…I love reading about your gameplay.

  9. I am constantly in awe of how much attention to detail you put into your game. It’s evident in the lots, in your sims, and even in the downloads you use. Ely Corners is looking great, and I can’t wait to see what you do with the rest of the world! *thumbs up*

  10. Love the look of their home! I need to check out that Sears site and start working on homes myself. :)

    Ooo, neat idea for the WA chest! (I’ve got WA and like those chests, but it’ll be nice to have some other options too.)

    In the kitchen, where’d you get that shelf that’s going across the windows? Or is that done using moveobjects or something?

    Awesome looking world you’ve got going there! Looks like a lot of really good real estate locations to use.

    Neat looking church too. :D

    You’re planning on sharing the pub when you get it built, right? *borrows Angelia’s Chibi Eyes*

  11. Heya Aer! Yeah, that shelf is something I placed using moveobjects on, but I’m not sure where the shelf came from…I’ll check next time I’m in the game. :) And I’d love to take credit for the awesomeness of the world, but it’s Riverview, so I can’t. ;) As for the pub, I would absolutely love to share it, but at this point it’s about 80% custom content. :-/ I don’t usually post stuff that people have to track down a ton of CC for, because it’s a pain in the patootie for everyone involved. :-p If I don’t use CC, though, then I get bored decorating. So…it’s one of those things.