1890s Week 2 | 1890s Week 4

Welcome back to the madhouse. As a reminder: we’re in the 1890s, and have three toddlers and two dogs. Oh yeah, and Anna is pregnant again. Save me! No, really.. the twins have their birthday very soon, and I’m really looking forward to it.

Gertrude, dear, that’s not particularly helpful. But I guess it’s better than the toilet. Also: did not know toddlers could do this. Did you?

Bathtime for Jesse. The dog is not helping. LOL.

Then, Anna has a energy fail.. and tries to pass out while holding Jesse. Lovely glitch. She ends up stuck like this, and I have to reset her. It’s also about this time that the twins state that it’s their birthday.. and I realize 1 – I have no stove to make a cake, and 2 – you can’t make cakes off the grid anyway. Darn. I have to wait for them to spin up on their own.

James: “I saw that. You just peed yourself.”

Anna: “Shh. Let’s see you have four kids in a row and not have any accidents!”

Baby time!! Wonder what it’ll be. And yes, she’s still filthy. Bath can come later – after baby.

And it’s a girl! Welcome baby Edith. (Full disclosure: I forgot her name and had to reload the game to write this post. LOL OOPS)

Jesse being cute with the dog. Which dog? .. I dunno, can’t see the collar.

Finally. He gets randomized, and this is what he rolled. Figures, with all that red hair he has.

Post-makeover. He’s a real cutie.

She gets creative, as per challenge rules. The social butterfly was a roll.

I had the hardest time finding clothes for her. Didn’t really have anything appropriate. So we went with this.

Glenn’s first action: saying hello to his new baby sister. He seems to like her, which is good.

Then, he decides to take out the trash. I think I like this kid!

I send Gertrude to do her homework, and Glenn decides to join her. They have a conversation while doing it, so it takes forever, but that’s okay.

Ginger is babysitting Jesse.. and a stinky toilet. Neither seem to mind the toilet, though.

No idea who Anna was talking to here, but she looks great in this photo. Nevermind that she’s supposed to be cooking dinner or the fact that the counter is filthy.

Look! Jesse can fly! Still one of my favorite interactions.

I tried to get more era-appropriate beds, but they were too expensive.. so I settled on these plain wooden ones.

Sure, Gertrude, play where the dogs are supposed to be eating. You do you.

Gertrude and Glenn come to complain about a monster, and James pretty much says he’s had it for the day. Poor guy.

This, I believe is one of the Munch kids. Logan, I think his name is. I’ve been having Gertrude and Glenn meet kids at school and whoever walks by, ever keeping an eye out for future mates for them. It may be a little early – but that’s okay.

Glenn doing homework while the dogs play in the next room, doing as much as they possibly can to distract him.

Turns out Jesse is in there with them. Rook seems very interested in what he’s doing, while Ginger is occupied with Glenn in the next room.

No, Jesse, Gertrude cannot help you take a bath. Cute interaction, anyway.

Edith joins the family as the only child who got her father’s blue eyes.

My first experience with the “Teach to Knit” interaction. SO CUTE!!

Oh my gosh, she even leans in to help teach her the stitches! LOVE it!

Awww. Anna really tries so hard to be a good mom. It’s not her fault that this family is so crazy.

Kid central. This house is always filled with activity.

James getting asked advice from Glenn.

Anna, probably wondering why there’s always messes everywhere. I can point to exactly why. His name is Jesse. LOL. Gertrude is playing happily (and without making messes) behind her mother.

James comes home with a promotion, and finally, a desk to go with the chair he got earlier.

Told you the messes were Jesse’s fault. Really? You couldn’t wait until the other mess was at least cleaned up and mom left the room??

He decides chatting with his brother is more fun. Thank goodness.

Dad steps in to mop up the second mess, while Glenn brushes Ginger, who always needs brushing because she’s hairy.

Apparently, James likes the new desk idea.

Anna finally gets some knitting time of her own in.

I buy a knitting box for Gertrude, too, so she can make a little spare cash with her free time. The dog toy in the background was found by one of the dogs and brought back in a little pink box. It squeaks when they play with it, and my real life dog always tips her head, trying to figure out where the sound is coming from. It’s hilarious.

Last birthday for this update. He also gets random trait and aspiration.

Post-makeover shot. What pretty eyes!

Rook ages up to elder. Ginger doesn’t seem to realize she’s next.. and Gertrude is far too busy trying not to drop stitches in her rug to notice the party in front of her.

The kids decide to have a conference in the kitchen. Which reminds me.. they need a bigger table. I wonder if they can afford it..? (Probably not) .. Also wonder if I’ll remember to look and see whether they can in the next play session. (Also probably not. LOL.)

At least we got most the kids through being toddlers. Things should start calming down in the house now. I hope. See you next time!

1890s Week 2 | 1890s Week 4

1890s Week 1 | 1890s Week 3

We start out this week by sending Stefan to pass his bar exam for work, and then he needs level 2 logic – so he heads to the park, since we can’t really afford a chess table and chairs right now.

Our other task is selling that puppy. There’s no way I’m taking care of a puppy on top of two toddlers and being pregnant. Apparently Katrina Caliente is working for the adoption services. It has also occurred to me that I “handicapped” myself a bit by electing to have so many dogs in the house – we can’t have as many kids. So I don’t know that I’ll be trying for more puppies for a while, if at all.

Almost immediately, I discover that this is going to be a really hard week. The messes Anna has to clean up is just the beginning.

… Because there’s another one in process already. LOL.

“Hey, mama.. we’re hungry too!”

“So go get some off the counter and stop bothering me about it!”

(LOL)

Laundry time!

Gertrude is being cute, so I couldn’t resist a screenshot. Also, she’s up by herself in the middle of the night because she got hungry. She was a good girl, though, and didn’t wake anyone else – just got her meal, ate it, and crawled back upstairs to bed.

One of the few peaceful mornings before work that these two have this week. Note that the dogs need feeding, and there’s one very stinky dog behind James…

.. So we wash the dogs, and fill the food bowls.

Now that’s a happy dog!

But – as soon as those chores are done – there’s toddlers to bathe, too. The work never ends, and Anna’s energy is perpetually low.

Glenn is making friends with Rook, because mom and dad just don’t have time to talk to him right now.. so, the dogs are great for keeping up his “attention” need.

Things look so peaceful. I assure you, they’re not. I’m spending most my time yelling at pixel people who won’t do what I’m telling them to.

There’s a summer heatwave, so everyone is in their hot weather clothes. James is spending time with Gertrude, while Ginger supervises.

… I knew that was going to happen.

.. Gosh, I feel so bad for Anna. I just can’t seem to get her energy up. She keeps getting woken up.

… And now it’s baby time, too!

I love the curious dog behind Anna in this shot. Meet the newest Sheppard – Jesse. Another boy.

The toddlers, feeding themselves in the middle of the night.

… And in the morning. These guys seem to always be hungry.

What a huge storm! The lightning is actually loud enough to be jump-scaring me. LOL.

Yes, James, hurry off to work. This is what he leaves behind:

There’s also piles of laundry all over the upstairs and in the sims’ inventories. I feel like a horrible sim-watcher, because keeping up with this family is a NIGHTMARE.

Um…. James.. WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING?!

“There’s a storm outside.”

That’s outside. You’re inside.

“I don’t want my head to get wet, though.”

…Sigh. He finally put away the umbrella when he got out of the bath, only to pull it out again to walk back to the house.

Amazingly, this is one of the few toddler energy fails I have this week. At least the kids have been well cared for.

.. Even if the adults aren’t. And the house is still a disaster zone.

Aww.. I feel so bad for her. Things are not likely to improve, though. That puppy dog eye look isn’t going to help.

More laundry. And a screaming baby. And a toddler that needs attention. And dog hair everywhere again. Sigh.

.. At least the baby isn’t screaming anymore?

Even poor James is down for the count. He did manage to finish Gertrude’s bath before passing out, though.

You know you’re overwhelmed when going into CAS for an age-up makeover feels a bit like heaven. LOL. This is Jesse, all toddler-ified. Yet another kid with mom’s green eyes.

Haha…. it figures. She’s pregnant again. The dogs are begging for food again, and little Glenn is playing in a puddle of.. who knows what.

That moment when you seriously just stop to care and lay down for a nap. (Only to have to go to work a half hour later… LOL)

He leaves this mess behind, and by the end of the day when he gets home, the toilet will be broken, too.

Okay, I love rocking chairs. The interactions are adorable!

Poor Anna. Now she’s going tiger-striped.

Jesse playing with blocks by a dirty toilet, with a dog sleeping in a puddle of pee. EW.

Three mostly happy toddlers. For the moment.

Jesse nearly gets knocked over with a kiss from Ginger – I only catch the tail end of the interaction, but it was really cute.

James comes home with a promotion. He’s now officially a junior lawyer with the firm, and finally gets a suit to wear to work. He’s also horribly tired, and immediately goes for a rocking chair nap, because I was pretty sure he wasn’t going to make it upstairs.

Peace. For a moment, at least.

After his nap, he has to fix the toilet that was broken – and the sink, too.. but the toilet was definitely higher priority with a pregnant wife in the house.

And – no – he doesn’t make it to bed.

To be honest, I’m not sure who was stinking in this photo.. the toddler (Glenn) or James. But someone is. The dogs are in a great mood, though. Good thing they’re easy to care for!

The clothes line broke. Again. And that poor kitchen garden hardly ever gets any tending.

I find it hilarious that you can see her tiger stripes through the nightgown/robe.

…. I didn’t know toddlers could eat there..? I mean, I’m grateful, because he was VERY low on hunger.. but.. still, it’s weird.

Finally. It’s the end of the week, and I’ve got nearly everyone in the green and happily sleeping.

Except for James. James is trying to catch up on the housework to help his wife out. I finally gave up on gender stereotypes for this family for the week, because Anna simply wasn’t going to be able to make it through on her own. So whenever he’s home, he’s helping. 🙂

On that note, it’s time to move on to the next save. Next time: Fall and week three, which will start with the twins finally aging up. I was tempted to play to their birthdays, but escaping this house was also high on the list of priorities.

1890s Week 1 | 1890s Week 3

Intro/Rules | 1890s Week Two

First of all: let’s have a huge round of applause that Nifty Knitting has finally gotten here. Then, let’s meet our founders, James and Anna.

They’re downloaded from the gallery, with a little bit in the way of makeovers. Anna, in particular, had a hair color change so that she wouldn’t look so much like my other Decades founder, Juliet. I love her freckles, however, and they look so awesome with the red hair and green eyes. When I downloaded them, I kept their names – and their (male) dog, Rook. While preparing for the challenge, another simmer posted a photo of one of their challenge founders and his (female) dog.. and one thing led to another, and we swapped dogs so we could breed them. So: meet Ginger and Rook Sheppard.

Just for reference, I did check: the breed was officially recognized in 1907, but it existed before then. So we’re stretching credibility, and saying they brought them over with them when they came to the U.S.

Oh, and the featured photo is their house, that I built literally over a month ago in preparation for this challenge. It’s based off a photo I found of a house built in the 1890s, so it’s accurate to the time period. It is EXTREMELY lacking in furnishing, however, as you’ll see in the upcoming game-play photos. I didn’t start these guys out with a loan, so most their money went into building the home… they will have to earn enough to start furnishing it.

One last thing before I start play: this is a park lot I built to be as close to time period as possible, with as many uses as I could think of. I’ll be using it for both of my Decades saves.

Yes, it’s on the Gallery, called “1890 Church & Park”.

With all that out of the way.. let’s get this party started!

It’s spring, and cold out, so they’re both in their cold weather wear. I immediately send James to another lot so he can call to get his lawyer job that I planned for him. (Off the grid means I can’t get a job while on their home lot..)

Being that James will be working outside of the house, Anna is in charge of the kitchen garden. So I get her to buy some seeds and plant away. Then, it occurs to me I should take some pictures of the house to document how it starts:

And yes, James is back home and working on his Research & Debate skill for work. I didn’t take a picture of the empty rooms – there’s one downstairs and one upstairs.

Finally finished with the gardening, Anna sits down and starts work on her very first knitting project. (After telling the dogs to try to breed.)

The dogs, of course, refuse. This might take a while.

For some reason, sims are having trouble putting books away, and I keep getting “Last Exception”s – which I brought up to the MCCC folks, and they diagnose as being the books’ fault. So that book has to be manually put away, and it stays there for a while until I get around to it. Also of note: Anna, if you look closely, is already pregnant! No such luck on the dogs, though.

EA.. thanks for programming in that they can knit on the toilet. As a knitter, I assure you.. this is not a good idea. However, it was funny that it took me a while to find Anna – I didn’t think to look in the outhouse.

The dogs are finally starting to get along. Anna is getting to be pretty good friends with both of them, too.

Yay! They’re finally breeding! Still no puppy notification, though.

Poor Anna.. this pregnancy is really taking it out of her. James has been having to help with the garden because she just doesn’t have the energy.

Yet another nap. I feel terrible for her!

No idea who she’s talking to here. James wasn’t even home.. so it was either one of the dogs, or she was just talking to herself. Perhaps she was complaining about yet another book being out. LOL.

Oh, and.. hooray!!

It must be that time. Thanks for letting me know, James. 🙂

Yep.. that’s the baby face. I waited until the game gave us a free bassinet, because money is tight for these two…. so poor Anna had to be in labor for the entire time.

LOL. What a face. I completely relate. I was in labor for 37 hours when my RL son was born.. you’ll be okay, there, Anna.

See? It was all worth it, right?

… Maybe. I cursed so loudly at the second name the baby screen that my hubby thought something was actually wrong. Nope. Just twins. in 1890. Joy. Meet Glenn (on the left) and Gertrude (on the right).

Stuff is constantly breaking. I usually make James fix it when he next wakes up or whenever he gets home from work.

This place is officially a madhouse. And yes, this is how the twins aged up. We’re going to need makeovers. The redhead is Glenn. And the puppy is a little boy, named Dash. I will probably sell him.

I come out of the makeover screen to James playing with Gertrude. Too cute. And the dogs are making hairy messes again. Fun. (sarcasm)

I did the best I could on their outfits, but it’s hard to match the kids’ outfits for the time.

Um… already??

Here’s a good shot of both twins:

They’re both adorable and both got mommy’s green eyes.

One last thing.. here’s the toddlers’ upstairs room. I was only just barely able to afford their furniture. And that’s the week. The next week will probably be pretty crazy!

Intro/Rules | 1890s Week Two

House 013 Chapter 2 < | > House 013 Chapter 4

Checking on our goals:

House 013 Building Goals:
2 Bedroom, 1 Bathroom home worth at least $100k Simoleons
-Must include a designated gaming room
House 013 Generational Goals:
Achieve Level 10 of the Gamer branch of Tech Guru on Jax
1st place in Pro tournament for both Hillock II and Sims Forever on Jax
Achieve Level 10 of Start-Up Entrepreneur branch of Tech Guru on 2nd sim
*Note* All sims are Controllable in this house!
Produce and raise The Heir to the Young Adult life stage

.. So I haven’t done any of the goals. We’ve been busy with school. We’ll get to them… eventually.

Jax is now at the top of the eSports Gamer after school activity. He’s a “Captain” now, which I believe entitles him to entrance straight into the eSports branch of the career. We’ll see when I join. Meanwhile, I’m going to keep him in his club, and keep working on his “Academic” aspiration.

This is what I get to watch between these two.. day in and day out. Lots of studying.

And LOTS of filthy dogs. I just don’t have time to bathe all of them each day.. and they love rolling in puddles.

Winterfest. And there’s a vampire here, too. Joy. We don’t get much in the way of presents, but at least we try for them.

Prissy looks as confused as I am. Why is Father Winter taking a shower?? In fact.. he took three. And the vampire is on our computer. Why? Who knows.

Father Winter finally leaves. In his pink pants and hoodie. That’s hilarious. And the vampire still won’t leave. I end up locking the computer to make him go.

The “house” is a complete disaster. Even the maid can’t keep up with it. Adrienne is reacting to stepping in poo, not sitting next to Jax, by the way.

Prissy gets her very first vet visit. She doesn’t look happy about it.

Oh, no… 🙁

RIP, Prissy! The whole family mourns…. At least until the final term grades come in.

… Impressive. And it also explains why the dogs are always a mess. If you’re keeping track, you know that Jax has four classes left, and Adrienne has 8. I let Jax take only two for the next term so he can spend his time on his aspiration.

The flower bunny shows up, throws flowers everywhere, and is generally ignored. There’s more schoolwork to do.

Oh. Ooops. Sorry, Jax. At some point in the next week, Adrienne does the same thing. But since we don’t have an oven – no cake.

Prissy’s fist haunting. Jax is too busy catching up on sleep. Adrienne is on the other side of the screenshot..

… studying. Fun, eh?

Jax needs to go to guest lectures. Three of them, so we spend quite a bit of time in this week at the college. Which gives Adrienne the opportunity to eat some “real” food for a change.

Aww. Poor Jax.

It’s Neighborhood Brawl day.. plus this old lady was being annoying.. so Adrienne took her down a peg or two.

*frown* … I guess it’s Lucky’s time, too.

… And Adrienne stepped in more poo. LOL… Good timing?

..This means there’s one term for both of them. And Jax only has two classes left. He finished his guest lectures and is almost done with tutoring students. So I think we may be able to finish Academic this next term. See you next time!

House 013 Chapter 2 < | > House 013 Chapter 4

House 013 Chapter 1 < | > House 013 Chapter 3

First, we remind ourselves what our goals are:

House 013 Building Goals:
2 Bedroom, 1 Bathroom home worth at least $100k Simoleons
-Must include a designated gaming room
House 013 Generational Goals:
Achieve Level 10 of the Gamer branch of Tech Guru on Jax
1st place in Pro tournament for both Hillock II and Sims Forever on Jax
Achieve Level 10 of Start-Up Entrepreneur branch of Tech Guru on 2nd sim
*Note* All sims are Controllable in this house!
Produce and raise The Heir to the Young Adult life stage

Then, we introduce Adrienne better:

Her original Aspiration was Painter, but I changed it to Computer Whiz, since that’s what she will be doing.

Then, we note that the featured photo is a successful proposal. At the romance fest. Which she invited us to within moments of us arriving home from first meeting and kiss. Handy, that.

Wedding photos. I love the heat of the moment weddings, really. Much better than just eloping.

We get them back home, and let them have a little fun.

The next morning, Jax finds out he was accepted to college on a full ride scholarship to the distinguished Computer Science degree I was hoping to get him into. The degree itself will not help him in the gamer career, but it will allow him to do two things. One, skill up his programming skill as well as take video gaming electives.

And two.. join the Esports team – which WILL help him in the gamer career! At least, it’s supposed to. I’ve never tried doing this before, so this is pretty much all gotten from google research.

Adrienne’s first task.. skilling up programming. And video gaming. Gaming because each level of gaming earned in this house (by anyone!) gets us 1000 simoleons. Which is really nice.

Jax, on the other hand, starts in on studying and doing homework. Classes start the next day, or so I think. Turns out that they don’t start until Tuesday.. but whatever. That just gave him extra time to work on his term papers. Yes, he had to do TWO of them this term!

I finally get a better shot of Lucky. Love the huge ears.

I see sparkles!!

She got Dad’s ears and Mom’s coloring. Very cute, Fiona!

A couple minutes later…

Sophie follows in the sparkle party. She looks like her mama in body type, but I have no idea where her color comes from. I may end up trying to breed her later.

We get invited to the Geek Con, and, while Jax is in classes, we accept for Adrienne. She wins the Hackathon, which gets us some cash and another computer.

… Then fails miserably at the Ultimate Gaming Test. At least she has fun doing it.

We then take advantage of the rocket and the skill boost to work on her Rocket Science skill until the fest ends, and Jax comes to try the Gaming Test. He also fails, and then has to run off to his Gaming Team practice.

This dark photo is commemorating coming home with a promotion.

Good job, buddy! No bonuses for this one, though, so we’ll have to just keep working.

Another dark photo of Prissy in the bathroom that has no lights yet…

Because she’s old now. *frowny face* .. That’s ok, she already had her quota of puppies.

The rest of the week is fairly mundane, lots of homework for Jax, and Skilling like crazy for poor Adrienne. I start to get a little worried when she doesn’t have all four skills at level four by the time I wanted her to.. but I sign her up for scholarships and uni anyway – and cross my fingers.

She gets in, also to the distinguished program, and also with full ride on scholarships. In fact, she has more in the way of scholarships than Jax, which surprises me a little bit.

After Monday’s final exam, Jax’s grades come in and we sign him up for three classes plus a Video Game elective just like last time.

We’ve got about 9k in the bank at this point, which means that traveling isn’t a problem, so I send them to the library for the afternoon. Luckily, both were pretty good on their needs. (Although Jax has had to keep using sleep potions to keep up this past week, and he’s about out of points – so the next week should be interesting!)

Adrienne does all four of her homework for the start of classes. She also wastes time by chatting to this random person across the table, but since she gets her work done, I don’t complain.

Jax is pretty much done on what he can do at this point – and he needs satisfaction points, so I have him do some Research & Debate to get him past the first tier of his Academic Aspiration. I don’t know whether I’ll finish it with all the stuff he has on his plate, but we’ll give it a good try.

I’ll leave this post off here because I, quite honestly, played much farther than I meant to (and ended up with two posts instead of one) – but I was having fun. Here’s a shot of what the “house” looks like by the end of two weeks. I’m keeping it as a Tiny Home for the skill boosts, and excuse the mess in the garden. It’s pretty haphazard, and plants went wherever they landed when they got planted. They’ve taken turns caring for it as much as possible – but let’s be honest, they’re at the point now where they just don’t have time. So I hired a gardener and a maid – because they can afford it – I think. I’d like to get them Free Services, but neither can afford it at this time. The lot is always a disaster which poor Neat Adrienne hates.. but time to clean is very limited, hence the scheduled maid. Over the weekend, we gave all four dogs baths because they were in dire straits cleanliness wise, but nobody, luckily, got sick. Lucky did run away at one point, but he came back within a day – to barely any welcome because Jax was at practice and Adrienne was busy. Anyway, enough blabbing from me. See you next time!

House 013 Chapter 1 < | > House 013 Chapter 3

House 012 Chapter 6 < | > House 013 Chapter 2

First, we get a look at our brand new goals:

House 013 Building Goals:
2 Bedroom, 1 Bathroom home worth at least $100k Simoleons
-Must include a designated gaming room
House 013 Generational Goals:
Achieve Level 10 of the Gamer branch of Tech Guru on Jax
1st place in Pro tournament for both Hillock II and Sims Forever on Jax
Achieve Level 10 of Start-Up Entrepreneur branch of Tech Guru on 2nd sim
*Note* All sims are Controllable in this house!
Produce and raise The Heir to the Young Adult life stage

Wow.. that’s quite a goal. Hopefully that will keep me more entertained than the last house did! .. And we get to control all sims?? I must have died and gone to heaven!

Next, we run Jax through his makeover…. and I must say, he needed one!!

Then, we plop him onto his new property, strip him of all his worldly goods and money (including a Ducky he had apparently been hoarding since childhood), and take a look at his starting stat panels:

Then, our last – and possibly scariest task before starting this house: rolling for the lot traits:

Okay. Well that could have been a LOT worse.

Finally. It’s time to start. First order of business: decide whether he’s going to college or getting a job instead. Of course, I suppose he could do both… but am I willing to try to work AND do his coursework? .. Probably not. Also: per his traits, he will be getting a dog at some point. Hm… he did roll for Academic….. ARGH. I go to bed to do some major thinking before starting this tomorrow.

I wake up.. and the first conclusion I’ve come to overnight, is our favorite little Prissy is going to come with us on this journey. I’ll have to pay a 200 dollar pet fee before I buy anything else, but Jax is so happy to have a pet, I couldn’t resist. So.. welcome to house 13, Prissy!

So, this challenge starts out SLOWWW.. because the only thing I can think to do to get money right away is collecting… and barely anything is up. I plant the sage I find, hold on to the one frog I found, and head home to say hi to Mom. I don’t figure she and Dad have much time left.

I do manage to get enough to pay for Prissy’s fee, and get her a food bowl. Jax, however, is scrounging for food still, and peeing himself. We have literally a garden, a dog, a mailbox, a dog food bowl and a squeaky toy Prissy found while hunting.

She seems pretty happy with it, though. So that’s good.

Another day, another visit with family. And more collecting. Collect collect collect. Plant what I can, sell the rest. Still, poor Jax is struggling.

This random fella walking down the street became my target for leveling Jax’s mischief, because I want to get level 3 in rocket science, mischief, robotics, and programming before signing up for university. I figure mischief I can do through socials, the other three.. I’ll make him read books from the cheapest book “shelf” I can buy.

… And because I have no idea how long Prissy will still be an adult, I change out one lot trait very briefly (two days) for the Dog Hangout. I picked out this brown and white mutt named Lucky for her mate, and “luckily” they seem to be getting along better than Prissy has with any other dog she’s been introduced to.

Yay! Finally, we got it to work. Puppies are on the way! .. And at about this time, my game started being very weird. The dogs kept leaving lot and I couldn’t get them to come back with the whistle. I ignored it for a while, but then I really got concerned and looked up how to fix it. Apparently it’s a bug – or it could be because I have no home for them yet. I traveled to get them back and went straight back home. Didn’t count it as actual travel because I was just doing it to fix a bug.

All that reading and skilling takes it’s toll.. Poor Jax has about had it with the bench sleeping. I had to spend most of the money he’s gotten from collecting on the books to skill, which was annoying, and then I saved up for 1000 so I can travel. Still, nothing on the lot other than the bookshelf, cooler, and the stuff I mentioned before.

The puppies are here!! This one is Fiona…

… And this is Sadie. I love them both. One has a troublemaker trait, the other is Hairy like her Dad.. so we have hair piles EVERYWHERE .. All. The. Time. I can’t drag them to the trash fast enough. So the dogs are always a mess.

He just dropped his book and passed out. Poor guy. But he’s cutting it close on where I wanted him to be at before signing up for Uni.. and I’m pushing him hard.

Now that we have 1k, we explore the Student Library in Britechester.. while we wait for our scholarship and uni applications to come back. I’ve been looking constantly, but I haven’t seen ONE young adult, male or female, walk past Jax’s .. er.. “house”. Immediately upon getting to the library, I spot this lovely librarian, and all bets are off. I stopped looking right then and there. LOL.

While we were there, we got a money opportunity from our aunt Diedre on the phone, I asked about the conditions.. and she sent us 2500 simoleons. Nice!

So, here we are getting to know the local librarian. Turns out she’s Bookworm, Romantic.. and I have no idea what else. Will introduce her better next post. Her name, however, is Adrienne Hahn…. and I think she’ll make some cute babies with Jax. At least… that’s the plan.

Luckily, she doesn’t seem to mind the romancing plan. First kiss in the bag! I head home after this, planning to let Jax get some needs back up.. but the game has other plans. I’ll explain that next post, too. Because this one is long enough already. I’ll just leave you wondering whether he gets into his distinguished degree or not until next time!

House 012 Chapter 6 < | > House 013 Chapter 2

Chapter 3.1 | Chapter 3.3

So, here we go.. Starting the generation completely over. Here’s an abbreviated version of rules/goals for this generation as they stand now.

I start by trying to sell flowers in the retail store after spending time making them. Again, they start wilting and selling for very little. – Plus thunderstorms are making it hard to get sales without killing sims.

Oh – and I told you I’d introduce the potential spouses.

Here they are in no particular order:

Hera is the daughter of the two adults in the neighboring house, the others are “fostered” there. Tryphena and Tryphosa are sisters, the rest are unrelated. I spend quite a while trying to decide which one. I’m leaning towards Tryphosa, I don’t know why, I just like her. So I ask on boolprop discord – and nobody there can decide, either. Although it seems to be between Hera and the two sisters. Everyone else got pretty much eliminated. Finally, my hubby suggests rolling a D6 die. So I make him do it, his desk has more room for rolling a real die.

……

……

Number 5… so that means, my favorite wins!! The second die roll was a 6 (hubby was curious) .. and in honor of her second place finish, Hera will be coming back next gen as the spouse for my Roman Heir. Maybe her arms will help balance out the genetics?

I immediately invite her over and start making friends – which is amazingly easy. These two are so cute together, too. Immediately, I’m happier with the challenge, even though I have no idea if I’ll be able to find a way to complete the generation.

Next time at the store, I bring Madelyn… she cleans, restocks, and greets customers, leaving Matteo to work on the flower bench, ring people out, and nap. (Hey, do what you gotta…) I’m still just not making enough money.. and then another thunderstorm moves in. Sigh. Finally, out of sheer frustration, I sell the entire store. I’ll try the yard table. So I remodel the store room to an open-to-the-outside “market” with a yard table. And I set poor Madelyn to selling.

With a higher markup (300%), I’m getting sales, but it’s still slow. And I’m still frustrated and confused. I KNOW I’ve read you can make money with flower arranging, and I’m just not figuring it out.

By this time, He’s low on social and fun, so we invite over Tryph (pronounced “triff” in my head) .. and set about getting a girlfriend. It goes incredibly smoothly – these two must have been destined.

They have dinner together, and mess around for some fun, then she ends up sleeping over.

The next day, I try selling the flowers just with the table so they don’t wilt so fast, and I’m still not able to really make money. Finally, I do some google research and find a helpful hints page. I’ll link it here because it was invaluable: https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/skills/seasons/flower-arranging/ Turns out Matteo’s skill isn’t high enough. I needed level 7 and to scent the arrangements with bluebells – which I have. So I’m making the Cheapest to make ($0) level 1 chrysanthemum arrangement over and over and scenting it with bluebell so it won’t go bad. Pretty soon, I start making masterpieces and selling them without having them wilt at 300% on the table. Matty is finally making money. Things are looking up. However, I don’t take many pictures.. because quite frankly, Flower Arranging is one of the most boring skills there is in the game. And he does very little else.

I laughed so hard when I got this call. I know, no phones in the era.. but I couldn’t help pushing Try for Baby, because it’s what Marl would do. I’ll check next post whether it worked.

When he needs fun, he invites his now-girlfriend over, and they chat and have fun however they can.

Madelyn, however, is NOT having fun at her “job”. She spends a lot of time cleaning, cooking, or playing Llama. Since it’s the middle of winter I try to discourage her from polar bear swimming in the pool – but it’s a challenge.

Then – I get this. Bussed on the cheek like we’re friends or something. Uh-oh there goes messing around for fun. *frown* She grew up to YA. Cue the last three miserable days of Matty’s Teenage Life.

Finally, he makes it to YA. I wasn’t expecting it when he aged up, so it surprised me, but I was able to pick out the right trait anyway, and immediately invited Tryph over.

Matteo: “You still love me, though, right??”

Tryph: Of course!

Matteo: “Then marry me!”

Smooth, buddy. Real Smooth.

However, smooth or not.. it works. They’re engaged. Look at that ring!

I have them get married ASAP. (and right in front of the door since I still can’t figure out how to get a Generic Lot to show up as a possible wedding venue.. I give up. Seriously.)

Then, Matty carries his new bride over the threshold.. and I start considering when to Try for Baby. Should I wait? Should I just go for it? .. He’s also at 68k/75k towards level 3 of his aspiration. So, I’m hoping that 200k total is actually possible. We’ll see. And I can always wait to pick the heir til later, I did with Skyor, after all. So I’ll probably have them TFB tonite. Well, not tonite. Next post. =D Because this is as good a place to stop as any… and I’m finally feeling more confident about this generation. Which is amazing.

Chapter 3.1 | Chapter 3.3

House 012 Chapter 5 < | > House 013 Chapter 1

First, we check on our house goals:

House 012 Building Goals:
3 Bedroom, 2 Bathroom home worth at least $50k Simoleons (56k)
House 012 Generational Goals:
Complete the Friend of the World aspiration
Have The Drifter Declare another Sim an Enemy
-Then raise the relationship between The Drifter and their Enemy to BFF
Have The Drifter Engage in and WIN 5 fights
-Each win must be with a different Sim opponent
Produce and raise The Heir to the Young Adult life stage (teen)

And here’s hoping I can finish this house’s two weeks in this one post. I plan on taking pictures only when I need to. Like when Sione tries to burn down the house by cooking. Spoiler: no fire.

… Or when the dog is being especially cute.

I start working on Jax’s level three skill, we’re going for Video Gaming for a change. I don’t have a spot for a chess board in this house.

Plus, it’s fun for the whole family.

Lyric.. I swear, girl. Why you gotta break everything..

Um.. sure, Jax. Work on Fitness all by yourself. .. But what exactly are you wearing?!

Winterfest arrives. Even the dog appears to be participating.

Presents. And no, I paid no attention to what anyone got. I am pretty sure I didn’t even bother to sell any of them. So this is just for the sims.

Chattin’ with his little sis.

Tracey decides she wants to be a bear. Okayy then.

Gonna make it hard to play video games with the family with those big paws, but whatever suits ya.

Prissy learning her last trick -playing dead.

Gonna miss this doggy. She’s never once run away, or gotten so dirty she needed a bath, and never needed a vet visit. It’s unheard of. Gotta be some sort of record.

This would be when I’m trying my hardest to get puppies. Tried for like five-six days, finally gave up. She kept refusing – no matter which guy dog I picked. (This particular one was Jim.)

Jax.. what exactly are you planning, there? I mean, other than cooking when you’re not supposed to be.

Don’t think I’ve ever made homemade treats for dogs before. Figured I’d try it.

Birthdays! Sione goes first. (While his son completely ignores the event.)

Oh, NOW you turn around. Little late, kiddo.

Then it’s Lyric’s turn. Would you look at those wrinkles. Not a good look on you, sweetie.

I send Lyric to take care of the garden… and Jax decides to help all by himself. Okayy…

Flower Bunny shows up.. and we just have to fight her again. (I say her, because later I see her in the relationship panel. Definitely a girl.)

Another win. That we didn’t need. But it makes Lyric feel better to kick that fluffy butt.

Is it me, or is the dog getting a little fat? (This is only the second homemade thing I’ve made her)

Time for another birthday.

Congrats, Tracey. *smile*

She’s pretty. Not sure about the outfit, though.

Love Day. Somehow calculations went wrong, so Jax will start in the Summer. Which is okay, too.. I think. So long as he doesn’t roast to death.

We tell Jax to work out, then Mentor him. Doesn’t make him get much in the way of skill, but Level 2 is still something, I guess.

You ready for this? .. I know I sure am!!

Blow out those candles, and make sure you make a wish, there, Jax.

… *face palm* I knew that last trait wouldn’t be the greatest. It had to be, what with all the rest of his rolls being good. I guess I’ll have to get a doggie next gen, too. Just what I needed. (sarcasm)

.. And now for the final stats. Here’s Lyric’s panels.

Proof of that aspiration.

+5?!? That’s definitely a record in my game. And she’s making SO much money. I’m jealous.

… And that’s without really trying for skills.

She’s a pretty good sim.. just too bad I didn’t get as attached to her as I would have liked. The house may have been more fun if I had.

Final funds and family. Somehow the dog isn’t even an elder yet..?

Final house value. .. and I realize I need to head back in-game in and upload the house….

And that’s it! See you in House 13! (And I have to confess, I broke my rule. I was so bored with House 12 I looked up the rules for 13 before playing this two weeks. It at least told me that the next house should be less boring. I think.)

House 012 Chapter 5 < | > House 013 Chapter 1

Chapter 2.5 | Chapter 3.2

Okay, I’ll be completely honest here.. I struggled getting ready for this generation. Mostly because I’m still in testing mode, and part of my concern is making sure the challenge is playable through all the generations. Which isn’t going to be an easy task. Now, if you’ve read ahead, you have a sense of the next couple generations after this one, and I won’t go into details so as to avoid spoilers for those who want to avoid them… but it’s going to be important that everything you’ve worked for (wealth and house value-wise) is able to be brought with you so you can progress through generations. This being said: Sims 4 does not make it easy to do just that without taking the entire family with you. So, I’m adding to the main rules directions on how to move from generation to generation. Obviously, I didn’t do this before this generation, so I’ll forfeit the work done on the first house.

Moving from Generation to Generation: Use the phone, select “Move Household”, then move the entire household to the next lot. When prompted, click to sell all furnishings. Move to the next house/lot and hit pause as soon as you load. Go back into Manage World, and click “Manage Households”. Choose the family in question, and click the button with the two arrows – to transfer sims. Create a new household on the right and move all but your heir to this house, leaving the money alone. This will prompt you to create a new household with no funds. Say yes. This will leave your heir alone in their new home with all the work you’ve done intact. One further note: if you’re like me, you don’t want to leave your old family “high and dry” as the saying goes. Take your relatives, and Move them back into the old home. While moving, it will show that you can’t afford to move them in. Fix this by opening the cheat code window, typing in “testingcheats on” then “freerealestate on” – and wa-lah, the lot will be purchase-able. Once they’re all settled back at home, turn cheats back off with “testingcheats off”, load up your heir’s household, and you’re ready to play. This seems like a lot of trouble, I know, but NOT doing this will make the challenge next to impossible to play… so just trust me on this.

Now that all that has been said, I can keep going. Here’s the rules for Gen 3 at the time I’m playing this. Do realize the actual rule page may show different rules – because this is still in testing and they may change. I will not be coming back to edit these to reflect any of those changes.

After finally figuring out how to move poor Matteo into his new house with the “right” amount of funds, he takes a moment to look at the sea.

He then heads forlornly to “explore” his new domicile. He’s sad because he missed his birthday, of course. But he’ll get over it, eventually.

Since we have no servant yet, poor Matty has to make his own dinner. Miraculously, he doesn’t set the house on fire.

He then has a very lonely dinner. At which point, he has to pee… and I figure out I royally messed up the house I built for this generation… I put in stuff that doesn’t work off-the-grid. So I have to fix all of that, take down the “bad” version, and put up a new one. Fun. Then he can pee. LOL.

We buy the retail lot I put next door, and stock it with as close to appropriate stuff to sell as I can find in the catalog. Spoiler: it’s pouring rain… and it’s an outdoor market.

Oh, look, Skyor’s youngest sister grew up.. and is shopping here. Long way from Sulani, eh…?

Aha! One of the teenage girl sims I madeover for spouse potentials shows up. And it’s the one I don’t particularly like. Meet Helle. Just then, the rain turned to thunderstorm, and in fear for poor Matty, we went to meet the rest of the girls at the neighbor house.

There’s also a “mom” and “dad” (although technically they’re only related to the one teen… I’ll explain and introduce the girls next post.) .. and nobody really invites poor Matty in.. so we go home.

We call a young adult we met at the market, and invite her over. He’s flexing his non-existent arm muscles, and I had to take a picture while laughing my rear end off.

We move her in as our chosen “servant” .. and give her a peasant-looking makeover. Her name is Madelyn the Loner. (Loner, Active, ? – and wants to be an actress. Sorry, Maddy.)

Matty needs fun.. so we add a Llama game (because it’s surely been around since then… lol)

While Madelyn gets put to work instantly.

By this time, I’d decided to try flower arranging as our money making skill for this gen (switched from plain old retail..).. and so I re-do the store room as two rooms, putting in an indoor flower garden in the second.

Then we get Matteo busy on crafting. He seems confused by it. Maybe he should have paid attention to his mom’s gardening more.

More laundry. It never ends!

That black lump in the chair is Madelyn – I swear. She set the kitchen on fire as well as herself, so Matteo saved her and most of the kitchen. She had to remake dinner.

We meet my favorite of the girls, Tryphosa… isn’t she just adorable?

I have them do some stargazing until they’re friends.. then I try to do some more skilling and selling.

Spoiler: Skilling works, selling – not so much. I try to sell the flowers at the retail store/market.. they sell eventually – but not for much – and they keep wilting. This is so not working. With everything that keeps going wrong with my plans, I decide to re-think the whole generation rules…. and also to restart the entire generation. I save Madelyn, because I like her – and the teen family. Then I take an extended break while I try to figure out what to do (and to calm down). Yet again. The above rules have been edited for what they’re going to be as of the next post, when I start over, so I won’t be re-posting them next post other than to have a little abbreviated goal box. See you then!

Chapter 2.5 | Chapter 3.2