Main Apartment Switch Rules | Switch Three Rules
Switch Three Part 1 < | > Switch Three Part 3

Welcome back to the Ritchie’s trip through Switch Three. The twins are now toddlers, so as soon as Dad gets home they’re moving.

Mommy’s busy.. so the kids go “wandering”….

…turns out toddlers can use elevators! Where exactly are you two going?

They finally wander back home after having gotten into no trouble except for terrifying me by wandering out of the apartment…. and dad gets home so it’s time to move. Cue apartment spam:

… Not too bad. We spent more time here than I planned, but both kids are safe.

.. And we’re almost to level 8 of the career. Here’s what I was able to afford in the next apartment:

Yep… I was even able to fully build and paint and everything. But now it’s way past time for the babies.

So we put them to bed the cutest way possible.

A cute shot of mom getting some sleep while Dad plays with Tricia. And yep.. I know them by the color of their outfits.

Mom’s birthday. She’s now an adult…. just in time to move again. I had so much saved from waiting for the kids to grow into toddlers that I only had a little more to save. Cue apartment spam.

I really like the way this one turned out.

She’s at job level nine…. so close, and yet still so far.

I saved up what I thought was a nice nest egg…. since the next apartment is so expensive…. and I was greeted by this horrifying sight:

After building floors and the outside wall (which gets changed before long).. and buying the very little I’m able to afford:

I can’t even afford stairs. It’s sad. So they’re lawn living. I figure I’ll add the stairs after the kids.. are.. well, kids. So they don’t have to climb stairs while they’re toddlers. And I have time to save up.

The twins are way too cute at this stage.

I then send Dad to get his museum art viewed. It takes a few moments… and he’s right back home to care for toddlers.

Birthdays. The important one, the heir.

She grew up way cute!

And yes, Tricia is trying to sing in the background of this shot. It was pretty bad, I assure you.

Why do I like the looks of Brenna more than Tricia? .. Hopefully they grow up good to teen.

Now that they’re kids, I go into build mode and try to partition out the house. After several false starts, this is what I came up with. The floors aren’t done, but the walls are.

Checking the value..

… Yikes. I have a long way to go.

The twins are best friends now! Now, cue social butterfly for Tricia spam:

Tada! Now we can get back to the business of living.

Creativity is next.. for both of them. (Actually, it’s first for Brenna, but let’s not quibble facts)

(Brenna is the one on the violin)

And she finishes! Her sister has to play catch-up now.

Mom’s busy writing.. gotta make money to finish the house. (Although I think, once again, I go overboard on the money making.)

Homework time!

Aren’t they cute?

Creative time in the downstairs studio (yes, I decided to not reprise the pool that is there on normal mode)

And the kitchen/dining area is finished. I had to take shots of it because I like it so much.

And.. because I forgot the night lights.. Tricia decides to make friends with the monster. Silly girl.

Well, we’ll see you next time.. when the girls turn into teens and we finish the house. Hopefully.

Main Apartment Switch Rules | Switch Three Rules
Switch Three Part 1 < | > Switch Three Part 3

House 007 Part 1 – Day 6 < | > House 007 Part 1 Day 8

Today’s goals:

House 007 Part One Day 7:
6PM: The second contestant leaves to go on a scored date with the
main sim to any available travel location.
When date ends: Offer a rose to the contestant that attended and
return home
12AM: Bedtime

Again, we’re to follow Ariana’s whims.

Trent is, again, the first one up, and he’s Angry. He immediately starts his day by kicking the trash can..

… and just walking away like nothing is wrong.

Then he goes to get a drink. Drinking away your problems, huh, Trent? He follows that up with taking the cup upstairs to wash it and use the bathroom. Then he takes a bath.. I must be bored because I’m literally just following him around the house.

Yay! Vincent’s up and is eating breakfast. He looks exhausted, but he’s not. He does like to complain about the mess that the kitchen is in, though. Trent comes stomping in with trash.. and I check, and it looks like he just picked up the pile outside and left the trash can lying there.

Then all the boys pitch in and get the kitchen in order.

*shocked face* Trent literally just took the food out from under Sean’s hand and walked off with it to eat it. I didn’t even know sims could steal food! LOL!

(And don’t worry about Sean, he headed back to the fridge to get something else.)

Trent spends his breakfast time  complaining/sniping at his friends because he’s angry. I’m afraid to know what those relationships are going to look like by the end of the day.

I finally get Ariana up and have her take care of needs. She starts out the day with wanting to “kiss someone” and “kiss Vincent.” Sigh.. here we go again! Meanwhile, the boys are having a conversation in the kitchen.

Trent goes to watch TV, Vincent to watch the fish, and Sean goes to hug Vincent (while thinking about Trent?).. weird interaction, but okay….

Vincent then goes to chat with Trent, who has some moodlets over-riding the anger for a while, and is happy to converse… looks like they’re talking about vacuum cleaners. (I have a private chuckle seeing the same maid as was horrified at the hot tub woohoo from yesterday is here today again.)

With all the ghosties using the tea brewer, it’s all stinky, so while she eats I have her empty it. Now the fun begins. I try “calling over” Vincent to see if he’ll leave his conversation with Trent so I can isolate him for his morning kiss. No need to antagonize Trent further. It works!

Kissin’ in the kitchen. Now she wants to make out with Vincent and schedule a date. I lock both in.. because both are possible. Now to try to find a room where other guys aren’t at.

Sean and Trent are talking/drinking in the “family room,” and I figure upstairs is probably a good bet. Better than outside, at least.

I have them make out.. and then she wants to cloudgaze with him.

Okay.. easy enough.

(Trent is in the movie theater.. apparently he liked that from yesterday.. )

…and Sean is monopolizing the TV in the family room. “Ask Vincent to be Boyfriend” no.. no can do. Flirt is next.

And that I can do. Then she wants to woohoo with him. Sigh.. isn’t that what started all the trouble yesterday?

.. Okay okay.. here goes nothing. (It’s really disconcerting to do a “woohoo with and see three possibilities. Clearly my sims lean toward monogamy under my control.) Luckily, the other two seem pretty occupied.

The next whim is be friendly with Vincent. She sure likes this guy, I’m tellin’ ya. And then the same thing again. I have her “talk about dreams” and her thought bubble is a grave? That’s a little creepy.

Then, like the previous days, we hit a dry spell. I’m afraid to have them all get together for an activity because it’s likely to go all wrong. (By this point, they ALL have high romantic relationships with her! Trent, currently has the lowest, and I think I’m going to have him be the date today.) Finally a flirt with Vincent pops up and we can do that.

I find Trent cleaning up the broken dishwasher’s mess.. so I quickly replace said dishwasher… and decide it’s his turn to chat with her.

I have them chat…

…then start flirting.. all the while carefully watching the door for other folk. Man, this sneaking around thing is stressful!

Sean.. is still watching Cooking channel.. which I find funny. And Vincent decides to go hug him.

Finally, we get another whim pop up.. and of course, it’s to talk with Vincent.

Then she wants to flirt with him.. sigh.. not here, you silly man! I have them go to the dining room next door. Sean still seems oblivious… and Trent is watching another movie. (Actually, it looks like the same one he was watching earlier. haha.)

Vincent autonomously kisses her (luckily the other guys are still preoccupied!)… and it’s getting to be time for the date.. so I break off the conversation with Vincent and go to track down Trent. Vincent immediately runs to..

..play some basketball. Okay then.

Trent is accepting her flirts, so I figure the date should be a “go” today (as opposed to what happened yesterday!).. so we talk for a few more minutes before asking at 6 PM as per the rules. I send them to the Ancient Ruins. I don’t think I’ve actually been there before in game, so this should be fun. First thing I do is look around. There’s a couple of benches, a bonfire.. and a bush. We’re set. LOL.

And nobody is going to interrupt us here! If Trent is to stand a chance against Vincent’s max relationship, he’s going to have to really accept everything for this date.

One of the tasks has to be “get playful” .. sigh this could be difficult. But we’ll try! She also rolls a whim to woohoo in the bush..lol okay then. He just doesn’t seem to want to get playful.

Once it gets dark, other people start showing up, but we’re still going for the bush woohoo. They’ll just have to deal. LOL! (One of them is Thomas! haha)

Then he has to pee, so we let him use the bush for that.. and I go start up the bonfire.

.. And have them “dance together”. I continue to try to get him in a playful mood, but he just seems stuck on flirty. Finally, I give up.. and he goes to take a nap on a bench. Poor guy, he’s been up since ten til 6AM. The whole thing ends after that with a “legendary” date, and I send them home.

Oops.. almost forgot the rose! (again)

THEN they can go home. I send everyone to bed.. right as a ghost pops in. Who is it?

Trace!

Guys, I have no idea how this is going to end, because both Trent and Vincent have both bars completely full. What happens if there’s a tie?! I guess we’ll just have to see!

House 007 Part 1 – Day 6 < | > House 007 Part 1 Day 8

Main Apartment Switch Rules | Switch Three Rules
Switch Two Part 2 < | > Switch Three Part 2

And now it’s time for Alex Ritchie’s journey through Switch Three testing. And we start with the header photo of her mom playing tunes in the street. Which I see quite a lot in the first bits of this challenge.

Before starting, let’s see where Alex is.

I change this to the Writer aspiration.. this is here to show her point total.

Oh that hygiene is going to bite me in the rear, I just know it.

And she’s uncomfortable to boot. Great start! (sarcasm)

Again, I spend the first day or so running around meeting every Young Adult male I see and picking up every poster that spawns. The first thing I buy? A computer. What? Yep. Computer. She needs to be able to do her daily tasks for her Critic Career, after all.

.. And that’s how you make one filthy, miserable sim. At least she’s not too miserable to work on her writing skill.

A couple more days, and she even affords lights! Most of her money is coming from posters, though, as I have a thing for not publishing books until they’re at level 5 writing so they aren’t self-publishing. They make more money off of them if they’re sent to a real publisher.

So, now that I have a semi functional apartment, it’s time to think about the spouse again. I invite over the “first choice” from my days of hunting young adult males and proceed to work on the friendship.

Everything goes well.. once they’re friends, I start with the flirting.

First flirt.. accepted.

Next four flirts.. fail. I couldn’t begin to tell you why. So, I send him on his way and invite over my second choice male, Zayne.

This one’s all for the flirting.

First kiss…

… Boyfriend.. I can’t tell whether he looks overwhelmed or surprised. But it’s a funny screenie no matter which one he is!

And proposal. I quickly get them to elope and take a screenshot of his traits for you guys.

They’re both foodies so I’m going to have to watch their weight. I put him into the culinary career right off the bat and get him started cooking in our “kitchen”. No stove yet, but that’s okay because both of them would probably burn something (starting with themselves!)

After a couple days of this, I relent and give them a stove to actually cook on. Still no fires. (knock on wood!)

While Zayne is cooking, I send Alex out to explore the spice festival. Or, to at least try the challenge (failed it.) and to harvest all the spice festival plants for selling. Who does she run into? Mom, who’s busking yet again. We stop to chat with her for a while.

I take this next picture just in case I lose my main sim. I didn’t have enough to replace or hire a repairman, so I was stuck with repairing it on my own. She succeeded, but had me nervous the whole time she was working on it.

What followed was days of working, collecting posters, and writing/cooking. For both of them. (Although he doesn’t have writing skill, just her. Finding things for him to do when he’s not cooking becomes a problem that I solve later.)

Not too long after, I finished this apartment… so cue apartment pic spam.

I like the way it turned out. Simple yet functional. I didn’t finish out the kitchen with upper cabinets because I was already at value and was afraid of going over. It still looks alright.

Feels like this took forever! Waiting for writing to start making her money was really tough, so a lot of this apartment was furnished with poster money.

She’s already at level 6! Man, it’s fast leveling the job up for the Food critic!

This is all I’m able to afford when starting out here. Pretty sparse, but then I moved pretty much when they hit value in apartment one.

Got the kitchen mostly done and it’s time for Zayne to hit adulthood.

He doesn’t seem impressed with the process.

And now you see what I have Zayne doing since he can’t cook ALL the time. He needed a hobby, and we needed money, so this works for both.

Way to go, Alex! She’s just started to make decent money from her writing, so this is a nice bonus.

What’s that mean? Hopefully baby’s on the way. Although being that this apartment is “on the ley line” makes me wonder if it will be “babies” instead. I decided to have the nooboo early to see if the trait works.

It’s official.. she’s pregnant!

I didn’t know they got confetti at a job promotion? That’s new to me! She’s now level 7 in her Food Critic career.

It was about here that I discovered exactly why I don’t like moving with babies in bassinets. It can bug them out so they never cry or need anything, and they end up getting taken away without a single warning. Being that I didn’t know that would happen, I reverted to a previous save and vowed not to move until they were toddlers.

Meet Tricia and Brenna. The one in the black, Tricia, is the heir. They’re so cute together! (part 2 releases tomorrow!)

Main Apartment Switch Rules | Switch Three Rules
Switch Two Part 2 < | > Switch Three Part 2

House 007 Part 1 – Day 5 < | > House 007 Part 1 Day 7

Today’s goals:

House 007 Part One Day 6:
6PM: The first contestant leaves to go on a scored date with the
main sim to any available travel location.
When date ends: Offer a rose to the contestant that attended and
return home
12AM: Bedtime

Again, we’re to follow Ariana’s whims… they’ll probably all be for Vincent. (lol)

First off.. we see Taylor is still around.. and See? My ghosts love the tea brewer.

Trent is, again, the earliest up.. and also sad.

Bonus: Fat Grim is headed to go fishing again. He really likes fishing in my game!

Sean and Vincent are up next, and Vincent is apparently sad, too.

Then, to make matters worse, Vincent walks in on Sean in the bathroom (c’mon guys, there’s four full bathrooms in this house, you can find an empty one, easy.) So the one person who was happy is now embarrassed.

Luckily, Ariana sleeps through the whole thing. I finally have her get up and make her breakfast (since the fridge is empty again.. guess I’ll call in a caterer.)

While Ariana has breakfast, Sean is dancing (apparently his bubble bath over-rode the embarrassed moodlet),

….and the other two are still sad pandas. (But at least Trent is being a useful sad panda!)

The caterer is being particularly useful (not).

Then I catch an autonomous hug out behind the monster of a house… aww.

So I decide it’s a gorgeous morning, they’re all going swimming. (Since this pool has had a total of I think 3 sims in it ever.. )

That lasts all of about two seconds. They all jump in, then leave. Sigh. Okay, fine, I’m following wishes. She wants to hug someone. The last person out of the pool was Trent, so he gets the hug.

Now she’s wishing for Vincent again. Make out with and flirt with. Since he’s sad that’s going to be a tough one, but we’ll try.

Try to cheer up works.. and he’s automatically flirty. So we get both of her whims done.. now she wants to be friendly with him. And donate to charity…. haha.

Then she wants to kiss him. okay…. Then, it’s a dry spell for wants for the guys. So I send her down to dance with everyone.

.. Next it’s “cloudgaze with Vincent” .. Which is rudely interrupted (so I can’t get a picture) by one of the service sims acting inappropriately. Who knows what they did, I certainly didn’t see it. Now she wants to woohoo with Vincent and do something romantic. So I try to get him alone.

I manage to get him alone, and send them to woohoo in the hot tub. Unfortunately, the man-maid saw the whole thing because he was leaving for the day then. I laughed way too hard at it. But he looked mortified.

Then Trent walked out. ARGH. Juggling boys is NOT my cup of tea, I’m learning. She gets a “caught with another” moodlet and is VERY embarrassed… Which is not a good thing, so I try to alleviate it as much as possible before date time. .. And Trent slaps her.. that’s not a social I’ve seen before and I completely miss taking a screenshot. The funniest part of the whole thing?

Apparently the woohoo was awful.

…So it’s time for the date.. and I decide to pick the one with the lowest relationship. More because the first guy on the relationship bar is still (and will be for a while) sad. Sean, at least, seems like he’s in a good mood (although I catch him crying at “Simder” .. lol)  …. Even worse, he turns her down! Guess it’s a group outing then!

He’s all embarrassed, so I invite him to cloudgaze. Maybe that will over-ride it. No such luck.

Finally, his embarrassed moodlet wears off. Her whims are for Vincent, and he’s not even here! So we’ll just try to be romantic… in a low-key sort of way.

It’s an hour late, but she’s wishing for a date.. so I go ahead and ask. Success.

… But he’s gotta pee. This day is just a comedy of errors! I let him take a minute.. and keep cancelling her “go flirt with him” autonomous actions.

Eventually, the date is at golden, and she has one whim slot that keeps re-rolling romantic whims. She even gets one (eventually) that says “make out with Sean.” .. then flirt with Sean. Finally. Whims that don’t revolve around Vincent.

Both of them are exhausted, so I send them home. Turns out I forgot the rose.

I make up for this with a quick rose before they crash.

Trent.. is Very Angry from jealousy. So he stomps his way to bed. (A little late.. I got hung up at the date since it started late…) I change around the rooms a bit, let each of the three finalists their own room… And that’s the end of the night. Sorta anti-climactic after all the fireworks today. And no ghosts were out… so, we’ll see you tomorrow!

House 007 Part 1 – Day 5 < | > House 007 Part 1 Day 7

Main Apartment Switch Rules | Switch Three Rules
Switch Three Part 2 < | > Switch Four Part 1

And.. we’re back with the Nashes! One last post before tomorrow going to see how the Ritchies’ fare in Switch Three. Bet you can’t wait! *wink*

Apparently, I left the game right at Seiji’s birthday. At least I remembered in time to give him a cake. And don’t ask about the shades. He apparently thought he needed them while swimming indoors. *roll eyes*

He’s not impressed with becoming an elder. Then again, who would be?

Jaiden’s turn for a birthday!

… Guess he outgrew the pink thing? … I see a potential for him in athletics.. poor guy must have had too much cake.

He doesn’t seem happy about it.. but at least he’s not alone, I have Sarah working out with him.

Phoenix takes her music seriously.

I promised Seiji that if he got to the top of his career (and he did) that I would let him work on his fishing aspiration. So this is me making good on that.

Later, I even let him go to Sylvan glade…

And keep him there long enough to need a moodlet solver. I wish we had porta-potties in this game! hehehe…

Finishing up Phoenix’s creative aspiration. I don’t plan to do any more aspirations with her, since Seiji is busy fishing..

… And Jaiden is busy elsewhere. I gave Jaiden the City Native aspiration to get the “home turf” trait, but I have no interest in actively working on the aspiration with Jaiden as a teen.

….. Now there’s a painting I’ve never seen before. Nice, Sarah. I had to laugh at it, though, it looks so funny.

Yet another painting I’ve never seen.

There is such a nice view from the “dining room” in this house. Seriously. I love the San Myshuno ambiance.

Sarah’s turn to be an elder.

Poor thing is sick on her birthday. That stinks.

Ainsley Priestly: Geek, Childish.. potential mate? Jaiden had the opportunity to bring home a friend from school, and I figured “why not?”

She has a very expressive face.

See?

Love childish sims, they’re so funny. Apparently she carries around a triceratops in her pocket. (She actually left it behind when she went home.)

What a face she has. Love it. I really might have to think about getting these two together, depending on what trait she ages up into.

Linda Reis .. definitely not a potential Romantic Interest. LOL. Ok, so she’d come over three days in a row angry and kept tanking the relationship, and a “fight” option showed up.. so I indulged Jaiden and let her have it.

Jaiden wins!

Now he has a new enemy. I don’t let my sims make enemies very often, but I decided “why not?” this time.

Afterwards, Jaiden tells her to go and peacefully does his homework, like nothing happened. Too funny.

More fishing for Seiji. I could stay in Sylvan Glade all the time, it’s so pretty to look at!

Seiji doesn’t appear to be too into the game, he’s busy watching the TV.

Family time. Sorta. Everyone’s doing something different.. and Phoenix .. what is that face??

Seriously, Phoenix, you creep me out sometimes.

Sibling homework time.

Oh no, Seiji.. I was hoping he would hang on a couple more days.

No such luck. Poor guy. Wait.. what is that on Grim’s belt..?

Dead freezer bunny? Or rather, undead..? Too funny!!

Bye Seiji!

He didn’t quite have enough time to catch all his fish. But he got close! (These were taken a day or two before he passed on, just in case.)

This picture is to remind me that she finished her aspiration…. but it also reminded me that that little plaque on the wall means they collected all the City Living posters and completed a collection. First plaque I’ve ever gotten in Sims 4!

Anyway. She finished this.

And I switched to this out of curiosity’s sake, and bam another one completed.

There she goes with the faces again.

Being a teen doesn’t seem to agree with her.

Family time. Oh.. and somehow..? Jaiden never got the sad moodlet from his Dad passing. Everyone else did.. and he was home.. he just didn’t get it. I have no idea how.

Look who’s visiting.

Aww… Ghostie love.

See?

And that’s my cue to post all the final stats.

Not bad, there, Sarah!

Lots of extra points..

Phoenix only had some 1,500 points so I don’t bother showing those off.

Final family and funds.. and now it’s time for a small house tour..

Overhead shots of the layout of the three floors. I didn’t change a whole lot from the EA configuration.

And that’s a completed Switch Three for the Nashes! See you tomorrow for the Ritchie’s turn.

Main Apartment Switch Rules | Switch Three Rules
Switch Three Part 2 < | > Switch Four Part 1

House 007 Part 1 – Day 4 < | > House 007 Part 1 Day 6

Today’s goals:

House 007 Part One Day 5:
2PM: the three losing fishing competition participants go on a
group outing with main sim.
6PM: Return home
11PM: Evict the contestant with the lowest relationship status
12AM: Bedtime

Again, we’re to follow Ariana’s whims… which is always interesting, I’m finding.

The losing fishers are Jeffrey, Vincent, and Sean… so that’s who gets to go on the outing today.

Vincent wakes up at 6, terribly sad… and all I could think was “Oh, here we go again.”

The other three guys wake up and start their days..

…the last to get up is Trent, who is sad yet again.

Since she still wants to be flirty, I have her watch the romance channel while eating her breakfast. Then she wants to watch the world culture network.. so I change the channel.

Then let’s get to know Vincent. Again? This guy is a whim magnet.

We plant a kiss on him as well.

Then she wants to embrace him. Can do.

Do something romantic.. and woohoo Vincent. Well then, she’s not beating around the bush today, is she? I send them to the sauna.

Now she wants to cloudgaze with him and make out with him. Geeze, girl.. make up your mind.. friendly or more than friends.

After making out, she wants to be friendly to Vincent and hug someone. Guess we can do that at the same time.

Then she wants to compliment him. Apparently all of her whims today are for Vincent! (I found it absolutely hilarious that she complimented his outfit when he was still in a towel.. I laughed way too hard at it.)

At this point, she needed a bathroom break. Badly. And it was almost time for the outing. I let the fact that she was pretty hungry, too, dictate where the date would happen, and sent them back to the restaurant. That worked out really well last time. I would have picked someplace else, but she was hungry!

While she took her potty break, I checked on the other guys. Vincent had decided to play chess with his flirty self.. (and I managed to forget to take a picture!)

Jeffrey was flirty for who knows what reason. (aha.. watching romance TV .. while standing up.. grr.. so annoying.)

Trent was heading to the workout room to dance.

.. while Sean was already there.

Time for the outing!

We sit down at the table, I order for everyone.. Fizzy Fruity Drinks and Steaks for everyone.. yum. (Doesn’t help that I’m hungry right now.. lol …)

And at the beginning of the conversation, I quickly sneak in a flirt for Vincent.

Now she wants to woohoo him (can’t, no bush here.) and be friendly to him. You DO know there’s other people here, too, Ariana??!

Then she starts rolling wants for buying toys. So I have her talk to the lowest relationship guy there – Jeffrey. Gotta give the poor guy a chance, right? A couple socials and they’re good friends finally. (the other two are up where Best friends could happen if I was allowed to use it.)

Lots of socials and a meal later.. They all look pretty even.

Per her whim, I give Jeffrey a hug, since she didn’t say which one….

And it’s time to head home. No rose for today, thank goodness, I wouldn’t know which one to choose! Scoring will happen soon enough tonight. I dread someone else going home.

We get home… to find Ariana mourning someone. Great. Just what I need, another sad sim! (Trent is STILL sad.) Now she still wants to woohoo Vincent, and be romantic with someone. So I’ll try to track down Vincent.

He’s showering, but I nix that idea by asking for woohoo.

Now she wants to flirt with.. guess who? Vincent. She has a one track mind…

Then hug and embrace him. Sigh. Next? A “kiss someone” .. you mean I can pick anyone?! Sean has the lowest score at the moment, we’ll see if he’ll accept a kiss. Turns out he was busy watching the cooking channel. Yep! Accepted. I was sneaky and waited for Vincent to leave the room (poor guy needed a shower badly).

And she’s right back to dreaming of Vincent. Or at the very least, getting whims for him. She wants to compliment him and make out with him. Before the conversation ends with Sean, however, he tries to do something romantic and Ariana completely rejects him, so he takes a hit on the romance bar.

So I take care of the friendly stuff then get them to make out again.. and Trent walks in on them. *Facepalm* Somehow, he doesn’t take a hit in the relationship or get sad again (I have no idea how!)

And now she wants to be friendly with Vincent. She clearly has chosen HER favorite. Then she wants to flirt with someone.. and that time did tick off Trent.

At this point.. I realize everyone is in the same room. Why not start another dance party? Oh.. then I thought of the Movie Theater room I have set up in the house (and have never used!) .. Let’s do that!

Of course nobody bothers sitting down. Until I make them. I have them watch Roaring Vice .. it’s one of my faves.

Halfway through the movie someone flirts with Ariana and Trent takes another hit. Since Jeffrey is the one who got embarrassed, I’m going to go out on a limb and say it was him.

Then, Vincent got sad too. What a complicated mess of things!

After the movie, I send everyone to go dance again. One by one, they all headed off to bed….

…it was then I noticed something that made me really laugh. Vincent chose to sleep in Ariana’s double bed!! I felt bad, but when “bed time” comes around, I’ll be kicking him out to go back to his bed. He hasn’t won yet!

I left everyone sleep.. Ariana needed a shower and potty break anyway. Then it was time for scoring.

And believe it or not I came up with an exact tie. How in the.. ?!? Now what. Tried doing “confess attraction” with both of them (ticking off Trent again) .. both accepted.. and they’re still dead even.

I thought about asking Vihisha what she would do.. but I want to keep playing. So, …Fine. I’ll come up with a tie breaker. The loser of the very last competition goes home. Which means .. goodbye Jeffrey.

He seems to be okay with it on the household screen..

Poor guy can’t catch a break. While I go to kick him out, he gets scared by a ghostly Taylor!

Bye! (It totally looks like Taylor is showing him the door, doesn’t it?)

Off topic bonus.. my ghosts LOVE the tea machine. All of them do something with it whenever they come out. It’s too funny.

House 007 Part 1 – Day 4 < | > House 007 Part 1 Day 6

Main Apartment Switch Rules | Switch Three Rules
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 I left you mid-apartment switch, so here’s what I was able to afford in the new one upon moving:

I didn’t take a picture of the pool area.. because I didn’t put anything down there yet.

Talking with daddy.

Mommy time!

Dad had to go talk to himself for work. Charisma is such a boring skill to level!

Bath time!

Happy birthday Sarah! She’s now an adult.

Caught these two playing and had to take a picture.

The picture in which I realize toddlers can watch TV so long as someone else turns it on. I had no idea! But apparently Jaiden had a wish for it, which led me to discover it’s possible. And it raises imagination. Cool!

Watching toddler videos. Too cute for words.

She made it!

All the way to writing level 10. I’m trying to complete her aspiration without writing too many books, because they simply don’t need that kind of income.

Yup.. they’re trying for baby again. (That’s the only time I take pictures of woohoo.. lol)

Awww…

If at first you don’t succeed… after the sad moodlet went away I had them try again.

Success! Baby #2 is on the way!

Playtime with daddy this time.

Mom’s not feeling too well this time around. Poor thing.

He needed more logic.. there simply weren’t enough hours in the day.. so I gave him a sleep replacement potion and made him stay up all night to work on his skills.

Why is it my sims…

… insist on getting level 10 cooking while baking a birthday cake.. that’s like four times in a row that cooking was maxed on a cake. Very weird.

Time for Jaiden to age up!

With where I’m thinking I’m going with the next switch, he needs charisma, so I start Jaiden out with the social butterfly.. my LEAST favorite kid’s aspiration. (Where I was planning to go with the next switch eventually changes, so this was a moot point..)

Another sleep replacement. More skills to earn. Business is crazy to level.. and here I thought it would be something easy for Seiji to do on the side of raising the kids. Not so much on the easy, though!

Our new arrival, Phoenix. A baby girl.

Jaiden out making friends out of strangers.

And he finished it! Thank goodness that’s over with. And no cheating on my part!

Every day, after work, she writes her column, hoping for more job performance the next day.

… And she did it! Goal complete! Level 10 art critic! Yay!!!

Little Phoenix grows up.

Playing with mommy.

The nanny was there to take care of Phoenix, but apparently decided to help Jaiden out with his homework. Way to go, ignoring the baby.

With his promotion on the line, Seiji now needs a whopping ten skill in logic and 8 in charisma.. so he’s pulling all-nighters again.

Playing chess for hours on end..

.. finally pays off.

Jaiden comes home with an A!

Toddler playing baby blikbloc, which I think is just adorable.

Back to talking to himself in the mirror.. when I notice the great view out the window.

The did a really good job with San Myshuno’s looks, I think.

Aspiration #2 completed. It’s at about this point I realize he’s still got like 7 days to being a teenager.. and I start wondering if Jaiden can be the first child ever in my games to get all four aspirations. Wondering becomes trying, and I let him take some vacation days to work on the last two aspirations.

So cute! I just can’t take it!

Working on homework while focused.

Hooray, level 8 charisma.. now he just has to work hard to get to his level 10 promotion!

This just doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. Sparks while in your bathing suit. Way to go, Jaiden.

Aspiration #3!

Phoenix grows up.

What a cutie she is!

Chatting with dad before getting back to skilling on the computer for his motor skill and last aspiration.

Phoenix working on her aspiration.. I don’t plan to work her too hard to get it, though.

Aww… so very stressed out..

… for the last time! Well done, Seiji! Now after I finish with Jaiden, Seiji can work on his fishing aspiration he’s wanted since he moved in. At least it gives me something to do!

Playing on monkey bars at the park into the wee hours of the night..

But he got it done! All four aspirations complete on the same kid. A major first for me.. and a great bonus for the future for Jaiden.

I figure this is as good a spot as any to take a break.. we’ll see you in part three! (posting tomorrow)

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House 007 Part 1 – Day 3 < | > House 007 Part 1 Day 5

Today’s goals:

House 007 Part One Day 4:
8AM: Fishing contest
10AM: End of fishing contest
4PM: The contestant who won the fishing contest goes on a scored
date with the main sim to any available travel location.
When date ends: offer rose to the contestant in attendance and
return home.
12AM: bedtime

Again, we’re to follow Ariana’s whims.

Ooh! Say hi to Mika. She gets herself some tea and then leaves it on the counter. Thanks, Mika.

Trent wakes up with his jealousy moodlet, so he’s sad for the day. (Unless of course I can get him to cheer up)

The rest of the boys slowly wake up and start attending to their needs.

Trent seems to cheer up while cleaning up the dishes…?

Then, the fishing competition starts.

We have a three way tie at the halfway point, and shortly after…

… Jeffrey is the first one to quit fishing, having caught absolutely nothing.

The three way tie fishes for another hour as per rules.

At the end of that hour, Trent has an apple, a fish, and an upgrade part, totaling 100 simoleons worth.

Sean just has his one fish, totaling 7 simoleons.

Vincent also just has his 7 simoleon fish. So Trent wins by a landslide.

Feeling bad for Trent, as soon as everyone is back home, I try to cheer him up. It works! Usually it doesn’t work for me, so this is a nice change.

Soon as I’ve got that done, I see about her other whims. She wants to kiss someone and  get to know Vincent. Since we’re already talking to Trent, we give him the kiss and then head off to find Vincent. (she rolls a second “get to know” Vincent after the kiss.. LOL)

We “get to know” Vincent for both of her whims… Make out with Vincent and “do something romantic” show up.

Can do!  …Then two flirt with Vincents. I’m starting to see a pattern.

Meanwhile, Trent is cooking. Thank god he chose a salad.

Jeffrey’s eating… and Sean is listening to music.

Then she wants to hug someone and watch romance on the TV. Watch world culture network… then some random fitness ones that we cancel. Fine. I’ll find someone to hug. Sean has the lowest relationship, so we’ll go hug him.

Schedule a date pops up. We’ll do that in a bit, there Ariana. And donate to a charity… repeatedly. So I give up on re-rolling stuff and put everyone into a group for some dancing.

While dancing, I see a bunch of notices about all the guys getting to be good friends, which I find hilarious. There’s also some romance minuses, but from what I didn’t see.

Date accepted. I decide to head to the Bluffs.

She wants immediately to become flirty and get to know Trent. Both of which I can work on. Too bad he’s once again Sad…?! Try to cheer up fails.. so let’s try getting to know him. Now she wants to woohoo with him. That’s going to be tough with him being upset and all. But we’ll work on it.

Flirt rejected.. let’s try something else. Maybe I can get him to be playful with joking and then work our way to romance? Flirt rejected again. Hmm…

I finally get him flirting .. things are looking GREAT!

Then suddenly he’s back to being sad and pushes her away. 🙁 I’m so shocked that I miss the actual push in the screenshot.

The date meter wants us to sit and talk.. so I go do that, trying very slowly to work my way back to a nice conversation. Finally, I get him back to playful, then flirty..

and before things change again, I have her ask to woohoo in the friendly neighborhood bush.

As they’re woohooing the date ends.

So as soon as they’re back out, I give him the rose and hightail it home. By this point, they’re both filthy from frolicking in the bush.. lol.. so going home is high on the list of priorities.

At this point, she still wants to be flirty (she never got that far on the date.. lol) and kiss someone. First, though.. shower and bed. We’ll get to those tomorrow. Everyone tucks themselves in while Ariana finishes her midnight snack and goes to bed.

Alone.

Meanwhile, Jennie is out. She’ll keep the house safe while everyone sleeps.

House 007 Part 1 – Day 3 < | > House 007 Part 1 Day 5

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Switch Two Part 3 < | > Switch Three Part 2

So we’re back to the Nashes. Well, at least Sarah Nash. The rest had to be left behind. Before we do anything else, let’s see where she is for starting up.

First thing I do is get her a job, since I have to reach max level in the Critic career. It offers her a boost if I complete the work from home requirement.. and since I can travel in Normal mode, I go ahead and accept the boost.

Wasn’t thinking about it, but it turns out she gets her royalties from her licensed song from the last Switch. That will definitely come in handy!

Then we head out to the neighborhood.. we have posters to collect and eligible males to meet!

I swear she’s just talking, not slapping him! This guy seems like a possibility. Don’t know his third trait, but he’s a glutton and lazy sim. Not too bad traits, but could be better.

This one’s an outgoing bro.. unemployed but that’s easy to fix.

The friendly local librarian is also a possibility. Neat and Bookworm.

Working on her writing skill as per the requirements for her job. Since I can travel, the library is fair game. It’ll be a few days until she gets a computer of her own.

Geekcon happens right outside her front door, so we decide to participate.. and who else do we see there?

Hi mom! We chat for a while, then notice one of our possible males is nearby, so we go to chat up Seiji.

We find out his third trait is family oriented. Definitely a good thing. And he’s single! This one seems like a perfect match.

After Geekcon ends (and we don’t win anything), we invite Seiji over to talk and maybe romance a bit.

Everything seems to be going smoothly, so we angle for a first kiss.

Success! Since I already have a bathroom and a double bed, we go ahead and move him in. No hitches there, he was in a household all to himself and brought in 19k+ funds…. which we immediately cheat back to our 29 bucks. So sad, but we can’t keep his starter money!

While Sarah is at work, I send Seiji to the park .. he wants to be an angler and there’s frogs and collectibles to pick up at the park. We keep him there until he catches his first fish, then head home to pick up Sarah for a trip to the library.

Both need to use the computer – for Seiji I got a business job so he needs to fill out reports, and Sarah needs to write a column. I also have her write her first book, although we’re waiting until level 5 writing to publish it.

The proposal was a success! I had them get married right afterwards.

Look who we found out in the neighborhood – Mom! I was really out there to get food, but some socializing works, too!

Apartment switch time.. so cue apartment picture spam:

That wasn’t too bad. Here’s what I was able to afford in the second apartment:

Not much. But the nice thing about this apartment is there’s plenty of fun stuff to do outside. Flea Markets, basketball, plenty of snow globes and posters.. I like this neighborhood.

Seiji seems to like it as well. There’s not much for a business sim to do at this point in the game (I find out later this isn’t exactly true, he should have been working on logic and charisma) so I have him playing basketball outside.

Breakfast before we head out collecting. At this point, most days I’m having Sarah work from home so she has plenty of things to do.

More posters..

… Paying bills…

Skilling time. Writing and Logic, if you can’t tell by the picture.

Look who’s got a spiffy suit to work in. Nice, Seiji!

Seiji is at work and Sarah needs social, so we just talk to random people on the street.

Mom’s out and about again. She seemed to be getting a lot of attention from the walkers-by, too.

Time to move again. I decide not to have my family in this tiny apartment. I also went with a bright theme.. I think it looks neat. Cue pic spam again:

Pretty good, I’d say! Also, as you can see, I bought her some new traits. Will make it easier to get promotions and money.

Oh, and she’s at level 6 in her job so far.  I took the arts branch with her, I’ve played a couple levels of it before, but nothing into the top levels, so this should be interesing. I plan to have the heir when she’s at level 7, just to make sure I have time.

This is all I’m able to afford in the third apartment. Also note I did move the bathroom wall farther back, it didn’t need to be that big. I also rearrange the walls a bit as I decorate, you’ll see that later.

We even have  a separate room for a studio/office.

Yep! Baby on the way! .. And that means she’s at level 7 as a critic.

We invite Sarah’s sister Erika over and give her a key. (I revoke it very soon after because she is constantly over and leaving glasses of water everywhere in the apartment. It was very annoying.)

Yet another painting picture?

Yep! Level 10 painting. Don’t have to worry about that anymore.

Just for grins, I send her to the spice festival and have her try the curry challenge. Apparently she did well enough that she got a t-shirt, which marks a first for me.

After work every day, Seiji works on filing reports to keep the promotions coming. Often, he ends up with a focused moodlet.. I, personally, would end up with a “bored” one. LOL.

Meet Jaiden! Isn’t he adorable? I waited to move apartments until he was a toddler.. for some reason I don’t like moving when they’re babies because it tosses them in the family inventory.. poor things. Anyway.. waiting for him to be a toddler gave me ample time to save up for the next apartment, because it’s pretty costly. Cue apartment three spam: (I went with a powder blue theme.. I like it! Oh, and as I said, some walls were added.. like this one here in the first picture behind the workout gear.)

On the other side of the wall… the living room.

I also added this half wall between the living room and the kitchen.

Here’s a better picture of the wall arrangement when it was done:

There’s that level 7 job.. and as you can see, by the time we moved, she was just about ready to hit level 8!

Well, we’ll see you in part 2 (which will automatically publish tomorrow)!

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Katie’s Diary

Day Eight:

For some reason, I simply couldn’t stay asleep last night, and I woke up “on the wrong side of the cot” as people say.. or they used to before they all disappeared. To distract myself from the constant hunger, I took yet another trip to my second home, the junkyard. For a change, I decided to go dumpster diving and see what might be in there.

Dumpster Diving… anything useful here?

I found a trashcan and a folding chair. Not exactly helpful.. but that’s what was there. By this point, I couldn’t ignore my stomach anymore. I forlornly headed to my little shack, and made some more peanut butter and jelly crackers. Then, I had a long conversation with myself and Norman. It didn’t help with the constant feeling of loneliness much, but it did give me a bit of an idea. With this inspiration, I headed for my inventing bench.. with Norman. Carefully, with my new inventing expertise, I fiddled and tinkered until I finally improved on his design. Now he moves!

Norman is improved!

With this success, I practically attacked the inventing bench. I managed to design a “Harvester” – but it’s not going to be much help without electricity or a good supply of batteries, so I stowed it away. By the end of my crazed try at inventing, I realized two things.. it was past dark, and I was out of scrap metal. I would have to go back to the junkyard tomorrow.

Day Nine:

Day by day I find myself sinking farther into depression. What am I doing here? Why am I even still trying? Haven’t I figured out that it’s hopeless yet? Talking to myself.. and to Norman only raises my need to be social so much. Every time I venture out I’m faced with the horrifying prospect that I could be all alone. What could have happened to everyone? And how could there be no sign of where they had gone? It seemed impossible, but I had to face the truth. Everyone I knew was gone. They could be dead.. but I had no clear evidence of that. Maybe they all just left… but then why didn’t they clean up before they went? Everything seems as if people just vaporized. And people couldn’t just vaporize.. could they?

Finally, I managed to drag myself out of bed and stood by my inventing bench. I was running out of ideas in a hurry. I could tinker around with what I had, or go get more scrap. But what would I use the scrap for? I felt completely at a loss. Maybe I didn’t have to have a plan to keep going.

Out of sheer stubbornness, I went to get my bike to go collect more scrap. On the way to the junkyard, I noticed something else. It wasn’t supposed to be fall or winter, but the air was getting colder. I could see frost on the still blades of grass as I rode by. The grass kept looking more dead, too. The trees were dropping their leaves.. even the evergreens seemed to be dying. How could I still be here and alive when everything else seemed to be dying?

On a whim, I turned down a side road to take the long way to the junkyard. I pedaled along, keeping a keen eye out for anything that seemed .. out of place. As I passed by the old library, I noticed a side door was ajar. Since I hadn’t been down this road since the roar happened, I’d never noticed it. I quickly jumped off my bike and cautiously approached the door. It seemed as if someone had just forgotten to pull it shut. The lock was engaged, but the door wasn’t clicked shut. Disengaging the lock so I wouldn’t get locked in, I made my way inside. It was dark, but there was enough light from the windows to see the topics on the sides of the stacks. I browsed slowly, thoughtfully, but part of me balked at “borrowing” from the library without permission. From a very young age, stealing had been frowned on, and I still had trouble taking things that weren’t mine. I ran my hand along the spines of the books, randomly pulling one or another out and putting them back.

Eventually, I found myself in the section on inventing. With a little more interest, I squinted my eyes at the titles, looking for.. what? I wasn’t sure, but I felt I’d know it if I saw it. There were some books on more advanced inventing, but nothing struck me as a “must-have.” I finally selected a couple of camping-themed cookbooks, thinking they might have ideas for the limited foods I had been able to find. Perhaps I could figure out a way to at least heat up the soups I had.

After a few trips to the junkyard, and a hasty meal in between them, I was exhausted. No more biking for me today. The air was starting to get so cold it stung my lungs when I breathed too deeply. I could feel a sickness settling into my lungs, and headed next door to my parent’s attic to retrieve my winter clothes. After getting what I felt I was going to need, I carefully relocked the door and went back to my “home.” I still felt better being underground at night with the shed’s doors tightly barred. I wasn’t going to be moving back into my parent’s home anytime soon.

With plenty of time still left in the day, I tinkered around a bit more, making another couple toys with varying degrees of success. I also managed to make a rotational pull and improved upon my localized static tester.. I had half a mind to try it on the radio. If only I could find batteries for it.

Seeing that it wasn’t dark yet, I went up to the shelves in the shack where I had stashed the radio, and again tried to turn it on. The batteries were weak, but it barely worked. All I could get was static.. and the static tester only made it louder. Fearful of running out of juice in the only batteries I’d so far managed to find, I turned it off and headed back downstairs after barring the doors for the night.

Learned Cooking

Reading by the torch, I managed to increase my cooking skill, and felt sure I could rig a Bunsen-burner type thing with the torches and torch fuel I had so that I could at least, finally, have a warm meal tomorrow. Finally having a reason to look forward to the next day, I fell into sleep broken only by a nagging cough telling me I should have gotten out the winter clothes sooner than today.

Day Ten:

Today, I took the side road to the junkyard again, stopping by the library to return the cookbooks. Since I was done with them, I felt too guilty at having them at all to keep them longer than absolutely necessary. I pulled out two advanced inventing books after re-shelving the cookbooks, then meandered around the library, for some reason in no hurry to leave. I browsed past rows and rows of non fiction books, seeing nothing of particular interest.

Slowly, I moved on to the fiction aisles. I’d long since tired of reading the three measly books I had, and there was a thought in the back of my head that perhaps I could find something more entertaining than just talking to Norman.

A shaft of light shining through a window landed on a section of Science Fiction. I walked over to it, for no reason other than being curious. I’d never been into science fiction, but being all alone in an abandoned world pushed the boundaries of what I felt was “normal.” Maybe these books weren’t that far out, after all. My hands fell on one book in particular, and I pulled it out automatically. Time Travel? Yeah, right. Too bad it wasn’t possible. Because if it was…

I stopped. Everyone disappearing wasn’t possible, either. But it had happened. I thought about some of the strange people that had been in some of my classes at school. Vampires and Werewolves weren’t supposed to exist, either.. and they did. Maybe time travel wasn’t as far out as it seemed. Shaking my head, I nevertheless tucked the book under my arm and headed back to my bike. Another couple of scrap runs filled up my inventing bench, and I got back to work.

Yay! A widget!

Through practice, I perfected a dog, a whale, and a cow toy, and made several of each, practicing the tiny mechanisms that made them work over and over, perfecting my technique. I took a break for some soup for my meal of the day, reveling in the fact that it was finally warm. When I just couldn’t do any more today, I fell asleep reading the book on time travel, letting the idea seep into my brain.

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