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Drifter Challenge House 005 House Tour

House 005 Chapter 5 < | > House 006 Chapter 1

I’m just going to go ahead and post the pictures all in a row.

The first “house” shown is the Sherwood’s (Lacee and family)

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Front Entrance

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Living room

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Living Room

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Kitchen

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Dining Room

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Upstairs hall

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Kid’s room

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Kid’s room

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Teen room

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Teen room

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Master bedroom

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Master bath

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Ignore the puddles.. lol.. upstairs full bathroom

Next House is Kayla’s house.

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Front Entrance

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living room

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living room

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kitchen

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dining room

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downstairs bathroom

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kid’s room

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kid’s room

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teen room

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teen room

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master bedroom

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master bathroom

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upstairs hallway

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upstairs bathroom (again, don’t mind the puddles)

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studio floor 1 (painting)

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painting studio towards the door

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photography studio

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photography studio

And, last but not least, the house is uploaded under #thrallsdrifter and #drifterchallenge. I uploaded two versions.. this one with the photographs (which makes it flagged for CC), and one without so it’s not flagged CC.

house005

House 005 Chapter 5 < | > House 006 Chapter 1

House 005 Chapter 4 < | > House 005 House Tour

Checking up on goals:

House 005 Building Goals:
100,000 value home (3 bedroom, 2 bath min)
(6 br, 6.5 baths - complete, at around 200k)
House 005 Generational Goals:
One sim to Level 10 Master of the Real painter career
One sim to Level 10 Patron of the Arts painter career
(Complete on both)
One sim to level 5 Photography (Complete)
Photography Treasure Hunt (Complete)
Young adult heir (teenage now)

All complete except for some time….. So let’s get to it, eh?

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Oh yeah.. once again, I left you with a nooboo on the way. Meet the youngest Sherwood, Kelsie.

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Right after giving birth, Lacee ran out of the room and aged up in the hallway. Poor girl got the “forgotten birthday” moodlet… but she’ll live. (At least for a little while longer!)

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This is Trace and Melany, the two kids at the moment, playing dolls with the nanny (yet again..!)

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Not nice, Kayla. Playing the whole switcharoo game on your daughter while teaching her to play chess. (Don’t worry, Mika got her mom back a time or two, as well.) Why am I taking this painstaking way of teaching Mika some skills?

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For this, of course.. she can’t get an A in school without a level 3 skill.. and since the garden has long since been sold off (without Justice tending it the whole garden was going to pot.. lol) … I had to choose the next best thing.

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Bonus: Kayla got level 10 logic while teaching.

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The next couple of days were spent on teaching Taylor.

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.. Who also got his required level 3 skill.. and then I let him go off on his merry way.

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While concentrating on Taylor, I spy a little pink munchkin trying to sneak past the camera.. who is it but little Melany who came home with an A! (Trace is still at a B in school, he hasn’t gotten a level 4 skill yet.. lol he seems to be the little trouble maker in the family and doesn’t like to sleep nights, either.)

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..See? I guess it’s a good thing he’s up because it’s the only way he’s going to get to know his dad. (How sad!) This photo was very carefully taken to show the broken plumbing behind this cute conversation.. evidently Justice has his priorities straight…. he ALWAYS breaks everything he can in that particular bathroom before he disappears in the morning. (Case in point.. right after taking this photo, he went back in there to break the shower since he hadn’t done that, yet.)

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Umm… boys? You’re in the way.. unless you guys want to change the dirty diaper you’re blocking. (Spoiler: they didn’t. I eventually got them to move.)

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A sorta cute – sorta creepy photo of Trace being sweet with his dad. The creepy part is being able to see through dad…

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This is actually the first time Kayla has seen Justice since his death.. they had just a couple minutes before Justice headed back into his headstone. (That sounds weird, doesn’t it? But I can’t think of another way to word it!)

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Trace, dear.. you’re supposed to do your homework before school, yes.. but not at the breakfast table. Ahh, I guess I should just be happy he’s doing it, right?

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The newest Sherwood, all grown up into her Neat trait.

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Now here’s where I admit I gave her the neat trait for one reason… so she could clean up these puddles on the front lawn that have been blocking me building landscaping out front. The garden has been gone for at least a couple of sim weeks and yet the puddles remained bugged out. So poor Kelsie got to be the guinea pig for the neat trait to mop them up. Yes, it’s cheating to make her do it.. but it was solving a bugged issue, so I’m not going to count it. She was quite happy cleaning up the puddle and even happier when I sent her off to do her own things. (Immediately heading towards that dollhouse, obviously!)

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Oh! Yeah! I built a hedge maze. Tried to get the game to register it as a room so I could upload it separately (you’d be amazed at how few hedge maze rooms are out there – exactly three – I looked. And none of them fit on their lawn..)  .. but I couldn’t get it to be a “room” without a foundation. How annoying. I spent forever building it (off a maze generator I found online) and I wasn’t about to rebuild the thing just to make it be on top of a foundation for the game to recognize it as a room.

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Kelsie being cute with her dad… Although the backlighting makes this picture hard to see.

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Mika and Melany doing homework.

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Taylor, too.. only he actually found his own desk!

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Why the weird picture of Lacee talking to herself in their tiny bathroom mirror?

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… Because. Way to go, Lacee! (I had to give the girls something new to do or I was going to lose my marbles just following people around the house for 13 days before Mika turns YA.)

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Trace and Melany’s birthday. Trace goes first…

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… And doesn’t seem impressed with the whole process.

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Melany’s turn next…

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… And didn’t she turn out pretty!

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Some family time… in the wrong living room, but that’s okay.

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Oh no! Lacee has to make a run for the bathroom.

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… While Brayan actually helps out and puts out the fire (and everyone else panics, of course.)

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.. Taylor, don’t you dare set the house on fire again! (And yes, this picture was a just-in-case kind of thing.)

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Most of the simmies all congregating in their favorite place, Kayla’s living room.

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Melany chatting with little Kelsie (who won’t even have time to get out of child age before this challenge is over).

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Brayan gets older.

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… And Kayla gets abducted. Clearly the aliens want to know how she makes so much money.

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Mika and Trace having breakfast.

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And Taylor and his sister, Melany have breakfast later.

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Two golden oldies having some breakfast before putting in some more time painting.

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After school free time playing sims.

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Trace watching TV.

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Ohhhhh NO! Not Kayla! I had a feeling she would go before this challenge was over, and it looks like I was right.

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Just checking.. yep.. Grimm’s still fat. Too funny. A couple days before this I took a screen capture of her stats so you could see them..

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I don’t think she did too bad for herself, considering how much time and effort went into work and painting.

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RIP Kayla, you will be missed. I put her right by Justice on the back lawn. Hopefully she will be the last death in this challenge!

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Justice visiting. I wonder if he’s sad because of Kayla dying? Being sad didn’t stop him from breaking everything in his favorite bathroom, though.

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The boys catching up.

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Just an ordinary breakfast…

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Or NOT. NO! I thought she’d make it.. there’s only one day left!

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Grimm shows up…

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And I suddenly remember we’re allowed to plead for a sim’s life.

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It worked! Lacee will have at least one day, and that’s plenty of time to get the cake(s) baked for Taylor and Mika’s birthday the next day.

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She seems pleased with herself for getting to come back!

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Kayla’s back for a happy haunting!

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… And she decides to cook? This turns into Almond Macarons, apparently.. a recipe I’ve never seen any time except when cooked up by a ghost.. I wonder if only they can make it??

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Taylor goes first this time just so he’ll have time to age up and still be the same age as Mika.

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… And… drumroll… Mika’s turning into a young adult!

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Yay for Mika and me! Challenge complete! Now: Lacee’s stats (taken a day or two before she passed away as insurance.)

005final6 005final4 005final5

Again, not too bad. My girls did pretty well for themselves!

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Final funds.. and proof that she was saved from death. *grin*

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The house’s final value. Being that this post is already pretty long, I’ll do a full house tour in the next one. See you then!

House 005 Chapter 4 < | > House 005 House Tour

House 005 Chapter 3 < | > House 005 Chapter 5

Checking up on goals:

House 005 Building Goals:
100,000 value home (3 bedroom, 2 bath min)
(Currently at around 80k)
House 005 Generational Goals:
One sim to Level 10 Master of the Real painter career
One sim to Level 10 Patron of the Arts painter career
(lvl 9 currently for both)
One sim to level 5 Photography (Level 2 currently)
Photography Treasure Hunt (Complete)
Young adult heir (child age now)

005value2

I’m not sure when this check was done exactly, so we’ll stick it here… (this is a longish post, so lots of pictures incoming!!)

And we start this chapter up with nooboos!! (since I left you hanging while Lacee was in labor and Justice had just died..)

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Welcome Melany!

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And shortly afterward.. Welcome Trace, a non blue baby boy. Doesn’t it just figure! Sorry, Trace, you missed out on being the heir!

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With Justice being gone, it’s nice that Brayan seems to really enjoy stepping in to help out with Trace.

Lacee working on her photography skill: (I couldn’t pick just one photo of Mika and Taylor.. they are so destined for each other!)

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Love that last shot. Hehe @ Mika’s face.

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A shot of Lacee with the ever-present nanny. She’s been such a lifesaver while Lacee is busy working on her photography. (She’s now at level 3)

Oh… and.. drumroll…

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Yay Kayla!

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Look who’s back!? .. And apparently angry for some reason.

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.. And as we all know.. Angry ghosts are NEVER good. He spent quite a while breaking everything in sight..

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Then went to the backyard and haunted his own gravestone..

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…And mourning himself. Repeatedly. It was really quite funny. My husband’s comment was that I had a narcissist ghost.

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Brayan’s new favorite place.. the new computer in Kayla’s house’s living room.

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Happy birthday Brayan!

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Finally Lacee catches up.

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There’s little Trace all grown up and looking cute. (How I managed to miss photographing Melany until later, I’m not sure.. I apologize, but you’ll have to wait a few photos for her.)

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Mika and her little brother.. guys WHY must you be cute in the hardest room to photograph??

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…There that’s better. A good shot of cuteness as well as the new living room.

With the house mostly furnished now (All six bedrooms and 6,5 bathrooms, plus the other rooms..

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It should end up being more than that because I’m adding to it as I go.

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Mika is so good at doing her homework.. despite being a creative sim.

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Taylor.. not as much.. despite the fact that he’s a genius. He just takes longer to get it done.

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Mika and her little brother, Trace.

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Taylor finally does his homework, prompting Trace to do his, too.

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Taylor really likes playing chess, I see.. and I’m working on logic again on Kayla, simply because she doesn’t have anything else that needs doing.. we’re not hurting for money, that’s for sure.

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Finally! The promised picture of Melany, with her older brother, Taylor. She’s a cutie.. but probably relegated to keeping this house full instead of helping on the next house.. but we will see.

And now, a group of photos from another run at photography.. I picked out some of the best ones for here (and deleted lots of other ones).

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A shot of the other house in the neighborhood, an earlier Drifter house. (house 3)

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The view from the front door of the house

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Taylor chasing after his mom to see what she’s doing.. a neat shot of the doors opening up into the studio.

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A shot of the house from street level.. you can also see a bit of the landscaping I’ve added.

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More landscaping.. this time out back.

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Way to go, Lacee! That’s the last goal other than the young adult heir.. and we’re working on that. Yet again, I’m left with all these empty days while waiting for the heir. .. but then, it’s better than running out of time!

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An aerial shot of the back yard now that I’ve added landscaping and a gazebo. Better shot of it from ground level later…

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Melany playing chess with Kayla. Jumping in on Kayla’s games seems to be a household favorite thing to do. I don’t mind as it means she can chat while skilling!

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The boys watching TV..

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…While Brayan leaves his favorite spot long enough for Mika to get in a couple games of Blicblock.

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.. Can you tell I just love this kitchen?

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Mika and Melany outside on the new monkey bars. Glad they finally found it!

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Taylor finally found one of the many desks in the house.. it’s not his.. but at least it’s a desk! (Point of fact.. it’s Mika’s.)

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Melany, on the other hand, finds her own desk. Good job! (I think she’s just trying to win brownie points with me to try to get invited to the next house.. lol)

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Brayan FINALLY finds the workout machine I bought just for him.. but he doesn’t play long before …

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… he’s back to cleaning house. For a non-neat sim, he sure spends a lot of time cleaning.

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What’s that weird outfit mean?… Mika got an A at school!! Way to go, Mika!

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Kayla’s sick.. and spotty. So I buy her medicine (that supposedly helps.)

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Glitchy photo to remind me that Lacee and Brayan were trying for a nooboo. I decided to try to get her pregnant one more time to hopefully let her stick around longer for while Mika is growing up.

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… Because this is happening. Dear Kayla is now an elder, before even Mika is a teenager. (Dum-dum-dum.. yep that means Mika will have some days alone without Kayla before being able to take over the family.)

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A nice shot of Trace’s room. The kids rooms, I confess, are just the EA standard rooms with some tweaks. I was running out of ideas, and since I don’t have the Kid’s stuff pack yet, decorating for kids and teens is terribly boring!

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Taylor playing dolls with his little sister, Melany.

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And yep.. that’s a baby bump! Nooboo sighting confirmed. *wink*

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.. Justice visiting again. He was apparently embarrassed, so he was in Trace’s bed hiding.

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Kayla’s cooking.. again. These days she always seems to be cooking..

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…see?

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Why did I take a picture of Lacee and Brayan on the front doorstep?

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.. Because Lacee just got a raise! Way to go Lacee!

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And Mika’s now a teen! Isn’t she gorgeous? She reminds me very much of her mom.. but has a different chin (I think)

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..See? .. Maybe I’m just hoping she’s not a complete clone like I think she is. Oh yeah.. and Kayla is sick.. AGAIN. She just can’t seem to get over this cold. (Although if I had spots like that I certainly wouldn’t be just calling it a “cold” like the game does.. lol)

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And Taylor’s turn…

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… I see.. you’re the dark, brooding, handsome type. Definitely genetic potential there, though!

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.. The promised Gazebo picture..

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..Times two.

Now, before we wrap up this post.. some pictures of the upstairs photo studio.

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I like the way it turned out. Checking on our house value shows it up around the 200k mark.. which I’m not entirely surprised at because it is, in effect, two full houses plus the studio. I’m just glad money was coming in fast enough to get it done. In fact, my concerns about money are so trivial I would probably have had enough to furnish the three story idea this house originally was.. which I find funny.

House 005 Chapter 3 < | > House 005 Chapter 5

House 005 Chapter 2 < | > House 005 Chapter 4

Checking up on goals:

House 005 Building Goals:
100,000 value home (3 bedroom, 2 bath min)
(Value Complete, need more bedrooms)
House 005 Generational Goals:
One sim to Level 10 Master of the Real painter career
One sim to Level 10 Patron of the Arts painter career
(level 7 currently for both)
One sim to level 5 Photography (Level 2 currently)
Photography Treasure Hunt (Complete)
Young adult heir

Not much more done than last time.. still trying to wait for heir to be born until level 8 of careers.

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Finally.. some furnishings in Kayla’s side of the house.. here’s the kitchen.

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It still looks pretty bare at the moment, though.

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Lacee working on Charisma while Brayan is sound asleep.

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And… drumroll please…

005kaylanooboo

Heir incoming! Yes, that means both girls finally made it to level 8 in their careers. There is light at the end of this tunnel!

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… And why all the confetti…?

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Lacee is expecting, as well!

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.. Must be hard to paint with that big ol’ tummy, though.

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Pregnancy break-fast time.. they both are feeling a little sick this morning.

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… And a quick pick-me-up before work for Lacee. Now that both have both of the traits I was going for (Carefree and Entrepreneurial) I can spend the points on potions to make things easier.

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Painting for career daily task… again, working around the baby bump.

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Justice decides to help Kayla with her logic skilling.

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.. And later, Brayan takes a turn at the chess table.

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The newest drifter, a baby girl – Mika (named by my daughter because the random names were just not good enough.) I was hoping for more of Justice in the baby, but no luck.. another blue baby! No word yet on whether she’s a true alien or not yet.

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And this.. is where my heart skipped a beat. I was just checking to see why the boys were suddenly tense while the girls were both at work. I suddenly am grateful I added the sprinklers, and start hoping they work…. soon. (The plumbbob still in the photo just shows how rattled I was.. I didn’t even think to remove it until the next photo)

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Shown here.  It seemed like forever until the sprinklers finally started working.. putting out Brayan and the fire quite handily.

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Why does he look like a werewolf from sims 3 now? LoL

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The mess leftover. I fix it pretty fast after the girls get home.

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Justice taking care of the baby while the girls are still gone. He actually even got her to stop crying!

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The two couples congregating in the only functioning living room so far.

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Finally! I caught it on photo.. Justice has apparently made keeping the garden watered his personal mission.. I haven’t had to water it once since the first or second time I roped him into helping with group… he now does it on his own. I thought it might have been him watering it, but I never caught him at it until this photo.

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Baby Taylor is born to the Sherwoods. What a cutie. He will definitely make an appearance in the next house.

(Note from the future here. With the new rules, moving in past household members is no longer okay. I waived that rule for this household, because I had so many plans already made.. and the fact that I officially started this save with the old rule-set. Also, at this point, I didn’t know it was banned… so there.)

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More babies on the way! Both moms are pregnant again… Lacee again then Kayla .

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Mika is so cute! Too bad there doesn’t seem to be any of her father in her.. guess I’m stuck with another generation of blue sims! (And by the way, she’s not a “true” alien – no option for disguises.)

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Getting so close.. that’s level 9 for Kayla!

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The new dining room on Kayla’s side of the house.

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Mika playing dolls in her new bedroom.

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Taylor all grown up.. and the picture is incredibly dark even though he’s quite literally standing next to a lamp?

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How have I never noticed how cute the “play with dolls” interaction is? There’s even a little horsey that they bring out for the little corral on the side of the dollhouse.

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Breakfast time before school…

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Both of them playing after school with the nanny chatting with them. The moms were busy, as usual.. so I hired a nanny to come keep the kids company.

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Ohh… no, not Justice. He didn’t make it to see his second baby born.

I did think it was funny, though, that I got these three messages in quick succession:

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005laceebaby

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Not sure why I thought it was funny, but I did. Babies and death at the same time.

It was during Death’s visit that I got curious what he looks at on his tablet while reaping. .. if you’ve ever been curious:

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A sims 3 gravestone..

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…sims 3 mummy..

10-13-16_5-12-00-pm

.. himself…

10-13-16_5-13-01-pm

and.. I THINK that’s a sims 3 ghost, but I’m not 100% sure.

Those pages appear to be in Simlish and repeating themselves over and over for as long as he’s reaping. And yes, my Grimm is still apparently fat. My daughter and I had to laugh at that.. isn’t he supposed to be a skeleton under those robes? Apparently not in my game!

10-13-16_5-24-34-pm

Taylor doing his homework.

10-13-16_5-28-53-pm

And Mika doing hers.

10-13-16_6-19-06-pm

This is as good a place to stop as any.. so we’ll see you in a few at the next chapter with a nooboo or two!

House 005 Chapter 2 < | > House 005 Chapter 4

House 005 Chapter 1 < | > House 005 Chapter 3

Checking up on goals:

House 005 Building Goals:
100,000 value home (3 bedroom, 2 bath min) (Currently at 29k)
House 005 Generational Goals:
One sim to Level 10 Master of the Real painter career
One sim to Level 10 Patron of the Arts painter career
(lvl 5 currently for both)
One sim to level 5 Photography (Level 2 currently)
Photography Treasure Hunt (Complete)
Young adult heir

And here we go again!

After looking at the three story design I have planned for a while, and feeling utterly dissatisfied by the first floor being pretty much empty (and knowing I probably won’t make enough money to furnish it as well as the rest of BOTH houses and the studio).. I came up with another plan. All three “houses” will be only two stories with a foundation.. leaves me quite a bit of extra reserve and time to build. So, long story short.. I start this chapter with pictures of the newly redesigned “first house”.. I had enough money from getting rid of the useless first floor to make the living quarters be two stories now.

10-10-16_4-26-58-pm

New first floor

10-10-16_4-32-00-pm

New second floor

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The boys chatting in the living room.

10-10-16_4-48-44-pm

The girls skilling .. Lacee is working on painting for the daily task, and Kayla is working on her logic. (She’ll need it for her secondary skill for career.)

10-10-16_5-33-21-pm

The outside shell is mostly complete for the first house. Looking good! Since sims 4 doesn’t have Mansard roofs, I did what I could to make it look like one. I think it looks okay.

10-10-16_5-50-29-pm

This picture is for two purposes… one, Brayan is actually skilling.. and two, the chess table got moved into the living room with a focusing painting… which means that the studio is now walled-off to allow for two different “ambiances” in the house.

10-10-16_6-40-54-pm

The Studio house is at least built now.. instead of doing a rectangle, I decided on this shape, although it took me a lot of fiddling trying to decide how it looked best. It doesn’t look as much like a Mansard roof, but I thought the stairs being out further looked odd.

005lacee1

Lacee is the first to get Carefree.. hooray!

10-10-16_6-58-09-pm

The new studio. Not very inspiring, but that will come.

10-10-16_7-42-05-pm

Windows! It’s about here that I start realizing how fast painting makes money. With both of them painting as non-stop as possible while still being 100% ready for work every day, most of the pictures I’m taking are house improvements.

10-10-16_8-42-43-pm 10-10-16_8-44-02-pm

The first room to start getting some major improvements is the kitchen. Also the first room to get paint and flooring.

10-10-16_8-52-29-pm

The painted interior of the house…

005value2

And a check on the value.. not too bad with a lot still to go.

10-10-16_9-13-46-pm

Brayan keeps “stealing” Lacee’s easel.

10-10-16_9-28-46-pm

So I add another easel, just for times like this.

005laceepaint

Hooray Lacee! Strangely enough, Kayla is still only at level 8. More work to do!

At about this time, I also “cheat” to finish the milestone without an Art Gallery, and get rid of the 350 points I got from that with a Sleep Replacement that I sell instead of using. Makes it so I lose 50 points, but it allows her to continue on her aspiration without having an art gallery in the town.

005justicepromo3 005justicepromo4

Justice got another promotion all by his lonesome. Way to go, Justice!

005justicework

Occurred to me at about this time that I’ve never put in their earnings.. Here’s Justice’s new earnings.

005brayanwork

… And here’s Brayan’s.

10-11-16_5-21-34-am

Floors and Walls! Everywhere! I’m much happier with being able to take nice looking screen shots. Also finally put in railings for the stairs, although they’re hard to see in this photo.

10-11-16_5-21-42-am

The beginnings of a photo studio at the far left.. and the actual master bedroom is also getting furnished.

10-11-16_5-22-14-am

The outside all painted and windowed up. You can see the railings in this one.

10-11-16_5-22-33-am

The backyard. This photo also proves that I fail to notice that putting down the porch made one of the windows on the back wall go poof. It takes me quite a while to notice it, too. I don’t think I finally noticed it until the third house is built.

10-11-16_6-00-56-am

Kayla fixing the TV in the new living room.

She’s finally at the point where I can cheat her past the art gallery like I did with Lacee.. and again I get rid of the points I got from that milestone. She’s STILL not at level 10 though! (Probably because she keeps having to take breaks to get Justice gardening or her needing to fix

10-11-16_6-01-20-am

Another living room shot, this one featuring Justice.

10-11-16_6-01-43-am

Dining room. Not that they seem to use it much.. but it’s there.

10-11-16_6-02-00-am

Front entry-way .. note to self.. needs better lighting.

005kaylapaint

10-11-16_6-18-00-am

The front porches are finally added.. with the roof decorations to look like victorian gingerbread.

Next.. birthdays!

10-11-16_3-17-53-pm

Kayla…

10-11-16_3-19-06-pm

Then Lacee… (Lacee seems a little happier at aging up than Kayla does. lol)

10-11-16_4-55-00-pm

Then the day later, Justice.

Both girls are at level 7 of their careers. Just three more to go. As for whether I’ll make it, I really don’t know. It’ll be a surprise for sure!

Checking in the house again:

10-11-16_5-18-04-pm

We finally have the shell of the third house added. The inside is pretty much empty except for paintings we have saved for the third house.

And before we end…

005value3

We’re good on value. Anything beyond here is gravy.

House 005 Chapter 1 < | > House 005 Chapter 3

House 004 Chapter 4 < | > House 005 Chapter 2

First stop – checking the new goals:

House 005 Building Goals:
100,000 value home (3 bedroom, 2 bath min)
House 005 Generational Goals:
One sim to Level 10 Master of the Real painter career
One sim to Level 10 Patron of the Arts painter career
One sim to level 5 Photography
Photography Treasure Hunt (more on this later)
Young adult heir

Second stop – checking on where our heir from house 004 is:

10-09-16_8-54-40-am

I did take her on a run through CAS because .. well.. those shorts she had were atrocious. I also changed her hair and some other small things.. but mostly I left her alone.

005start3

Trait panel…

005start5

I showed this one mostly so you can see how many satisfaction points she’s starting with. (Not many!)

005start1

Her skills..

005start2

.. oh yay.. back at 0 simoleons! (sarcasm)

005start4

Luckily, though, she’s in great shape for starting!

Third stop – making a new sim:

10-09-16_9-04-45-am

I started from a randomized sim, made a few wardrobe changes, and randomized for a name.

005start6

Meet Lacee Sherwood! She starts with basically nothing, so there’s no need to see her other information screens.

… and here we go!

One advantage I’ve found to switching to the new rules… this neighborhood already had a house in it, so the resources are all full and ready for harvesting. It really made starting this very easy.

I immediately send Kayla out gathering, and Lacee out looking for treasure hunt photos. I’ll let you go read up on the details on the Sims forums or on Vihisha’s blog.. but basically, you’re tasked with getting ten photos with mix and match of ten different wearable items and ten different colors. No sim can be used more than once, and each item and color can only be used once. It sounded incredibly complicated and hard to do… and since there’s not much to do in the first couple days once the gathering is done.. Lacee spent her time taking photos and stalking everyone who walked, ran or stomped past our lawn. I didn’t take any photos because it was just mostly running around gathering or chasing after photo subjects.

10-09-16_10-17-40-am

Kayla meets a Young Adult blondie named Justice. I see potential… hopefully his traits are good. No red flags yet.. so I have them build relationship by looking at the stars.

10-09-16_10-34-27-am

On day two, Lacee meets a Young Adult man with potential.. Leonardo. Again, no red flags in the first two traits I learn… so they’re cloudgazing.

10-09-16_10-48-42-am

As is becoming tradition.. I manage to get one last photo of the last house’s heir before she’s gone for good. Why she went with the “Charlie’s Angels” pose I’ll never know.. but it looks cute on her. RIP Brynn… you’re already being missed!

10-09-16_11-35-08-am

Two new friends, camping out on the lawn. Is it me, or do they not look too excited in this photo?

10-09-16_12-02-07-pm

My ten photos.. complete. I got brown shoes, a pink skirt, a red shirt, yellow hair, green full body (dress), black accessory (bangle bracelets), white socks (thanks to Brynn! … why do people never wear socks in this game??), a hat with blue on it, orange makeup (nobody ever said I couldn’t put orange makeup on one of my sims and have that count.. lol), and bright purple running shorts. … And the whole treasure hunt is complete with only three days gone by. That was WAY easier than I expected. Only one photo didn’t turn out good, and I plan to retake it. (It’s of Kayla’s green formal dress, so getting the subject of the photo to hold still is easy.)

10-09-16_12-39-52-pm

Justice is invited over for a sleepover in the tent (Kayla had a wish to woohoo in a tent.. so I figured, let’s do this!) .. they seem to get along pretty well (he’s telling her a dramatic story in this photo.. lol he got very animated! Kayla doesn’t seem impressed.

10-09-16_12-42-27-pm

And Kayla snags her first boyfriend. (And last, hopefully…)

10-09-16_1-37-35-pm

… And it begins. I decided that the gardening and repairing will be done by Kayla, whereas the Photography skill will be Lacee’s job. Why? I don’t know.. probably because Lacee already managed to get level 2 photography just from the treasure hunt… and Kayla already had gardening skill.

10-09-16_1-39-47-pm

Our little “home-on-the-lawn” after the first week. I’ve managed to get all of the bare minimums for survival.. cooler, full bathroom, two tents (one for each of them now that Justice is moving in hopefully), a couch and good TV, and two easels. There’s even a small garden of 20 blackberry plants.. I’ll see whether it’s worth keeping them or not. I figure extra money is always a good thing. Especially since I have BIG plans for this house.

10-09-16_2-07-17-pm

And congrats to Kayla and Justice! He apparently had just turned to adult (so had Lacee’s prospect, Leo…) .. but I decided I liked Justice’s looks enough to marry him in anyway. Hopefully he won’t die before his genes are necessary for the heir! (Also.. small rant at myself.. somehow all of the pictures I took of Justice are in the dark so you can’t see the guy! Yeesh. Way to go me!

005justice

Here’s his stats. He’s a level one (joke’s on me again) Scientist.. but maybe I can get him a couple of promotions by having him help with the gardening to get breakthroughs. I won’t (obviously) be able to go to work with him, but promotions in that career don’t require it.

10-09-16_2-51-35-pm

And .. finally.. the very beginnings of the house shell go up. I’m hoping to make this into a sort of duplex house in the Victorian Row House style.. basically two houses on the ends with a studio in the middle. We’ll see whether I’ll have the funds to manage it! I’m going to build one side at a time so I don’t completely “break the bank”. I’m basing the design off of several photos/architectural drawings I found on the web of period houses.. a lot of them have entrances on the second floor and a slightly underground first floor. Since half underground isn’t an option in Sims 4, I made do and figured out a way to make it work. Basically, the first floor will be a “dummy” floor for both houses, but not the studio. They can be left empty, or filled out as .. well.. whatever.. if I have the extra funds to spare. They’re more there for the exterior looks of the house than a need for more space. Sound complicated? It is. But you’ll get the idea as I build. (I already have the plans drawn up for the house, and have built a model and even uploaded it to the gallery.)

rowhouse

If you’re interested, it’s titled “Victorian Row House” and hashtagged #victorian. I uploaded both a shell and a fully decorated house – titled Victorian Row House 2 – (with unlimited funds, it’s worth 350k ish…. definitely will not be worth that much under the drifter challenge.. but I at least hope to have it completed with lesser furnishings. – The shell alone is worth 85k and I’ll be sticking pretty close to it… so house value won’t be a problem.. getting enough funds to fully furnish TWO houses.. might be. But we’ll see!) The paint colors chosen for the outside may be getting changed.. I’m thinking the tan one is just too tame for a victorian and will probably go with green instead.

10-09-16_2-54-01-pm

And here is what the girls spend most their time doing. Painting, cloud gazing, more painting.. rinse repeat.

10-09-16_3-16-16-pm

Finally! The cooler is retired and we have a nice mid-range kitchen started. No more fighting to get food out when someone’s sitting and eating on the cooler.

005justicepromo 005justicepromo2

Justice makes it to level two.. see? I told you I thought I could get him to a promotion without going to work with him and I was right. The minuscule bonus and raise will definitely help over time!

10-09-16_3-45-43-pm

Finally was able to afford some lights and moved everything indoors except for the garden. (obviously)

10-09-16_3-55-23-pm

Finally! A good bed for Kayla and Justice. Sorry Lacee.. you’ll just have to wait for yours.

10-09-16_4-45-21-pm

Look who I saw walking past?!? Based on the career outfit, I know he’s high up in the astronaut career.. I wonder what he looks like under all that…?

10-09-16_4-51-37-pm

Wow… nice find, Lacee! I guess Leo will just have to find someone else. (I never did romance Leo, just marked him down as a future possibility. I didn’t like that he’d already aged to adult.) This one is a Young Adult still!

10-09-16_4-55-26-pm

No incompatible traits, and the romance was full speed ahead. I didn’t know his last trait.. but I took a gamble on it being worth it for his job, age, and known traits alone.. ) They seem to be getting along pretty well!

10-09-16_5-00-32-pm

Total time from meeting to married: about 4 sim hours. That’s gotta be a record for me.. I’ve never managed to go through all of the steps that quickly before.. I usually allow for a couple of days of wooing.

005brayan

His name is a bit strange.. but then Lacee isn’t exactly a normal name either. They look damn good together, too. On a side note, the trait I didn’t know was Geek.. so it was a good one, too. Turns out he’s level 6 in his career. Score!

… And I think that’s enough for the first chapter. Both playable simmies are at level 5 in their careers (at varying stages through it.. for some reason, Lacee is leading on promotions over the Ambitious Kayla (who already purchased Entrepreneurial…) .. totally unexpected that Perfectionist is better so far.

10-09-16_11-51-35-pm

An overview of the house so far. I just added in a chess table for Kayla’s logic skill needs, and the mirror for Lacee’s. I totally forgot about the secondary skills until Allie from the sims forums reminded me.. That could have been bad!

005value1

A quick peek at the house value.. not too badly for being a cobbled-together MESS right now. With four sims and one bathroom, this could get hairy!

House 004 Chapter 4 < | > House 005 Chapter 2

House 004 Chapter 3 < | > House 005 Chapter 1

Checking in on our goals:

House 004 Building Goals:
50,000 value home (2 bedroom, 1 bath min) (Complete)
House 004 Generational Goals:
Level 10 Rocket Science skill (level 8 now)
Level 10 Scientist career (Complete)
Travel to Sixam & bring back 6 unique items (Complete)
Befriend an alien and move them in
Young adult heir (Teen now)

Only thing I’ve gotten done since last time is the Sixam items and Kayla at teenage stage.. but that’s ok, because there’s more to come and I still have plenty of time,

10-07-16_9-18-15-pm

All out of upgrades Brynn can do, and have an entire skill point before the next one is available.. so I send her on mission after mission to get more skill for Rocket Science.

10-07-16_9-52-01-pm

I didn’t mean to start out this post on a depressing note.. but RIP Josef. He had a good long life! Of the family, only Conner managed to get down there in time to see him off. The kids were off at school, Drake was at work.. and Brynn was still asleep.

10-07-16_9-56-47-pm

Grimm getting his groove on after his duties are discharged. It is just me, or does he look a little tubby?

10-07-16_10-03-00-pm

…. Poor Kayla. Sets the house on fire on her first cooking attempt. This happened quite literally the day after I first installed the fire sprinklers.. so great timing on my part!

10-07-16_10-09-51-pm

Remember that alien I pointed out at work last chapter? .. I invited her over…

004savannah

.. And invited her into the family. This completes the friend alien moved-in part of the goal.

10-07-16_10-17-51-pm

A moodlet solver potion (which also takes away her grieving moodlets.. yay!) to let her get some more work done on the rocket science skill.

10-07-16_11-12-09-pm

Hey… that’s not working on your skill!

004aliens

Hahaha! I didn’t even know that was an achieve. The aliens like this family, that’s for sure.

10-07-16_11-14-47-pm

Welcome back, Josef!

10-07-16_11-34-37-pm

Conner doesn’t make it to bed. Silly sim.

10-07-16_11-34-48-pm

Socializing in the living room. This picture taken partially to show off the new living room rug. I decided I didn’t like the old one.

10-07-16_11-38-57-pm

Kayla “helping out” (read.. working on getting a skill to 3 for school).

10-07-16_11-39-09-pm

Working on that rocket skill again..

004rocket

.. And yay! Finally! That’s our last goal complete (except for young adult heir.) Which leaves us with like 9 days of sim time before the challenge is complete. I didn’t need as much time as I allowed myself by having the extra kids.. but it was nice to have that buffer. The only complaint I have about having 8 sims in a household (which is a first for me in sims 4) is that my game likes to freeze all the sims periodically and it requires going out to manage worlds and back before the can move again. I don’t know why, but it seems to only happen that way with 8 sims in the house hold. Very weird glitch. But VERY annoying. Must have something to do with game memory, I think.

10-08-16_12-03-12-am

Dylan’s birthday! Congrats little man!

10-08-16_12-04-18-am

… Well, didn’t he grow up nicely. Too bad he’s blue. LoL. This puts him at a Genius and Loner. (Not that those traits matter since he’ll never get played)

10-08-16_1-14-24-am

Josef, back again.. and this time, he’s mad. Kicking over the trash can seems to be the extent of his anger, though, luckily. He didn’t go on a break everything rampage as some ghosts I’ve seen.

10-08-16_1-27-16-am

Drake elder-ify’ed. Doesn’t look like he’s too pleased about it. And that hoodie on an elder is just too funny. I laughed WAY too hard about it.

10-08-16_2-00-30-am

My gorgeous Brynn…

10-08-16_2-00-52-am

Makes an even prettier elder. I’m not looking forward to losing Brynn.. I’ve really grown attached to her!

10-08-16_2-01-36-am

Poor Kayla. It can’t be that bad, since you chose to work on your fitness skill yourself. First (and last) time I saw one of my sims use the workout machine.

10-08-16_2-04-51-am

Sibling socializing. Too cute.

10-08-16_2-06-08-am

With nothing left to work on, Brynn is at loose ends. So she ends up gardening…

10-08-16_2-11-05-am

… Or making the “fixer’s helper” serums (turns two measly repair parts into 900 simoleons.. nice rate of return there!) in her basement lab.

10-08-16_4-22-35-am

Homework party! If you’re looking closely, you can see I’ve replaced all the stairs and recolored all the windows. I decided I liked the black windows and stairs better than the white. I fiddled with the idea a while, and then decided it was my house, so might as well make it pretty!

004time

… Shows how much time I’ve put into this Drifter save. That’s a lot of time!

10-08-16_4-25-48-am

Addisyn’s birthday.. (once again, pardon the outline on Brynn… I don’t know why I kept doing that on this save.)

10-08-16_4-26-29-am

Such a pretty alien! Being that she’s unplayable, I never put her in disguise, so this is just her as a true alien. Her traits are Goofball and Active.

10-08-16_4-29-17-am

.. Her first action as a teen.. homework on the boy’s room desk. Go figure.

10-08-16_4-49-57-am

Aww… not you, too, Conner! This should be the last death before this challenge is over. (Also, it puts me back down to 7 sims, which is a good thing for that stupid freezing bug.)

10-08-16_4-52-28-am

See….? I’m telling you.. Death has gotten fat on my Drifter save. I didn’t even know it was possible!

10-08-16_4-52-40-am

Grimm playing on my sims’ favorite computer.

004cook

Guess baking that cake was worth it, right, Brynn?

10-08-16_5-57-23-am

Savannah turned elder. Can’t say I’m too fond of her.. but she got that goal completed, so yay?

10-08-16_6-06-06-am

The family’s typical gathering area. I think most of them are milling about down there. LoL. The guy on the far left in the black is the maid.

10-08-16_6-08-30-am

Another homework party.

10-08-16_6-16-19-am

Addisyn socializing with Josef, who’s back again for the night.

10-08-16_6-23-59-am

Welcome back, Conner!

10-08-16_6-33-22-am

Zackary’s turn. (And by the silly hat you can see he’d JUST gotten his “A” at school. Kayla hasn’t been the best of students, and still only has a “B”.)

10-08-16_6-33-52-am

Oh.. no.. Zackary’s gotten his great grandfather’s hair. LoL RIP Jamari. Good thing tomorrow is Kayla’s birthday, or I might be tempted to save poor Zackary from his hairstyle.

10-08-16_7-14-11-am

Make that wish, Kayla!

10-08-16_7-14-26-am

And….!!!

004final3

…. Finally!

10-08-16_7-14-42-am

All goals complete! House 004 is a “win”!

Now, I’ll do a bit of a house tour …

10-08-16_7-21-24-am

Front door view

As you can see, the landscaping is minimal at best.. it just didn’t look right to do more. Here you can see the black windows and black/glass stairs and fencing. I don’t know why those two windows at the top left never render on this house.. it’s always been like that, and no matter what I do to it, it always seems to be that way.

10-08-16_7-21-34-am

The back yard

If you look closely, you can see the changes I made to the roof (and added another “post” to hold it up.) I like this way this looks much better.

10-08-16_7-22-01-am

Finished dining room looking towards the front door.

10-08-16_7-22-26-am

Living room looking towards the front door.

10-08-16_7-23-18-am

Downstairs science lab, locked for Brynn only.

10-08-16_7-23-53-am

View one of the boy’s room, turned into a teen room

And yes, once again, that’s Addisyn doing her homework in the boy’s room.  LoL.

10-08-16_7-24-43-am

View two of the boy’s room.

10-08-16_7-25-00-am

Girls room 1

10-08-16_7-25-35-am

Girl’s room 2

10-08-16_7-25-43-am

Girl’s room 3

10-08-16_7-26-03-am

Upstairs Hallway with game table that NOBODY ever used.

10-08-16_7-26-21-am

Conner and Drake’s room (and now Savannah, too)

10-08-16_7-26-38-am

The dresser in the “guest” bedroom

Now, my traditional “end of challenge” wrap-up.

004final1

Way to go Brynn! Nice funds, there.

004final2

Scientist complete.. and still have one day left on vacation.

004final4

Brynn’s skills.

004final5

Brynn’s traits.

004final6

Final house value. Updating the windows and stairs and stuff actually brought the value down a bit.. but that’s ok. I was way over value target, anyway.

house004

Once again, house is uploaded to the gallery under both #thrallsdrifter and #drifterchallenge.. so it should be pretty easy to find. This front picture shows that the upper left two windows are actually there.. they just don’t render on screenshots for unknown reasons.

Hooray for House 004 finished!

House 004 Chapter 3 < | > House 005 Chapter 1

House 004 Chapter 2 < | > House 004 Chapter 4

Checking in on our goals:

House 004 Building Goals:
50,000 value home (2 bedroom, 1 bath min) (Complete!)
House 004 Generational Goals:
Level 10 Rocket Science skill (lvl 4 now)
Level 10 Scientist career (Complete)
Travel to Sixam & bring back at least 6 unique items
Befriend an alien and move them in
Young adult heir (Child now)

Hooray for more progress! However, I do have to note one thing. the befriend an alien and move them in is supposed to be IN ADDITION to any you may have moved in as spouse. Since technically I haven’t done that, I removed the “complete” flag off of that requirement. Also, I unfortunately have a full house until Josef dies.. so I’ll have to wait for that for the alien friend. I left the “complete” flags on the last couple of posts and just took it off of this one to eliminate confusion.

10-07-16_5-50-42-pm

Kayla watching the kid’s channel.

10-07-16_5-50-59-pm

A shot from the living room up to the door, where the computer and workout machine is. (Not that anyone has used the workout machine.. lol .. but hey, it’s there!)

10-07-16_5-51-23-pm

A view from by the front door to the kitchen, where Brynn is cooking. (She always seems to be cooking.. keeping the fridge stocked is a never ending battle, it seems.)

10-07-16_5-52-34-pm

What’s this??

10-07-16_5-52-55-pm

…Drake being abducted. This is the very last shot I have of the roof looking like this. While Drake was gone, I redid the roof a bit and eliminated the flat, fenced-in portion in favor of an actual roof. You’ll see it in a bit.

10-07-16_5-57-16-pm

Nobody else seems to mind he’s gone.. Mom’s eating while Kayla works on her homework. It’s also about this moment when I start hating homework. For some reason, the bug where the sims freeze while someone’s doing homework seems particularly bad on this family, and I quickly tire of pausing so the sims can “catch up” and un-freeze.

10-07-16_5-59-48-pm

Addisyn all grown up.

004addy

It’s at this moment I discover that the other kids aren’t really aliens. Only Addisyn seems to have the alien ability to set a disguise. I guess the other kids are just blue, but not really aliens.

10-07-16_6-26-45-pm

Josef on the new computer from topping the Scientist career. It seems to be very popular with the household.

10-07-16_6-28-08-pm

And over-head view of the top floor. The layout pretty much stays the same until the challenge is over.

10-07-16_6-31-49-pm

The dining room, newly decorated with a rug and the technology-looking room divider.

10-07-16_6-32-09-pm

Better shot of the room divider. I doubt I’ll ever find another house it works so well in!

10-07-16_6-36-37-pm

The last time Brynn actually goes to work for the rest of the challenge. She upgrades her wormhole generator doohickey.. and checks for local aliens.

10-07-16_6-39-32-pm

…Found you! The one in the weird dress on the left is the one I’ll end up inviting to the house after Josef dies.

I never receive an invitation to a party on Sixam, so I don’t know exactly how that works. Brynn had so much vacation time saved up, she was able to go on vacation and not quit the scientist career, by way of keeping her full paycheck. Bills are high enough in this house that I needed that income to stay afloat.

10-07-16_6-53-50-pm

Addisyn and Kayla playing with the dollhouse. Too cute!

10-07-16_7-10-43-pm

Harvesting the garden (as usual). I’ve managed to keep the garden in fairly good shape with the use of the “free services” gardener. Without it, the plants would have died off ages ago. The only other things Brynn has purchased with her points is the morning and night sim, to help with skilling.

004gardening

First skill to ten for Brynn! Good job!

10-07-16_7-14-37-pm

Fixing the TV yet again. At the lower left, you can see the chess table I bought for the living room.. although I don’t think I ever saw anyone use it.

10-07-16_7-20-28-pm

Here’s where Brynn has been spending her days. Working on the rocket. I’m waiting to go to Sixam until she’s finally not pregnant anymore, just so she can collect the stuff there while not waddling everywhere she goes.

10-07-16_7-37-48-pm

Finally! Baby Zackary is born. Time will tell whether he’s a “true” alien or not, even though he sure looks like it here.

10-07-16_7-43-00-pm

Down in her science lab underneath the house.. Brynn takes a leap of faith…

10-07-16_7-43-47-pm

And ends up in Sixam. I was hoping that waiting until daytime to travel would make it brighter for photos.. but no luck. I guess you’ll just have to live with the dark photos I did manage to take while Brynn wandered the area looking for our required collectibles.

10-07-16_7-44-30-pm

.. Here’s one!

10-07-16_7-45-49-pm

Too bad the photos turned out so dark, it really is pretty on Sixam. This is the first time I’ve ever been there in my time playing Sims, so it’s pretty cool to me!

10-07-16_7-55-04-pm

Our required six items from Sixam. (Four different geodes, a metal, and an Alien we found while we were there.)

10-07-16_7-57-08-pm

I also harvested the three different plant types, and decide to make a hidden basement garden with them. I keep the basement locked to everyone else in the house, so I don’t have to worry about anyone messing up my science stuff.

10-07-16_8-13-19-pm

Addisyn chatting with the nanny while Josef washes dishes. Since he’s got the “neat” trait, the house is kept pretty clean. I do have a maid coming for free (why not?).. which is how I find out that scheduled services are free as well as the one-time services.

10-07-16_8-15-34-pm

Conner ages to elder with a cool hamburger cake. (With his hairdo, I decided he must be the whimsical sort who would appreciate the cake.)

10-07-16_8-44-20-pm

Drake getting abducted.. again. Since I rearranged the roof, he gets abducted from the tiny front “lawn” instead of the backyard.

004drakeabduct

Apparently Drake doesn’t mind being abducted this time.. LoL.

10-07-16_8-55-54-pm

The Sixam plants all grown up.

10-07-16_9-01-19-pm

Zackary grown up.. and NOT an alien. Just blue.

10-07-16_9-02-32-pm

Three blue kids at the dinner table .. and only one of them is actually eating. LoL.

10-07-16_9-07-07-pm

Cute sibling love.

10-07-16_9-30-36-pm

It’s Kayla’s birthday! (Please excuse the outline on Brynn.. I’m usually so good about making sure it’s not there… not sure why I wasn’t able to move it in time for this picture.)

10-07-16_9-31-34-pm

Kayla all grown up. Isn’t she pretty??

004value3

The current house value.. I think we’re pretty much done with it now.

That’s enough for this post.. I have finished the challenge.. but too many pictures for just one post.

House 004 Chapter 2 < | > House 004 Chapter 4

House 004 Chapter 1 < | > House 004 Chapter 3

Checking in on our goals:

House 004 Building Goals:
50,000 value home (2 bedroom, 1 bath min)
House 004 Generational Goals:
Level 10 Rocket Science skill
Level 10 Scientist career
Travel to Sixam & bring back at least 6 unique items
Befriend an alien and move them in (Complete)
Young adult heir

Yay… I at least made a little progress!

I start out this episode with the above picture of the house interior on the first floor. Yes, the “living room” is actually down on ground level, I wanted an open plan with the split level. As you can see, I’ve put some cash into windows (far from done there) and finally was able to afford the stairs to the bedrooms.. so all the beds are up there. They are still stuck with cooler food.. (hey, it’s free!) .. but at least they can sit down to eat their snacks without blocking the cooler for other folks. It gets hairy at times with four sims and only one bathroom, but they’re getting by!

004value1

Checking on the value… it’s crazy how much all those windows add to the value..!

10-06-16_12-16-50-pm

Pictures of Brynn at work..

10-06-16_12-18-12-pm

Hard at work, that is.. inventing and distilling and whatever else she does in there…

10-06-16_12-35-31-pm

Apparently Josef really likes the garden.. here he is watering it all by his lonesome (I totally didn’t tell him to do it.. but I sure am glad he is!)

10-06-16_12-55-32-pm

I also put some time into romancing our resident alien, and in the process…

004josefalien

Found out he was an alien. Big surprise there, game. hehe. Although, I will have to say, I’ve married sims in on other games without ever noticing they were aliens until it was too late. EA was sneaky with those disguises!

10-06-16_1-33-37-pm

A partial shot of the (mostly) barren upstairs… and the beginning of Brynn’s sleepy-time woes. She just couldn’t quite get in bed all the way before passing out.

10-06-16_1-59-07-pm

Birthday time for Brynn! Now we’re a full fledged adult. Also a neat perspective shot of Conner heading up the stairs past the new kitchen additions.

10-06-16_2-00-13-pm

Needless to say, Conner didn’t make it to bed that night, either.. the aliens just had to abduct him to find out why his hair stands up like that!

10-06-16_2-02-17-pm

After once again watering the garden, Josef happily mops up an outdoor puddle. Silly neat sims!

10-06-16_2-02-41-pm

Fixing our one and only entertainment source.

10-06-16_2-31-28-pm

Didn’t make it again…

10-06-16_3-16-54-pm

Only  missing the floors now.. painting the walls is all done. I updated the front porch a little, too, if you’re looking closely (added a second set of stairs off to the right side and moved the rock “post” over to allow for them. I think it looks better since it’s a corner lot.)

10-06-16_3-17-16-pm

The house is finally in a “finished” shell – all the windows in place and the textures/paints (not flooring though) installed. I added the red accent trim and really like the way it looks! It’s hard to see, but the window sections are all painted red to go with the trim.

004value2

… Well. We’re definitely ok on value now! …despite the fact it’s still very much mostly a shell.

10-06-16_4-04-38-pm

Josef working on the garden again.

10-06-16_4-44-13-pm

Brynn finds out she’s pregnant while at work! First nooboo, the heir, is on the way!

10-06-16_5-04-38-pm

Brynn’s really starting to show now.. and finally we have flooring in the house.

10-06-16_5-19-45-pm

These two are such a cute couple… always a kiss when she gets home, always affectionate when I’m not paying attention to what Brynn is up to.

10-06-16_5-23-45-pm

Aww.. Brynn is down again. Too many things to do and not enough energy. I always seem to be pushing the amount of time she has during the day, trying to get her to do more.

10-06-16_6-31-21-pm

Welcome to little Kayla! Another girl heir! And since their dad, Josef, is a full alien and Brynn is half alien, the children will all register as aliens with the game. Kinda cool!

10-06-16_6-49-09-pm

Trying for baby again… (I figure since they don’t age when pregnant, it extends the amount of time I have to finish the challenge if I keep Brynn pregnant as much as possible.)

10-06-16_6-50-32-pm

Success! Poor Brynn needs a shower badly in this photo.

10-06-16_6-51-39-pm

Baby doesn’t leave us much time to get everything done.. poor abused Brynn…

10-06-16_6-56-56-pm

Drake is having a bad day. Waiting for the only bathroom we’ve been able to afford, and he missed his birthday cake. As you can see from the picture, he’s not real happy with my simming skills at the moment.

10-06-16_7-42-31-pm

Our gorgeous alien heir, Kayla, who grows up with the “Creative” trait to help her paint in the next house.

10-06-16_8-34-47-pm

Since I decided to keep Brynn having babies until there’s no more room… I decided I needed to expand the upstairs out to the side over the roof. I really like the way it turned out. As you can see from the picture, they’re up a couple of bathrooms as well. (To everyone’s great happiness!)

10-06-16_8-35-15-pm

The updated roof. Why some of the windows are opaque and some aren’t in this picture, I have no idea.

10-06-16_8-57-42-pm

Josef ages gracefully into an elder. I even remembered to get him a cake, yay!

10-07-16_1-36-59-am

Our second-born, Dylan, posing for me in his new room in the new addition. Pardon the plumbbob, I was getting him to turn around for the camera.

10-07-16_1-37-37-am

Yet another addition.. another baby girl, Addisyn. Sound asleep, don’t wake her!!

10-06-16_8-59-32-pm

Once again, poor Brynn… down for the count.

10-06-16_9-00-26-pm

Now we see WHY she’s so tired. Fourth nooboo on the way!

10-06-16_9-04-08-pm

Kayla and Josef chatting in the kitchen.. they’re so cute and affectionate.

10-06-16_9-15-56-pm

… Fourth death at work. Brynn is definitely bad luck! Either that or elders just need to learn to retire in Sims 4! (Maybe a little bit of both!)

10-06-16_9-56-41-pm

A rare photo opportunity of most the household sitting down to dinner.. Don’t know where Dylan went to, but apparently he wasn’t hungry.

004scientist004scientist2

Finally!! I actually made it to level 10! I really had my doubts. In sims 4, I have NEVER maxed any career ever.. so this is a MAJOR first for me.

10-06-16_10-01-11-pm

Now to work on Rocket Science. (She’s already at level 2 from the one at work… I just haven’t been able to afford one at home until now.)

10-07-16_1-37-18-am

And… finally.. the rocket ship is done! Time to start upgrading it to work on rocket science skill (at level 4 now)… hopefully I have enough time left to do it. I’m counting on all those kids slowing the aging process down enough that I’ll have time to finish up with the skill .. I have 11 vacation days on Brynn and plan on using them quite liberally now that she’s maxed her career.

004value3

One last check on our house value after the overhaul upstairs… We’re WAY over goal.. and I still have some decorating I’d like to do! Yikes!

See you next time!

House 004 Chapter 1 < | > House 004 Chapter 3

House 003 Chapter 4 < | > House 004 Chapter 2

First thing to do is check our new goals:

House 004 Building Goals:
50,000 value home (2 bedroom, 1 bath min)
House 004 Generational Goals:
Level 10 Rocket Science skill
Level 10 Scientist career
Travel to Sixam & bring back at least 6 unique items
Befriend an alien and move them in
Young adult Heir

Then, we check on our playable sim: (and run her through CAS)

10-04-16_12-21-39-am

Meet Brynn Drifter. An only child, and destined from the start to live the drifter life. She turned out pretty nice for having an alien for a mom and Christian for a dad.

Starting Stats:

004start1

Skills.. not too shabby for being unplayable in the last house.

004start3

Sticking to tradition: She’s good just like the rest of the line before her. Genius just seemed like a good bet because of the scientist career… and cheerful.. why not? She looks like a cheerful sort!

004start4

Her ambition… although for the first while, I’ll probably have it on the Curator aspiration.

004start5

Pretty good start, I would say!

004start2

… And once again, without any cash. Time to get going!

10-04-16_12-39-56-am

What’s she doing? Calling for help?

004start6

.. nope… our first order of business.. getting a job.

004start7

This marks a milestone for me, the first playable Drifter with a job. (All the others have made money through gardening and fishing only.) She also starts out at level 3 thanks to having an “A” in high school.

10-04-16_12-45-19-am

After fishing for a while, who runs past, but Dad. So we pull him aside to have a chat..

10-04-16_12-47-25-am

And to join us fishing. This is, as is par for the course with my drifters… the last time he’s seen alive.

004breakthrough1 004breakthrough2 004breakthrough3 004breakthrough4

… I didn’t realize fishing would give us so much in the way of breakthroughs. Just one after another for the first day or two.

10-04-16_1-02-32-am

Why so glum, Brynn? Don’t worry.. you’ll have more than a cooler soon.

10-04-16_1-16-27-am

See? We started on Friday afternoon, and by Sunday, we already had our full “lawn living” set up. The garden is getting planted, and she’ll finally be clean in a few minutes.

004breakthrough5

… While taking a shower…

004breakthrough6

Then again while watering her plants. Breakthroughs are clearly not going to be an issue for Brynn…. and it’s about here that I stop taking pictures of every breakthrough. LoL.

10-04-16_1-32-17-am

Really? … We just got to work for our first day… and someone’s dying.

10-04-16_1-32-50-am

I try to get Brynn to ignore the festivities behind her, but she still gets sad for the rest of the day. Poor girl.

Days pass, with pretty much the same thing day after day. Garden, work, sleep. I decided I wanted to try something new, and do a more modern style house.. but I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be able to do it in pieces… so I built a shell of one over the course of several hours on the same size lot next to Brynn’s lawn living. Then, I painstakingly copied down the measurements on graph paper so I could rebuild it.. because the shell worth was around 40k and I didn’t want to save that much before building.

I didn’t really take many pictures of this time.. because there’s only so much of it I could be interested in.. I’ve done the beginning of the scientist career a million times, it seems.. and once you’ve seen one garden you know what it looks like.

10-06-16_8-15-25-am

Pretty shot of Brynn making friends with her childhood friend, Drake.. who is still a teen at this time. After he gets a job as an adult I’ll probably move him in.

10-06-16_8-50-08-am

Death #2 at work… I’m starting to see a trend…

10-06-16_9-23-53-am

… And that’s number three. *rolls eyes* All I get out of the deal is a sad sim for a while.. and it’s hard to keep her motivated when she’s sad.

10-06-16_10-19-24-am

We have an “alien/tourist” day at work, and make nice with one of them. Meet Josef.. hopefully our spouse.

004josef

It doesn’t show up that he’s an alien because Brynn hasn’t “found out” what he is yet.. but it’s pretty obvious.

10-06-16_10-18-57-am

Just to prove he is.. and out of curiousity’s sake, I turn his disguise off and then on again (a very small cheat) so I can take this screenshot.

004josefjob

Josef brings in a decent check ever work day, too. We haven’t romanced him yet.. Brynn has too much other stuff to deal with without him being too under foot. For entertainment for poor Josef, all I have is a small boom box.. I get Brynn’s amusement on the computers at work. Every day we stay late, usually playing games or finishing off the gold requirements for the day.

Shortly after that, I hit the 20k mark in savings and decided it was past time to ditch lawn living.. so I painstakingly copied the shell off my graph paper.

10-06-16_10-56-12-am

Here’s Josef and Brynn wondering what rabbithole they jumped into that they suddenly have this concrete monster on their lawn. This is the front of the house…

10-06-16_10-56-21-am

This is the back. You can just see the tip of the small garden I’m trying to keep healthy enough to supplement income. It’s a lot of work on top of her scientist career, and doesn’t leave much time for much of anything else.

In the hope of getting some more income flowing in, I invite both Drake (her childhood friend) and Conner (you might remember him from the sugar skull bit in the last chapter of house 3) to move in.

004drake

A lazy athlete.. *shrug* to each his own, I guess!

004drakejob

Drake’s paycheck.

004conner

Conner… (who clearly won’t be doing much of the cleaning with the Squeamish trait.. haha)

004connerjob

And his paycheck.

With the funds coming in, I’m able to buy an air mattress for everyone, and put in a couple of windows. (More than half the cost of building the house is in the windows, I swear.. this house is basically made of glass and stone.) But we’ll get to that eventually. I’ve played WAY past this, so I’ll post another chapter tomorrow!

House 003 Chapter 4 < | > House 004 Chapter 2

Post Archives

Next TWO chapters of Spectres due to post tomorrow!!

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I am a 47 year old American wife, mother, and gamer. I’ve lived in the Midwest most of my life, and enjoy it for the changing seasons. My favorite movie is Labyrinth, my favorite game is Sims 4, and I have tattoos related to both. My favorite colors are purple, red, and green. When I’m not playing games (which is rare) I also enjoy reading and crafting. I’m also an animal lover, and have had many types of pets over the years. Currently, I have a dog named Cassie who is a Jack Russel / Beagle mix and five young fancy rats (all of whom are rescues). I run this Sims 4 Blog where I post screenshots and stories about the different challenges I play. Also here are the Sims 4 challenges I've written, and a place for me to store all the Sims 4 knowledge I've gotten over the years. I am also a Sims 4/variety streamer on Twitch for my mental health, fun, and to meet new people. I am also in the EA Creator Network and an Ubisoft Partner, which is a dream come true! I look forward to meeting you!
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