A Cabin in the...Suburbs?

*cue Mission: Impossible theme*

My mission: To create an actual under-$20,000 minimally-furnished starter house that was nice-looking, landscaped, and expandable without using a ton of unrealistically-cheap CC. And I succeeded, with $102 to spare. And I guess you could say this house is from my "Blue Period," since it's all in shades of blue inside and out. *laughs* Here's the lot:

You'll need to download some stuff for this lot, unfortunately. On the bright side, it might be stuff that you aready have. One item is the invisible driveway recolor by roddyaleixo. The other is the windows and window boxes, so that they will show in the proper color/style. They're all by plasticbox, and they're all in this one set. If you don't have/download that set, some of the windows will be oak-colored and some of them will flash blue. Of course, if you don't want to download windows, you could simply replace them with something else.

Now that that's out of the way, on to the details!

The front:


The back:


Like all of my lots, this one is more fully-finished on the outside than on the inside, but unlike most of my lots it is sparsely furnished with the bare necessities, so that your Sims can move in and not have to buy anything right away. There's a double bed, a loveseat, a fireplace(!), and a dining table with two chairs. Plus, the kitchen and bath are fully kitted-out with counters/fixtures/appliances. There's a mirror in the bathroom and at least one light fixture in every room. There's a phone but no alarms because I'm mean and don't allow my Sims alarms. The furnishings/fixtures/appliances are all unrecolored Maxis stuff except for the CC tub/shower because it is far more awesome than Maxis's tub/shower.

The features:

Price: $19,898
2x2 lot with space left over on the back and on one side to use or not as you see fit.
1 double bedroom
1 bathroom
Eat-in kitchen that comfortably seats 2 but that in a pinch can accommodate up to 4 without enlarging it.
Living room with fireplace
An actual driveway, OMG!
A cute! little 5x3-tile front covered porch, designed specifically to accommodate a chess table *laughs*
Shrubs, flowers, and a tree outside, all maintenance-free except the four squares of daisies lining the front walk.

The "magic" of this house, though, is that you can finish the top floor by adding modular stairs to the "conveniently" 3-tile-wide back hall and then utilizing the dormer space to create two more decently-sized bedrooms. With that modification, I have used this lot to house a family of 6, with the kids doubled up upstairs. It gets a little hectic with only one bathroom, but if you work it carefully, it can be done fairly easily. So, not only is this a starter, but it's easily expandable to a family home without changing the footprint or the exterior at all. (Although if you want to expand the footprint, there's some room to do so with a bit of creative room-rearranging.)

Two notes:

1) The CC tree included is NOT Seasons-enabled, so it won't drop leaves and turn color in the fall, and snow won't sit on it in the winter. This doesn't bother me at all, but if it will bother you, by all means change it out or delete that file from the package before you install the lot. I like that tree because it's realistic-looking and TALL, unlike Maxis's things-that-pretend-to-be-trees, none of which is taller than a little 1.5-story house like this one. *rolls eyes*

2) The white-trimmed roofs are not CC. I have default-replaced my Maxis roofs using Phaenoh's mod . If you haven't/don't want to replace your roofs, this lot will have standard grey roof trim. And it will look very icky. So do yourself a favor and replace your roofs!

Other than that, this is a pretty straightforward little lot that I've gotten a lot of use out of. I hope that you might, as well.

Lot Size: 2x2
Lot Price: 19898

Custom Content by Me:
- 12" Ceramic Floor Tile in Arctic White
- 6" Ceramic Floor Tile in Galaxy
- Full Tile Wall in Galaxy
- Half Tile Wall in Galaxy

Custom Content Included:
- Chrome Edition Shower/Tub Duplex by eris3000
- Independent Expression Double Privacy Window by MaryLou
- Country Window by plasticbox
- Country Window with Shutters by plasticbox
- Victorian Porch Fence in White by Holy SimolyThe Sims 2 - Needs Translation - Batch10 by Holy Simoly
- Flagstone Floor Tiles by SimPlan
- Moroccan Fireplace without Chimney by mia86
- Outdoor Lantern by Numenor - MTS
- Wood Fence #13 by Piggi
- Border Lilies by Macarossi
- Ash Tree by Murano
- Huge Oleander by nengi65 at simscrossing
- Large Shrubby Shrubs by HystericalParoxysm
- Limber Timber Deck Flooring, White Recolor by Reyn
- Recolorable Deck Stairs by Numenor
- White Deck Stairs Recolor by Patty3428
- Lush Grass Terrain Paint by 4 Ever SimFantasy
- Behr Paint in Neptune by Nephilis1
- Unexpected Sidings recolor in Blue by HoneyWell
- Unexpected Sidings recolor in Blue by HoneyWell
- Unexpected Sidings recolor in Blue by HoneyWell
- Cool Dusk Paint with Crown & Base by Danikat