Detectives Phelps and Biggs, LAPD, to see Leland Monroe.

L.A. Noire is really cool for modelling the inside and the outside of a building in real size instead of warping you whenever you enter or leave a building, making proportions nonsensical. Thanks for that, Team Bondi. Elysian Fields Development is a really cool building and, apart from wishing you could have walls and/or floor tiles on a half tile and from different levels of CFE shenanigans, it works really well in TS2. I particularly love the ceiling work (with help from GridAdjuster for the multiple dummy levels in here). The shell is done though I could probably add more landscaping, the decorating will be much harder especially if I want to make this usable for my sims instead of just neighbourhood deco.

I'm restricting CC to the bare minimum.

For the last ten years or so Veronaville's New Changing Hut has stood near the Canal Bridge in Veronaville. It's called the "New Changing Hut" because it replaced a very similar older building many years ago. Its purpose is to provide reasonably comfortable accommodation for newly created CAS Sims while I make various changes to them to allow them to become townies. The lot contains various CC modified objects that allow me to make the changes needed. These include the Sim Manipulator, Christianlov's Clothes Rail, A Simlogical Teleporter Painting, and Pescado's Batbox (in the roof-space). I got the idea from a post, which I think was by pixelhate, but their version just had the necessary modded objects in an empty outdoors lot, and was played with MaxMotives. But, as I think you all know, I like to be nice to my Sims, and I enjoy playing them through the ordinary interactions of everyday life. So I built them this little hut with everything needed to keep them comfortable for a few hours while I prepared them for life as townies.


This is the original building, which has seen a few minor changes over the years. Until yesterday it stood on a 1x1 lot. By the way the little toilet window towards the rear of the building was white, until i painted it green this morning. Thanks @Justpetro for giving me a link to the green recolour.

Originally I just played such townies-to-be for a few hours -- sometimes only minutes -- while I made the necessary changes, so there was no need for a bed.


However over time I found I was playing these Sims for longer and longer. I suppose I just like hanging around with Sims, and sharing in their lives. I fairly soon found myself playing them until the welcome wagon came, so they could meet some of the Sims who lived in the neighbourhood. When these guests left they'd be exhausted. The best they could do on the lot was to nap fitfully on a park bench or a recliner. Or take a taxi to a community lot where they could buy an energy drink from a CC vending machine. All told it was ceasing to be fun, either for them or for me. It was obvious they needed beds, but there was no room to put one. Over the last few months I have added sleeping facilities to the downtown and Bluewater changing huts, and built a new larger changing shed in Monopolis, but there was still nowhere to sleep at the Veronaville hut itself. So when Gerald Park and Horace Blue moved out and became townies a couple of days ago, I decided to take the bull by the horns and build a second hut for the future townies to sleep in.

I used Mootilda's lot adjuster to increase the size of the lot from 1x1 to 2x1, and built this new sleeping hut. I had some difficulty levelling the ground to build on it, but I succeeded in the end. The little bit built out into a small gable at the front is the toilet. When all the other doors and windows were painted green, I really didn't like having to use a white Glasterpieces Privacy Window for the toilet, so I started a WCIF thread to see if there was a green recolour. Meantime I put the white window on the side of the building, so it wouldn't be too obvious from the street.


Justpetro kindly responded to my WCIF, giving a link to some recolours of that window by Michelle on TheNinthWaveSims website. I used that to move the toilet window to the front gable, and widen that gable to a more symmetrical appearance to the front of the building. This also allowed me to add an indoor shower. (The original hut has an outdoor shower at the back of the building.) I had to build several temporary internal walls to support the weight of the front gable roof, while I was building it. I'm not sure why I needed them, but I removed them all after I finished the roof.

The first Sims to move into this improved facility are Frazer Knowseley and Beatrix Keanie, two adults who had been separately in the Family Bin for some weeks. I combined them into one household. In the first picture Frazer has just come out of the original hut to greet Stephen Tinker. In the second and third pictures Beatrix is playing chess with Julian Moltke-Jones (Andrew's husband), who (along with Andrew) was one of the Welcome Wagon guests.


Floorplan of the two buildings. Originally I only placed three beds in the new sleeping hut, but I added a fourth one when, at the end of the first day in the new hut, we found that Andrew and Julian, there as Welcome Wagon visitors, had decided to test the new beds by sleeping in them. I now have Lamare's "Use inaccessible beds" mod which allows Sims to use these beds. (The similar older mod by Inge requires Apartment Life, so I can't use it.)

After only two days in his new house at 11 Bow Street, Monopolis, Herbert F. Foster has extended the house front and rear. It's just gone 7 a.m. and Veronaville paper boy Jess Shaikh has just delivered the morning paper. He doesn't seem too fazed by the fact that the house is significantly bigger than it was yesterday morning. Or maybe at this hour in the morning, he's just too sleepy to notice!


This is the rear of the house as now extended. This house gets plenty of sun in the back garden, but none at the front. I know a lot of Simmers want the sunny side of the house to always face the street, but lots of real houses aren't like that. My own Real Life house only gets a little bit of sun at the front on summer mornings, but for most of the year, and for most of the day, it's the back garden that gets the sun. I actually prefer it that way. It helps my plants to grow, and on nice days I can relax in the sun in the garden. That is of course when I'm not indoors playing The Sims!

The piecemeal building of these new extensions, has given the roof an unusual, if interesting shape.


This floorplan helps to explain why Herbert and his adopted son Ian wanted to make these changes:
1. A 5x5 (25 tile) extension has been added to the right hand rear of the building. Most of it will eventually become Herbert's main bedroom, but for now a karaoke machine has been parked here.
2. This is the current main bedroom, where Herbert usually sleeps. It is almost unchanged, except that a 2 tile recess has been added, and the wardrobe moved into it. The plan is that, when Herbert moves into the new room, Ian will get this bedroom, giving him room for a double bed. I think he'll appreciate this, as he now has a boyfriend. I generally let teens share beds with their boyfriends/girlfriends, even if they're "good" kids who don't woohoo. (A few years ago, when I had a lot of teenage friends, a lot of them seemed to do this.) Andrew (in)famously never had woohoo till his wedding night!
3. This is Ian's current bedroom. Until now it was only just big enough for a single bed and enough room to get into it. It has just had 3 tiles added to it, extending it towards the front street. The plan is, that when Ian moves next door, the karaoke machine will come in here. Both Herbert and and Ian intend to use the machine to build up their charisma for promotions they're seeking. It's certainly more fun than talking to yourself in the bathroom mirror!


For comparison, this is what the house looked like, when they moved in on Monday!