More rebuild pix!

[profbutters]

So I have been working away on the rebuild, and I'm happy to say that I have most of my families and most of my lots in place. There are a few small details, such as Generation Eight mostly being teenagers, but mostly all those things are easily fixed. I'm not the greatest builder in the world, but even bad buildings can be made a bit better. So here's a guided tour to (some of) my new neighborhood.

First of all, my new neighborhood. . .



. . . is basically my old neighborhood, Pleasantview. Mostly. I debated creating a new one from scratch, but this is so much easier. All my lots and families are roughly in the same place. You can see the Legacy house in the big empty spot in Pleasantview. I always get rid of Wright Way--it's way too huge and useless. The main difference is that the Marians (myself, Flavius, and our family) are now directly across the street in Orikes' Roman Replica. The empty occupied lot next door is for the Marian line, which amusingly actually includes Orikes' simself.

I'm not going to show much of my family here, because some of that is classified. But I'm happy to share this picture of De and Unspecified Toddler.



First up: the Legacy House.



Looks a lot like the old one, only it's a bit better planned. It's got a basement for junk. I'm not good at building attached garages, so that has become a crafts room (almost wish I had Free Time now!) It's set back far enough for an actual porch, even if it's small. And oh hey. . .



. . .I learned how to use the Octagonal Room Tool! Obviously. I know, there's still tons of wasted space, but I have learned a few things. The nursery has the cribs surrounded by room dividers: the shower in the garage is going to be replaced by a bathtub/shower combo. All the noisy crap is in one room, the TV and stereo and everything, because it bugs the cats. There's lots of room for the goofy decor so beloved of the Goodytwoshoes--the Christmas trees, the Big Stupid Pink Bears. The nicest rooms are bottom right, the skilling room/study (right above it is a turret bedroom for future Goodytwoshoes girls. And bottom left, I like this:



an in-house wedding chapel. The guests were never able to make it out to the old chapel in time. This will be much better. The portrait gallery is on the top floor; the graveyard is still out back, near the fruit trees and a nice little pond with a gazebo.

Here's another exterior shot; you can see that I added some more interesting angles.



I'm kinda proud of this one. I fail at building cheats, especially snaptogrid false and the 45-degree angle cheat. I only ever succeed in making the camera revolve around and making myself sick. And I always do weird things by mistake with Moveobjects on, but this time I got a nice effect that really is idiot-proof:



I moved some flower boxes under the windows, for an extra-floofy Goodytwoshoes touch.

Let's take a look at the Roman family now. You can see them freshly moved in. You can also see the Roman Replica next door. Orikes herself, sadly, has to live in my boxy model.



But I think it has its points, even if it IS boxy.



I used a lot of half-walls and frescoes to go for a Roman look.



The entertainment/TV room has a garden feel.



I'm a big fan of archways. Here you can see from the living room into the dining room and straight into the kitchen.



The skilling room has a helpful fresco of the astrological assignments for parts of the body.



(The walls and floors are all rmschoon, from MTS2. Her Roman CC kicks butt.)

Orikes is all settled in and painting the founders of the line (Cassius and De.)



The De Beers Gallery is back in its old spot in Bluewater Village.



I went ahead and let them open the gallery, and it's nice to see De Beers selling art again.



De Beers: I know exactly what you need, madam--a nice antique Green plate.

Marina: I'm pretty sure we already have one.

De Beers: Then don't you want to collect them all?



(I debated with myself long and hard over what I ought to do with Marina. I finally decided that since she has grandchildren about to get married, it made sense for her to be an elder married to Sabinus. Since they are living on their own, there's no reason they can't be functionally immortal.)

Villa Cecil has always been at the far edge of town, on the other side of an ancient henge. Lyttony Cottage is the closest house, as Lytton likes to keep an eye on his brother.



I've gone to a lot of trouble to make sure that I replicated (mostly) the house interiors. These houses double as stage sets and as homes, so I wanted some continuity.

Lytton is every bit as eccentric as Cecil, by the way:



I don't claim to be as consistent or as accurate as Di, but Lytton and Cecil do have some Victorian characteristics. Lytton has two, especially. He has a positively Dickensian love of Christmas, and his house is just a tiny bit inspired by Balmoral, Queen Vic's beloved home in the Highlands.

The windows use the snowflake pattern that came with BV. The interiors are always suited for Christmas decoration (all that red). And there are lots and lots of horns everywhere.



Years ago, I went to see an exhibit called "Treasure Houses of Britain." They actually got hold of the Rainbow Portrait of Queen Elizabeth. And they also had furniture from Balmoral Castle. Kid you not, sofas made of stag's horns and plaid. If I ever find CC like that, it's going in Lytton's house.

I may have mentioned that I love archways.



Nice simple looking parlor. . .





(Yes, that's Cecilia, and . . .hey, who are those guys?)

Finally, there's Lytton's study. That had to be accurate, as I use it all the time for "Uncle Lytton explains it all for you" scenes. Notice that I have added some more horns. Because they make me laugh.



Cecil's house had a slight makeover. It's taller, because the pipe organ glitching through the roof was driving me nuts.




With the aid of Adele's Gothic set, it's also gloomier than ever.



Otherwise it's much the same:  two floor library, tomb out back, something weird Max is doing in the basement.

Hope you enjoyed these.  I'm pretty sleepy right now myself.  Pleasant dreams!