Building a Family and Home in The Sims Taken from the Internet, the Sims FAQ Building a Family Unless you use the tutorial family or the pre- made one, the Goths, you can't operate a house without a family inside, even if it's only a bachelor. You can use the pre-made families, such as Pleasant, Roomies, or Bachelor, but it's so much more fun to create your own. When you go to the Family building screen (accessible from the neighborhood screen), click Create New Family and then add it's members, one by one. You can change their name, gender, skin color, age (Child or Adult),and personality (or choose a pre-made personality by selecting their astrological sign - geez, everything's pre-made!) Remember! Once you finish a family, YOU CANNOT GO BACK AND EDIT IT. You may, however, edit each individual family member during the process of family building. When yo finish, you can select "Move In Family" to put them in a pre-made house, or try your hand at... Building A Home Walls Walls are extremely important. Without them your Sims would have an extremely low room rating - more on that later. You could also not place fire alarms, paintings, the cordless phone, windows, etc. etc. etc. They also make the house a heck of a lot prettier. You will want several rooms - a bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a living room. Walls can be placed by clicking and dragging, or a complete room by shift-clicking and dragging. Delete walls by control-clicking. One thing I found which saved me money and made my Sims happier is to not place a door between the kitchen and living room - to connect them freely. So if it looks like this: ______________________________________________ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Kitchen | Living Room | | | | | | | | | | |_____________________|_______________________| Consider changing it to this or something similar. ______________________________________________ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Kitchen | Living Room | | | | | | | | | |_____________________________________________| This will save you money on walls, smoke detectors, burglar alarms, and your Sims will have a higher "Room" rating. Be warned: you have to make this large room well lit by using windows and lighting frequently. You do, however, want to put walls / doors in between bedrooms and bathrooms, because if you're running the stereo and someone's trying to sleep, you could be in trouble. And Sims don't usually like other Sims barging in on them when they are on the john. Doors For your first home you will want 3 doors - Bedroom, bathroom, and front. Do not overdo it with too many doors because you ARE on a budget. After purchasing that expensive lot and building lots of walls, you need to spend even more. Windows Windows don't do too much except light the room during the day. The bigger the room is the more windows you will have to build. Again, you are on a budget so stay economical and buy the cheapest model. Wallpaper and Flooring Wallpaper is something you can do without, but it also makes your house unique and nicer looking. You should probably add wallpaper last, as if you run out of cash you can do it later when your Sim gets a job. Flooring is also unnecessary, unless you build a second floor - a task I recommend you approach when you have saved up for it. Then flooring is absolutely necessary, as you don't want your Sims falling through the floor. Bragging rights - A Second Floor and a Pool When your Sims start rolling in dough, you can build some spiffy add-ons to their house. First off is a second floor. The first thing you'll want to do is add a staircase and switch to second floor view. You can then build flooring around it - in front of and connecting to the stairs. After that, build walls surrounding the flooring and you'll have your basic second floor. When you build a pool - rather expensive - you build it square by square - or in a large rectangle by holding down shift and dragging. You will then want to add a ladder into the pool, and optionally a diving board. Suggested Homes Note: The intention of this is to give you an idea of how to build a house. You can work off these and change them or whatever. KEY: x = Window \ = Door one by one square on design = 2 by two square in game _ or | = wall = = sidewalk On A Budget _______x__________x______x_____x____ | | | | | | | | | \ Bed x | | | | x Kitchen |Living Room |_______| | | | | | | \ Bath x |______x______|__x___\__x__|___x___| ====================================== Rich _______x________x_________x___________x____ | | | | | | | | | | | | x Kitchen | Den | Bath x | | | | | | \ | | ______________\_______________|____\_____| | | | | | | | | | x Living Room \ Bed x | | | | | | |____x_________x____\_|_____x________x_____| ============================================== Final Notes on Building To delete a wall control-click when the tool is a wall, To delete wallpaper do the same with the wallpaper tool, etc. Shift- click using the wall tool and drag to create a rectangle, as well as with fences, pools, etc. Shift-click with wallpaper, flooring, etc. to cover a whole room. And don't overdo it! You have to buy furniture, pay bills, eat, among other things. - o -