The Real Estate
No Simsperience is complete without the inclusion of the work put toward cultivating not only the people, but the places they live as well. So, my friends, in this issue, I'm going to be directing you to the splendiferous houses that populate the neighborhood of Ravenclaw "Sunset Valley."
Like the predecessing Sims games in the franchise, Sims 3 is no different from the standard neighborhood of Sunset Valley, a lavish place filled with houses and empty plots and other locations of great interest, such as beach-side mansions and, of course, the Goth household, probably the oldest structure within the Sims universe. If anybody's looked at the Goth household, one can definitely see the character of the family just by the structure of the house (and the nifty, "Goth-ish" things within).
Now I can't say that each of my Ravenclaw Sim families are defined by their house, but I would like to mention that I did try to spend some time filling their rooms with sunshine and happiness. Or, well, you know, things that could possibly make them happy... (Gosh, these Ravenclaw Sims are much more high maintenance than their real life counterparts, I swear!)
The Major Houses
Admittedly, the minute I saw this little piece of plantation house in the buildings list, I immediately knew that it was the house for Ms. Lobiesk and her cousin Ryan, the former of whom's got a touch of the Southern Belle about her (ya'll scoff, but 'tis true!). There is nothing like an old-fashioned house with its own lake and grounds to elicit inspiration! Some highlights of the house include the writing office, the artside outside, the separate private garage, and the vast party room, complete with bar and outside grill, as well as that splendiferous fireproof fireplace (yeah…don't ask). The bedrooms are not to be taken for granted, either, and while Cassie does indeed spend some time within, Ryan is more of an outdoors party person, so he's never really on the second floor.
It goes without saying that the Llewellyns need more than one house, especially after the huge glitch in the boys' bedrooms. So, considering Edmund and Amy are pretty much set with their careers--well, firefighter Edmund more so than the moonlighting bartender Amy--the two decided to spread their eagle wings and rent themselves a shared flat. Mind you, they have one bedroom that they share amongst themselves, but neither really stays inside to begin with anyway, so there's that. As for the rest of the Llewellyns...Ryan and Arielle are re-adjusting to being alone in their own rooms, while the ickles Mattie and Irisa are obviously entertained enough in their Candyland bedroom. Rhi, of course, owns the main house, and it's kept pristine. She has to keep public face, being a political figure and all that!
The Leslie-Lagrange household sits in a nice corner of the street, just next door to Edmund and Amy's property. A very cozy home, may I add, with all the amenities for Scarlet, Pavel, and the four brats. Scarlet's laptop is private use only; she's got to have her own space for her conniving-ness, duh. There are two computers in the main room, however, so computer time is shared quite well amongst the rest of the household. Pavel's clearly got a hand to decorating his room, what with his wallpaper of fishies and a navigation world map decorating his room. The children share a room, but clearly the space is warranted. Kind of like a Hogwarts dormitory! Yeah.
So here's a house that's too big for two people, but considering one of them's a brat and the other practically needs all the space to keep her stuff, it makes some sense. Besides, Kyrie and Sil always have people over. No, really. Always. They have enough room inside and out to accommodate at least 20 or so guests (and trust me, they often have that many over at the same time). The gym and private office are almost never used, but Sil is almost always out on her studio, creating, sculpting, and painting masterpieces or inventing TARDISes and random explosives. Their bedrooms are on opposite sides of the upper floor, separated by a long hallway with a long table of their gem collection and the window of artificial fishies.
There used to be a family that lived here. I think. But they've since been evicted to make room for the Headmaster of all things. Ulol has since taken in some strays, allowing Mark and Gus to room with him (it beats paying a butler to live there all the time, that's for sure...). The mansion is modern and magnificent, standing atop a hill with the best seaside view ever. Ulol owns the master bedroom in the east wing, though Mark gets a pretty good view of the sea as well in his own separate wing. Gus gets the "0.5" bedroom, though his view of the entire house is like having a studio apartment. Not all three men tend to stay in the manor at the same time, though Mark is quite known for using the gym and pool below, while Gus enjoys the hot tub and Ulol is busy blowing bubbles in his bubble bar.
It seems like such a tiny house, but I assure you, it's bigger on the inside. Makes sense, considering Zoki the Architect lives inside and has quite the hand in redecorating rooms. With my help--obviously--he's turned the default nursery into a private investigation office for Alexia, who takes all her cases inside. Zoki's upper room is a flat to himself, and he gets much of his work done sketching and fiddling with the computer. Tarma does tend to stay in the living room, often reading after a grueling day's work or riding her bicycles and fishing at the nearby beach with her new boat.
There's something special about having a house with a mad scientist vampire within and her bookish heliotropic roommate. Both have recently graduated from Sims University, and to splurge, Maya has re-arranged her upper floor--which she still maintains to be "secret"--to accommodate Sophia's room, which had used to be a studio for um...diabolical deeds, I suppose. That said, Maya does still use the upstairs room to do some painting, though she can very well do the same kind of work in her own darn room, with her vampire-only coffin bed. The painting of the frog in Sophia's room is Maya's doing, of course, and someone might have to watch out the next time they use the upstairs computer. It's been booby trapped by Maya herself.
