When the lot loaded I already liked it. It was saved and exported with the 2 main sims standing side by side and looking at each other – paused. One quick sweep around the lot made me realize what trouble the creator/author went through. There was rubbish everywhere. And not just rubbish, but also newspapers, dust, puddles, weeds, dead trees, leftover take-aways, groceries even. The floors were wood with threadbare carpets. They used the distressed old looking beechy keen wallpaper that has holes in it. There were fences missing posts. The entire scene was dilapidated. (Always wanted a sentence to use that in).
The family had some money (about 900 simoleons), so I got them a gardener and a maid. I tried to get them looking for job (high paying military), but their environment need was SO low; they didn’t want to do job-hunting. I decided to make them start cleaning one room at a time. They foyer has the least rubbish (2 heaps), so I hand-grabbed some newspapers into the foyer for them to browse through.
One of the objectives it to join the garden club and have a high garden score. So I bought them 2 compost bins for the mess.
I heard this eerie music while scanning the lot in play mode and found Death between the garage and house. Seems like the gardener had died – probably Death by Flies. Had to take a break from laughing. They had to wait 3 sim days for the next gardener to show up. By then a lot of the rubbish outside had been cleared, so less risk of spontaneous fertiliser.
Sonny Day (from Intro challenge) was in the welcoming committee and got busy spraying roaches. I hired them an exterminator for 2 days running to get rid of the plague. Problem it takes a while to sweep up all the little roach heaps one-by-one, and it’s harder still to see the heaps at night, outside, on the dirt, with no lights – too stingy to buy lights yet.
Of course cheating is discouraged and can prevent sims from having the correct memory ion order to complete the challenge, but Steve also mentions that we must play as we normally do. After first paychecks, Owen buys Monique’s hacked computer. I also spawned the SimModder and maxed out his cooking and cleaning skills. 2 of the objectives ask for this. Then I just downed I skill point each for those 2 so that he’ll have the memory of maxing them out. EasyPeasy. That’s how I play anyway. The hacked computer is for working at home while developing skills and getting paid. So Owen and Laika are writing articles at night.
I managed to re-paint the whole house inside and redo all the floors. The pathway outside is now connected; the fences mended the railings, stairs and support columns all match. Just need to paint the outside of the house – need more money for that though.
Also started redecorating the rooms, have done the study and dining room so far.
Owen needs Garden and Fishing badges, so he does the spraying and tending of the trees. Too bad there were so many dead roaches – Owen Munny died while spraying the trees – Death by Flies. Now Laika is writing loads of articles to get enough money to resurrect Owen with the telephone from the Psychic career.
