Medina-Britt: A New Home

Returning to the Medina-Britt household, we find that most of the household is asleep, though Adrianna is awake and teaching Edita how to walk.

Before I unpaused things, I first went into the family inventory and sold off a whole bunch of junk that they'd somehow accumulated, mostly a ton of different paintings and other decor items, but also a few large ticket items as well. All told, it added up to around 60,000 simoleons I think, not that they need the money. I did it mainly to clear out the junk so I'd have less to sift through coming up. The next thing I did is go through the house and take down all of the sim-painted paintings, most of which were done by Byron Medina, though a few were done by Carolyn (Medina) Britt. I also removed all of the electronic items that Rigoberto had upgraded in some fashion, along with the two teleporters, the body sculptor machine, a collection helper that was laying around nearly forgotten, all of the graves out back (except Jeanna's because she was out haunting), and anything else unique I saw like cut gemstones and the like. All of this is in preparation to move them to the new house I built for them a couple months ago now, and had intended to move them to the last time I was playing them, but never got around to doing so. This time I decided I'd just go ahead and move them first thing and be done with it (only I had to wait until Jeanna had gone back into her grave before I could pick it up). While I was waiting for an opportune moment, I got a cuteness photo op when I had Eugenia play peek-a-boo with Eldred.

Then, just as I was about to have him make the call to move the family to their new house, Grim suddenly came for Charles. That sound you hear is me muttering about it because I'd hoped/planned to have him get some cheese, egg, steak, burger, and omni plants started at the new house before he keeled over. Not sure if any of the others can plant any of that yet, but oh well, I guess I'll find out (It turned out that Carina's already done all the opportunities too even up to the Omni plant). Charles died having contributed 8 points to the challenge.

He was inside the nursery when the scene started, then popped through the wall to meet with Grim who was outside

Once the death scene had finished, I collected Charles and Jeanna's tombstones and put them in the family inventory with the others, then had Damien make the call to have the family move. Despite the fact that they own a couple of vehicles (which I inadvertantly sold), they all piled into a taxi and headed across town to the mansion on Summer Hill Court that awaited them. One nice perk about this lot: it gives everyone the +30 Beautiful Vista moodlet when they're at home.

Here are several shots of the house that I took after I finished building it. Click on the images to view larger.

Front view. Unfortuately, having the enclosed entryway with the arch makes the game see the front door as an interior door and it won't let me set it as the front door. The sims use the door by the rear garage as the front door.

Side view showing courtyard, the "front door", and the garden area. There's a fenced cemetery area in the back corner of the lot off the left side of the picture.

Rear and other side view showing back patio, rock climbing apparatus and pool and spa area. I had to add an extra little room off the back of the rear garage for the Not So Routine Machine. It didn't fit anywhere else in the house.

Top floor view. The large open area at the back center was later converted into a useable room (discussed later in the entry)

Ground floor view. I purchased vehicles to fill the garages after they moved in.

Basement. Currently un-used, I went ahead and added it in when building to have it blocked in for future expansion as needed.

A shot of how the cemetery looked after I got all of the family tombstones placed. I might at some point borrow ASimWen's idea of building a mausoleum to house the dead instead of the cemetery with tombstones.

At some point surrounding the  move, Eugenia spun up the want to be a Star News Anchor like her father aspired to be. Since he's already working on that one though, she's won't be allowed to take it. In general, my policy is that I accept whichever unique LTW the sims roll up a want for first to try to keep it random. Eugenia has plenty of time to pick something else.

The day after the move went by fairly routinely as the family settled into their new home. Damien got a promotion at work that day and is now only one level away from achieving his dream of making it to the top. Adrianna had had to go to work immediately after they'd arrived at the new house the night before, and she came home and went straight to bed. Eugenia went to school and then took some permission slips by the City Hall, then took a logic class at the science facility. Finally, in the evening, it was Eldred's birthday. The family gathered on the back porch with their new maid to watch as Dylan helped him blow out the candles and he transitioned to child. He picked up the Daredevil trait. Poor kid grew up bald, but I took him to the mirror and fixed that.

Life started to get back to normal for the family, with Edita learning to talk and use the potty as anyone who was available when she was awake did their best to teach her her skills. The day after Eldred's birthday, Carina spent much of the day planting the new garden.

Some of the moodlets that Twallan's Woohooer mod gives are really hilarious. Below are some examples. What's really funny? Dylan had all three of these on him after he and Carina woohoo'd that night, lol.

There wasn't a whole lot of note going on here by now. Edita had learned all of her toddler skills, and was just waiting to age up. She had plenty of skill toys to keep her busy, and learning, and Carina found time to read to her at least once to help out as well. Damien and Adrianna were going to work. Damien was one promotion away from getting his LTW now, and while she did get a promotion or two, Adrianna was still fairly low in the Criminal field. I doubt she'll max it before she dies, but it's not her LTW, so it doesn't really matter. Sooner or later I'll get a sim that has it as their LTW and get it done.

Anyway, partly out of boredom, and partly from wanting to try out some of the stuff I'd gotten from the Store, I did some renovating and purchasing for the lot. First, I decided to make a room out of the big empty space on the second floor where the living room below had 2 story ceilings. While that might be nice in a real house, I decided for a sim house it was wasted space, so I put in doors, flooring, a fireplace, etc., moved the chess set up from the room below, added a couch and another bookcase, and got them the cauldron and spellbook pedestal.

Outside, I added a basketball court, an outdoor shower by the rock climbing walls, a chicken coop, and the gardening station that came with the greenhouse lot. The greenhouse lot got placed on a little hill near their house, though not without terrain issues. It's accessible though, and I've sent Carina over there a few times already.

The basketball hoop was placed on the far side of the house by the pool

Outdoor shower on the back of the teleporter room, garden station, and chicken coop

The stereo upstairs broke, and I sent Adrianna up to fix it when she got home from work. She got zapped, but didn't die from it.

The next day was Eugenia and Edita's birthday. Well, ok, I caked Edita up a day early. Figured I might as well do both birthdays at once instead of messing with two parties. Dylan had spun up wants to throw a party for Edita, hence why I went with the full birthday party for them instead of just doing cake with family. Edita went first and aged up to Child. She gained the Good Sense of Humor trait.

Eugenia went next and aged up to teen. She gained the Ambitious trait.

Of course, the first order of business was makeovers.

The following day was Monday and the kids all went to school, Eugenia to her first day of high school, and Edita to her first day of elementary. Damien went to work, and it proved to be a very good day for him, because he got the last promotion that he'd been working for and became a Star News Anchor, fulfilling his LTW. Hooray for getting to count all his points now. When he arrived home, he had a small celebration in the kitchen with Adrianna. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with him now.

Later that evening while he was working on his ninth novel, Dylan mastered writing and completed his LTW to be an Illustrious Author. He's spun up a lot of writing wants now, so probably I'll try to have him focus on that and try to complete some of the writing challenges I still have uncompleted.

Other happenings of the evening included the birth of some chicks in the coop outside since they'd forgotten to collect the eggs.

Carina and Dylan sort of tried for another child since Carina's been wanting another (risky woohoo - I don't particularly want them to have another child, but I'm leaving it to the whims of risky. Carina only has a few days left before she'll be too old, so it won't be an issue very soon.) She was wide awake after that, and because I was bored, I had her try out the magic items I'd put in the new room upstairs. She tried out the cauldron, then learned the Summon spell at the spellbook.

And I think here is where I'm going to end this entry. All of Gen 4 has completed their LTWs now, and Gen 5 hasn't even picked theirs yet. Carina's rolled a 2nd want to have a child (she's had "Have a Child" locked in for awhile, and now spun up "Have a Child with Dylan" as well) so I might have to decide if I'm going to indulge her or still just leave it to the whims of risky. I'd intended to have Eugenia get a part-time job  at the spa to become a Spa Receptionist since it's the last part-time job I have to do (aside from one that will come with a later EP), but forgot to, so I'll have to do that next time I play this household. Other than that, it will be waiting for all the kids to grow up and decide what they want to do. Hopefully I'll get something different instead of the same ones that seem to keep coming up repeatedly.  Here's how my score stands at present with Damien and Dylan having finished their LTWs:

All EP total only includes points through Supernatural. I haven't added Seasons or University points in yet

Next up, I'll be going back to the Frasers to work on World Adventures stuff more. Until then, Cheers!