The Olde Farmhouse

You love gardening, the peace of rural life and don't mind a somewhat used look if your home is spacious enough to house a family? Then you should have a look at this old Farmhouse with the oldest part being built at the beginning of the 19 century. And the descendents of its first owner added room by room to enlarge the house during the times. The builder was a peasant but over the decades his sons and grandsons and great grandsons nursed a garden and grew many many plants he didn't even know that they existed - rare and extraordinary plants they brought from their visits from abroad as they all were a rather adventurous family.

It was hold by the family over a period of nearly two centuries but now Mrs Rose Leister died at the high age of 101 years it is for sale. Because of the many additions you'll have more stairs to climb then used to when living in a temporary house but perhaps that's just what Mrs Rose saved her health all through her long and mostly happy life. She never got tired to take best care of her garden and its plants and nursed them so carefully that at least she's got the perfect garden. This garden is the warm and vivid heart of this home and it will fill the heart of any avid gardener with pure pleasure and joy - if working or relaxing in the warm sun before the old stone walls that keep away the wind from the sea. Here you get a look into the backyard:

But the house has a heart, too: it's the kitchen with that great fireplace that never went dark. At the floor plans you easily can see which rooms of the house Mrs Leister was living in. That was the kitchen, of course, followed by the small room leading directly to the garden. Though Mrs Leister didn't change much at the building itself she made sure that the appliances were contemporary and of best quality. She preferred to spend her time in her beloved garden with gardening or painting or doing some pottery in the shed at the end of the lot instead of wracking herself with old fashioned washing. The washing machine as well the dryer and most of all her stove are high tech! Adjoined to the kitchen was her bedroom she loved to read in before going to bed and the bathroom that had access both from the kitchen and the bedroom. At the other side of the entry you'll find the living room - no much furniture here as she gave it away when her youngest daughter move out but she loved to play the piano in the evenings lit by candles and the fireplace.

On the left side of the landing of the first floor there is a bedroom she called the "boys' room". It's carefully kept clean but you can see it wasn't used for more many many  years. The wallpapers and pictures still show the love of her two adventurous sons who dreamed of travelling to spots far away from home: they painted the walls with treasure paths and decorated them with objects their uncles brought with them returning from visiting spots of the world far far away. When they ran away at the age of 16 Mrs Rose wasn't afraid first - she knew her brothers did the same. But when they didn't return home for years and some day she got the message that the ship they stowed away with had sunken, she locked the door. She never changed anything in this room and only visited it to clean it or to remember the time when her twins were small. Then she cried some bitter tears. On the right hand there is the old study of her children - one summer they'd painted it with dragons and she never changed that either - though it might look a little surprising to visitors. When she became older she placed a tv in this room and on cold dark winter nights she used to light a fire in that fireplace and enjoy some movies. Watching the wall painting always gave her a smile - they were so talented, all the four of her children. Adjoined to this study there is the "girls' room" her two daughters shared and the children's bathroom. These two rooms have a rather low ceiling but no one ever worried about that as they felt very cosy sleeping there. And whenever the daughters and their family were visiting they slept here. Especially the grandchildren loved the attic - they used to kneel at the window and watch the cars driving by at the old street below.

There is a basement below that farmhouse with a garage, a room with an old but still working nectar making machine and access to a spacious cellar one level down - a great place to store nectar shelves! The basement has direct access to the garden, too, and when you're dirty you'll appreciate the shower Mrs Rose has installed here and even the old privy under the stairs.

I know it's not really cheap - but it's a real bargain if you're looking for something like that to live your dream and to raise your children at this wonderful spot of Sunset Valley. And I promised dear old Mrs Rose that I'd look for the right family to move in her beloved home - a family that appreciates the beauty that it offers.

So if you're interested, don't hesitate, call me! You know I'm the real estate agent you can trust in. You’ll find me right near the library.

Mr Launcher is driving me mad

I'm arguing with Mr Busybody Launcher once again. As I found some updates here at TSR and as I found there are downloaded items I really never use I decided to uninstall some cc via Mr Launcher. It's not really necessary to tell you that he refused to cope. No, he can't open the game is the only thing I hear ... So I decided to reinstall all my wonderful lovely custom content. Yesterday and today I did nothing else than going through all my downloads. Thanks to the great Sims Resource I can do that rather easy by going through my downloads history site by site. I try to create somethink like a "all downloads" folder so in future it will be easier to reinstall if Mr Launcher refuses to deinstall again. Anybody another good idea? Then don't hesitate and let me know! But now I'm going to bed. After that long and cold winter and that spring that didn't deserve to be called spring now we have a hot summer. Right now it's 36°C and my legs feel like lying on a bbq ... Mr PC isn't any help either - his brain (yes, he is male!) is confused: he thinks he has to work like a radiator ... Oh, I would love to be in Sunset Valley in that wonderful Bounty and go and have a nice swimming in the sea ... Hugs for all of you!

Commenting the Power Girls' Convention

I was thinking about how difficult it is for the organisers of the world wide Power Girls' Convention to have a look at the comments. By now it's nearly impossible to get an overview of who had commented to what and got back a comment ... So I thought it may be helpful to have the comments together in a blog. I don't know if it will work, but if you don't give it a try you'll never know ...

So this blog is dedicated to the German Convention ...

@ Margo: No, Penelope hasn't got enough room for all of them. At the moment Barb and Fred are sleeping in her four-poster bed and Haagje is sleeping in a quick put up in the same bedroom while Penelope is sleeping in the basement - where usually the awful instrument of torture (for strenght training??) is placed. They have to get a much more spacious house for their convention to feel comfortable when they are all together! And yes, Barb was cleaning up by drinking all the nectar ... *lol*

@ Fred and Barb: I'm rather sure it was no juice - it was the rest of Riverview Kabinett Auslese and Riverview Kabinett. But maybe the last glas was an Alcaseltzer - I'm sure she needed it ... *lol* I'm so sorry, Spitzmagic, that I didn't take better care of Barb but she was so quick!!! Actually she was told to have a nice bubble bath, but she prefered to relax in another way ...

@ Fred: Yes, it's an omniplant feeded with deathfish. As Penelope had lost all her income by her ownerships on the businesses - you know the world wide depression that came with WA (Those guys at EA are so quick - they got rl at once to the game!) - she had to look for some other regular income. She's got the green thumb and her skills about gardening and fishing are up to ten. So she always has four omniplants at her backyard she is feeding with perfect deathfish. She gets 4x4 deathfishs a day, feeds back four of them to the omniplants and so she has a regular income of nearly 9.000 Simoleons a day. Much more she ever can spend! You see, it's always good to trust in yourself instead of trusting in unreliable economy.*miss the smileys at the blog*

The plans for today are: Taking Haagje to the hairdresser, get new tops for the girls to change with the pay-2-get-3, maybe visit the wellness-center and getting a massage of 7.500 Simoleons. I know that sounds somewhat demanding. But I tell you - it's worth each single Simoleon! They'll get +70 moods for 7 days - and they can afford it. If you want to be good to others you have to be good to yourself first ... They have to do a lot of travelling, jet lag and so on, and I will do all I can do to get them in high spirits. 

It would be perfect if we could upload the PG WWC (Power Girls' World Wide Convention) at the storyteller section. The shame is - I'm so addicted to this challenge - I want to put my noise in the different Conventions every day. I want to know what the girls are doing - I want to read it and see it. It's so much fun for me! Having a look at the Storytellers I see that there are submissions day by day now. Perhaps I should give it a try ... The other thing is - it's interesting and a lot of fun for the organisers of PG WWC. But perhaps the other 2.298.120 members of a total of 1.298.127 members of TSR wouldn't appreciate it getting the storyteller partition cluttered up with PG WWC.

So tell me your thoughts about managing this challenge, dear friends!

@ all the TSR members who drop into this blog by coincidence or whatsoever - feel free to leave any comments and having fun, too. It's not a "closed club" and it's not meant to be - far from it! It's just having fun with the community and whoever has fun with this amazing though crazy idea is welcome to share our fun. We all are part of the great TSR community. Perhaps you get an idea of another "community challenge". The only restriction is set by the game itself who allows only eight sims in a household. But I can tell, that's more than enough. It's a lot of fun, but sometimes it's hard work, too. (See poor Barb having all the glasses of nectar because I didn't take care ... ;) As for me I would love to have a look about other "conventions" ... 

Working stacked stairs

Did you ever wonder why a downloaded lot with stacked stairs didn't work when you placed it? Why your sims couldn't access the upper floor, just turned at the end of the stairs and went down again? Did you ever want to kick that game because you had built for hours and hours and then - when your sim moved in - your sims couldn't access ... (see above).

It was driving me mad! Well it's not because you did something wrong - it's the game and the somewhat odd stairs behaviour as I found out some early morning at about 5am when I was looking on many sims-sites for a solution. And so I came to Pescado who not only knew the problem but had some solution, too: Stackable stairs work only in one direction: north-south. Stackable stairs placed in east-west direction won’t let your sim go to the upper floor. Don't ask me why - ask EA. And if you're like me, you won't see at first sight what's the north-south or the east-west direction. And there are those lots too, which have a north-east to south-west direction.

Well, I think the most of you knew that - as for me - I didn't.

So I tried again, built a lot with stacked stairs in both directions and the poor Martinez' had to test it. It worked so well and was such an easy test, that I thought it might be of some interest for a few other simmers, too.

So this afternoon I uploaded a test-lot ("Test your Lot!") which will show you in a minute in which direction a lot has to be placed on a chosen spot to "work" / or in which direction you have to plan and build your stairs on a special lot.

You know I love the small stairs and I hate to have my lots cluttered with stairs only because I didn't know when or when not the stacked stairs would work. Clutter - YES! But nice little clutter or rusty clutter. But not those ugly stairs. (And I couldn't upload another lot before giving a hint to those who like it how to place it.)

And it's always the same - 16-step-stairs just placed in one direction behave the same as 8+8-u-shaped stairs or 4+4+4+4-circled-stairs.

If this is useful for anyone else I'm glad.

Feel free to give any comment or perhaps another solution that's even easier. 

Rose Cottage

Just yesterday I was offered another old cottage surrounded by a charming little garden. It belongs to an old lady, who yearned for living next to her daughter’s family. She already gave a lot of furniture to her daughter, but the two rooms she used – the kitchen and her bedroom – are still fully furnished. Maybe some things need to be bolstered up, but they are still very comfortable – be it the bed or the chairs.

As the name suggests lots of roses are growing in the little garden round the charming house – and on the fabrics used in her bedroom, coming from the famous fabric maker society of Cyclonesue.

The entry is leading to a hall, from where you reach the kitchen followed by a small bathroom and stairs leading to the basement, currently used as a utility room. Could be a nice place for a workout or just a guestroom. At the attic you find the main bedroom with an adjoining bathroom and a small second bedroom.

This cottage is not really spacious (do you know any that is?) and I would strongly suggest not to move the bed! The way Mrs Rose had arranged her belongings makes sure that everything is easily accessible. If you love an unhurried way of life, reading at the fireplace (there are three of them!) or writing a novel at an old desk with a lovely view or gardening (if you chose to replant the old roses in the enclosed garden you will stumble across old beds of a vegetable garden) I’m pretty sure you will fall in love with this little lot. 

I phoned my dear friend Penelope to visit Rose Cottage and take some pictures. If you're interested You’ll find them here: http://s770.photobucket.com/albums/xx348/simsjeanie/Rose%20Cottage/?albumview=slideshow And she has to do a little cleaning and sorting and sending some beloved memorabilia to Mrs Rose.

Stairs are driving me mad

After discovering that WA brought back the old stairs behaviour with stackable stairs I had a lot of fun with a new house last week. I fiddled and tried and was really happy. Yesterday I had my dear Penelope move in to test it. And the stairs don't work. Just the same as before WA - she wants to climb the stairs and at the end she stopps, complains and returns. She descends without complications from the highest floor to the lowest but the other way round it doesn't work when another stairs are above. I was so disappointed, I changed and used the hammertool like mad - I didn't get it done. I took Iris' old Cottage (where the stairs work without any complications) to look what I've done there - no difference to be seen. After trying and retrying again and again I finally quit - after about 12 hours and fell right into my bed.

You could say: Just change the stairs, doesn't matter. But I want to know, why! Why does it work on one lot and doesn't work on the other? Those things I do not understand are driving me mad. Where is the mistake in my thinking? *sigh*

It seems I haven't understood sims3 at all ... Oh, why did EA change the building issues that way? You allways had to be carefully with all the CFE-settings, I know well. And I am carefully using it, you can believe. For now I've lost all drive to go on ...

But my Penelope gave me amusement in that awful trying. I had her moved in a testing lot - well, just a copy of her, of course - to let her try every single step I was doing. But even with her copy I cannot neglect her wanting. She was feeling bad by again and again walking up and down my stairs, she was hungry and needed a toilet. Since she had her food-replicator and all her books in her family inventory, I just bought her a toilet and a cheap bed and let her have a perfect salmon. And guess what she did? No, she didn't have her meal just standing. And no, she didn't sit on her bed. She walked down the stairs into the basement where I placed her toilet, sat down and had her meal there. (see the screenshot) I'll tell you, that's not the way you should treat a absolut loveble and loyal sim like my Penelope! I begin to think, that builders are not feeling bound in honour. But they should ...

Got it to change Iris' old Cottage for free download

I've tried to change "Iris' old Cottage" to a free version. First it didn't look like I'd be successful. Whatever I did - and I did a lot: stripping every single wallpaper from the walls, remove every single floortile, even deleted my saved changes of wallpapers I've done with the CAS-tool - the lot included still a subscriber-only pattern. I spent more time trying to change than I spent on building the nice little lot. 

Finally I found out that the pattern was included with the roofwalls you cannot see anymore. Well, now I know that.

Now I try to build a new roof but I don't know if that will work - with all the objects beneath, especially the stairs ...

edit 01/23/10, 12:40 am: You won't believe it, I redid the roof, no subscriber-only pattern is pointed out - and now the system tells me, I'd lost something I'd had to do ... I did everything! Tried uploading it from a folder I'd put it in, tried uploading directly from "Export" (once the preview showed me a fat button: WA required, all by it's own - so I thought, maybe I have to get it directly from the launcher) - but everything failed. Allways when I go to edit  it doesn't show the number of Bathrooms. I take 1 1/2 and press "edit" and get the message of not having filled out the necessary boxes. In the preview the number of bathrooms show up. I'll tell you, this is really a never ending story with me and technics. But now I'll try nomore. Tomorrow is another day ...

edit 01/23/10 01:45 pm: Well, finally I was successful in uploading *though it was my fault only that it didn't work* Now I'm hoping I've done the right way ...

The screenshot beneath shows like it looks in the *free* version.

About how to do unnecessary things

While waiting for the glitch about uploading a lot to be solved I thought how much time I needed to fiddle out the sources of my integrated CC. And then I had the idea to start an excel-chart. Oh, that was a really good idea. For the future I will update my datas while downloading an item. It will save me a lot of time and at the same time I'll have a nice survey of my downloads - at least of those I'm considering to be indispensable for (my) building.

I've the creator's name, the item's name, the ID, TSR AA and the link to the single item in this list - and that's really comfortable.

I love TSR says simsjeanie, also known as nitpicker-jeanie ...

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edit Jan 18th: Well, sometimes nitpickers were shown to better trust in others ... After having done all that work I discoveres two things:

1rst there is a section under "Downloads" called "Download History" where you can see what you've downloaded - I think I will neverever delete something out of that amazing folder.

2nd It is not only unnecessary to add the IDs of CC by your own - it even won't let you edit your uploaded house to get it propper to the "Pending"-area. You get the error message: <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:70.85pt 70.85pt 2.0cm 70.85pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -->

"Zend_Db_Statement_Exception SQLSTATE[23000]: Integrity constraint violation: 1062 Duplicate entry '945045-942677' for key 'PRIMARY'" (the numbers were the IDs I added by hand)

The system does show the used CC by its own.

So you may call me now your blockheaded simsjeanie ...

Trying to upload a house

Yes, I did it!The last two days I was fiddling around with Iris' Cottage - and I have to say: I've never thought that would be such hard work! When I bulld houses for my sims I build them and have a lot of fun. Then they move in and while playing I reorganize and change things. But now I had to save and have my poor Penelope move in and move in and once more. The badest things are the in-game-screenshots. O-o-o ... I don't know if it's my mouse or just my lack of knowledge - I zoom and turn and when I think: ok, now the c-key the screen begins to dance and I'm everwhere but there where I intended to be. I allways enjoyed the nice screenshots I can see here at TSR but I never imagined how delicate the game behaves.

And in the end I failed to upload. Now I have an upload in my upload-bucket that I can't edit and save. I'm dithering if that will tell me to get my hands from things that I should better leave to people who know what they are doing.

But now I'm straight going to nappypoohland. Tomorrow there will be another day.

Sims are educating me ...

So, done! When I look back I was the greatest anti-pc-person of the world! "Oh no, I can't do that! Oh no, it's much to difficult! Oh no, I'll leave that to the younger ones!" It was hard work for my husband to snatch my old typewriter from me and have me sitting instead in front of a pc. "You can't do anything wrong with it - it's absolutely foolproof", he told me. Oh - did he know me for years? I managed to get comments on my screen he'd never seen before. "How did you do that?", he gasped more than one time.

But after a while I could proudly present my pc-written things and was able to start the pc, write, save and switch off. I was rather glad with that pc-think you can imagine, but I thought that was enough for me. Later I learned a lot about layout an such things. That was another theme.

Then my daughters came and brought sims to me. "Mum, you have to play. You will love it!" I didn't want to - but they were right. I enjoyed it, I loved, I got addicted to my sims. And so I learned a lot. Credit to EA that I learned things about how to edit registries and other stuff like that, because my sims broke my pc more than once, they didn't want to deinstall correctly, refused to install, caused several crashes and I had to try everything - because I wanted to play. When sims 2 came up, they crashed the heart of my pc and he needed a heart-transplantation ... oh!

And today - only because I wanted to post in the "Showroom" - I learned how to use photobucket. For years my children tell me: "Go to Photobucket and we all can watch your pictures whereever we are!" I didn't manage that photo-thing. But today, after hours of trial and error - for sure the best method to learn! - I managed not only to get photos in there but also to create a slideshow. I'm proud on me! *claponmyshoulder*

So thanks to my sims and the wonderful TRS - I've learned again something I've never had learned without the sims ...

PS: Perhaps I even learn to talk English in a way others will understand what I want to say ...