I've finished my scoring, and I'm just getting someone who has a brain to check the arithmetic .

I'm just waiting to hear from Vampire of Death. If I don't hear anything by morning, I'll EJ again, and post scores by 12 Noon GMT-5.

And my scores are in. Best of luck everyone!

Yay, judges! :-D I don't mind which extension option you choose, kattenijin. But then, I finished my house several days ago and am just putting the collages together now. I may make changes though, as there are some slight similarities in some of the decor between Rounds 2 & 3, so if the judges all hate it I may change it a bit! :-D But yay, I'm excited about getting the Round 2 results :-)

**EDIT** Actually, because the site's been down for maintenance/brokenness for the last 24 hours or so I haven't been able to get my entry up, so an extension for everyone would come in handy! :-) I don't have time to post mine now as I'm late meeting someone, but I should be able to do it late tonight or tomorrow morning if that's ok?

Round 3 scores
 

Sorry this is so late, but everytime I went to post, the site was down.

Scores!

General comment: Many of you are obviously going for the 5 bonus points for not using all the tiles. In several cases, it would have been better to use more, because the points deducted from other areas were greater than the bonus points.

• Lauratje86
  As much as I love red and black (and I do as they are my favorite colors), your house seemed too much of the same. Only the two green and purple bedrooms seem to pop. And some of your decor seems to clash with each other just a bit, but overall, I love the outside, the porch looks so inviting, and that play area looks so adorable.
  
  It's very black and red and I wanted to take marks off for the dark, tiny pictures that made my eyes hurt when trying to make sure you'd included everything! (But I didn't). You have used CAST awesomely. Though it does seem like cheating to put ALL the dressers and the toybox in the teenager's room!
  
  A dark and different house. Perfectly suited for the modern vampire family. Love that the style of the house is uniform, but leaves space for individual styles in the children’s bedrooms. On the other hand I would have liked to see a little variation in floors and wallpaper. (Different shades of red and black, tiles vs. carpet etc.)
  
  Total 1: 60
  Total 2: 82
  Total 3: 74
  Average: 72
  
• sandymdh
  This is such a brilliant idea, something I wasn't expecting for sure. The walls seem a bit cluttered in the last few rooms compared to the relaxed feel to the first few.
  
  Lovely building – nice "cheating" with the inaccessible tiles to make an interesting shape. However, I'm sure that potty under the stairs is not accessible. (It would need to be one square closer to the tall end of the staircase for the toddler to get in). I like the theming, but some of the pattern combinations are awful – the kitchen tiles do not go with the chair coverings or rug in the dining area.
  
  Absolutely gorgeous. Love it that the house used to be a church. Very creative use of the lay-out. Every room has individual personality, but still the house looks unified as a whole.
  
  Total 1: 88
  Total 2: 84
  Total 3: 93
  Average: 88.33
  
• Samethana
  I love this house. The rooms flow with each other seamlessly and the colors go so well with each other.I honestly cannot think of anything to improve its look. Great job!
  
  I love the style – it's very much what a typical British Victorian house could turn into given enough space for a modern extension. The only thing I wasn't sure about was the flowers on the front balcony – all black? How goth! Good use of clutter to make the house look lived in.
  
  I love the townhouse feel of this one. Beautiful garden too. Great use of layout and space. Colour-use is stunning too. The house is unified in style and gives personality to each room.
  
  Total 1: 89
  Total 2: 77
  Total 3: 83
  Average: 83
  
• wickedblue
  This is such an adorable house, so welcoming and the landscaping is gorgeous, I can tell there was time taken to do so. The items seem very suited to their spaces, though I would have liked to see a tiny bit more color. This house flowed very well.
  
  The external design of this building is positively EAxoid – not pretty at all. Also, while the outside has lots of wild plants, the inside looks sterile. I think that either the sideboard or the changing table is missing – I can see 4 dressers, which should be 5 if one of them is pretending to be a sideboard.
  
  I love this little farm house. Also great use of the space, nothing seems to be crammed in, but all is there. I adore the bedrooms. I would have loved to see just a tad more variation here and there, but that is really a minor nag.
  
  Total 1: 80
  Total 2: 62
  Total 3: 79
  Average: 73.66
  
• Sulyuki
  The interior of your house was very well decorated and each room seemed to have a theme/color, almost as if the sims chose how to decorate it. It had a fairytale look to if from the street, but the arch and high roof together make me think of a church. The flowers used around the roof were too wild and messy looking to go with the natural/clean look you were going for.
  
  Logical room layout with a bathroom that's accessible by guests without having to walk through sims' "private" bedrooms – good. The only negative point is that the poor teenager is shoved into the smallest bedroom while a non-existent younger sister has a huge room – I'd have swapped around the teenage and child's rooms.
  
  This house has such a romantic, countryside feel. I think it is very pretty. The garden is lovely too. Like the overall use of the colours.
  
  Total 1: 61
  Total 2: 84
  Total 3: 80
  Average: 75
  
• hotaru801
  This house is lovely. You have made a theme for yourself and stuck to it very well. The bright colors carry throughout and everything fits so well. Great job!
  
  The roof at the front is very strange, but I generally like the castle-style and the windows. Amazed to hear that all the objects are usable since there isn't enough space for a sim to walk in front of the sink to get to the bathtub in the corner bathroom. Some of the mosaic floors are great, but the green in the master bedroom clashes with that wallpaper! MY EYES!
  
  A nice maze of a house, with hidden room after hidden room. Such pretty floors and wallpapers. I also love the fact that this house really looks to me as if a family is actually living there. All rooms have personality and optimal use of available space.
  
  Total 1: 88
  Total 2: 82
  Total 3: 82
  Average: 84
  
• Cloudburst
  I love this house. It is very crisp and clean looking and the red exterior is such a nice contrast to the white inside. I usually don't go crazy over modern homes, but this one I would play. The insides make the out, keeping very little clutter and nothing at an angle. I would have liked to see some more color in the rooms, albeit a soft, pale color and a few more pictures.
  
  I like the modern design, but the house doesn't look real/lived-in. I really don't like some of the room layouts – the parents have to walk through the children's room to get to their bedroom, and EVERYONE has to walk through the baby's room to get to the kitchen. Unfortunately, you've missed quite a few essential points. There was supposed to be a fireplace in the study, and there was supposed to be a specific teenager's room.
  
  I love the modernist style of this house, but think it might have been executed a bit too simply here. The house could have used quite a bit more clutter, variation and individual touches for my taste. I am also missing the required fireplace in the study area, and the teen bedroom.
  
  Total 1: 86
  Total 2: 60
  Total 3: 66
  Average: 70.66
  

The top three scores for this round are:

#3: Samethana: 83
#2: hotaru801: 84
#1: sandymdh 88.33

Congradulations to you all!

Pop me down as EJ I always check my mails everyday but dont look at the thread all the time so if you desperate I am always here!!!

Lauratje86 - Round 3
 

I hope I'm still ok to post my entry - the site was down a lot yesterday and earlier today so I wasn't able to post it until now.

External View:



Aerial View - Ground Floor:



Aerial View - First Floor:



Collages:









Many, many thanks to Mootilda, who created the LotAdjuster, and to plasticbox, who wrote the tutorial on building row houses. I couldn't have made this lot without them! :-)

**EDIT** I can't belive I forgot to mention the tile count! It's either dead on or one under the tile limit, I can't remember right now. Either way, no bonus points for me this round....

I should have my entry up shortly. I have a comment about the scoring and comments posted. I'm not asking for my score to be changed or anything, it's just that I noticed the 2nd judge took off quite a bit of points while commenting that it seems I am missing some items and would just like to point out that all items are there. The sideboard is next to the refrigerator, with all of the pictures and a plant. There is a dresser for each room, two in the room that doubles as a child room/nursery, one of which is intended as a changing table, totaling 4 and the instructions stated 3 dressers plus a changing table. Like I said, I'm not asking for changes or anything like that, it's just frustrating to put that much effort into this challenge to have so many points taken off when all the items are there.

Right, here's my entry. I haven't got many pictures of the interior, but I'm trying to do this on my laptop at the moment and it's really frustrating. I've had a lot of work to do recently as well, but hopefully I'll be able to do a good job on the next round. Still, I'm happy with how this one went. I don't think I've forgotten anything (I'm sure i have though), but I used 169 tiles in total.

EDIT: Updated the house and taken some new screenshots. I realised I had indeed forgotten some objects, but I've put them in. I've double checked and I'm pretty sure everything's there now, but my tile count remains the same. The new shed next to the house is purely for decoration, and so is the dormer at the top of the house.











I don't think there's any hidden objects anywhere. The dresser under the stairs is acting as a sideboard, and the one in the master bedroom is the changing table. In case it looks weird having a crib right next to the bed, remember there's a lot of people stuffed in, so compromises had to be made to accommodate everyone. :D

If you extend it until Tuesday I might still have a chance. I had to restart it, I've been trying all weekend to finish, but I still have half a floor with no floors or wall paper. I'll try to have it done by tomorrow, (or today, it's either really late or early morning by now).

I wasn't able to get mine posted yesterday and am at work today. I should be able to get it posted after work. I hope this is okay? I don't recall you saying whether you were closing it on Monday or Tuesday.

One hint for the contestants who already posted:

Are you sure every object mentioned in the requirements for this round are included in your lot? Because at a quick glance stuff seems to be missing.

Speaking as a judge, I'm totally okay with the idea of this round closing on Tuesday. The fact the site ended up being down for all of Saturday makes quite a big difference. Not everyone is able to get online on a Sunday, and the idea is to use your marks from Round 2 to improve on Round 3.

Personally, I was desperate to see how my scores compared to the other two judges. I wanted to know how similar or not our tastes were. The answer is... not all that much, which is why you get three judges after all .

In case anyone is interested, I marked Round 2 "blind" - in other words, I did not look again at Applications or Round 1 entries. I can tell you that the houseboat was my absolute favourite house in Round 1, but not who made it. Houseboat, followed by the Eco House, followed by the crazy pagoda. Of course, my Round 1 opinions are fairly irrelevant since I wasn't judging then .


Thanks for letting us know. It's a good idea to point out to the judges where items are if you feel they might be hidden, as some contestants did in Round 2. To give you some idea of the time that judging takes, it took me around 3 hours to check each of the seven houses to make sure every item was included and that each of the rooms asked for were present (along with the fireplace in the study). I studied every photo in detail and checked off the items against the checklist. This is a big time investment, which I was willing to spend because I wanted to mark as fairly as possible. In total, I spent around 4.5 hours on Round 2.

I don't mind explaining my criteria here in the thread, for everyone to see. (Of course, I have no idea how similar it is to the other judges' )

• Do I personally like the house?
• Would people in general want to download this house? Does it offer something "different" from houses they already have?
• Does it seem like the house would be playable? Would sims be able to move around this house without getting stuck somewhere? (I actually commented in my PM to kattenijin that I wished we could ask for videos to prove that the houses were playable!).
• Has the contestant included all of the rooms that are supposed to be there?
• Has the contestant included all of the furniture that is supposed to be there? (-1 for each missing item).
• Do the rooms flow in a natural/logical order? Is it possible for visiting sims to get to the kitchen and bathroom without walking through "private" areas like bedrooms?
• How creative has the contestant been? Have they played it safe with all square corners; or struck out with weird wall angles, including stairs despite the fact it wastes valuable tiles, putting items in unusual places?
• Is there an overall "theme" to the house? (Houses with an obvious theme got more points than houses which were just houses, and houses with a particularly unusual theme, by which I mean things like the Round 1 houseboat and Eco House, got even more points).
• How well-decorated is the house? Does it have lots of pictures/paintings, rugs, curtains, etc.?
• Does the house look like a show home, or does it look real/lived-in? (I gave more points to houses with clutter, and items placed other than at 90º angles).
• Is the garden interesting, and appropriate to the size of the house? (If a garden was lovely but far too big for the house, I did not give it as many points).
• 1 bonus point for contestants who included BIG photos (click for full-screen) so I could see all the objects without getting eye strain!

There was also a fixed bonus for the tile counts. Thankfully, kattenijin as host was willing to check these, as I would have gone insane if I'd had to count them myself!

I should note that, when I went through the criteria above, my favourite Round 2 house did not actually get my highest score .

Several houses already posted in Round 3 appear to have objects missing. Contestants should go back to their entries and recheck them, and add more photos if appropriate or explain to us in words where the items are if not clearly visible.

As the third judge, I have started counting the objects early and everyone's house except for one is missing at least two objects. I am only going to be doing this this round because so many things appear to be missing. So, use this opportunity. The penalties are a bit high this round.

So, verify your objects or at least note that you won't be changing anything. But if you do intend on changing things and you can only find object missing (and one house is missing 5 I believe) you can pm me to find out what is missing.


As far as general points, as the judge above, I'll post some things I look at that they didn't already note. Not all of the mind you, no need to make it too easy.

-Complexity of landscape. Did they just throw in some plants of was there cheats and OMSP involved, etc.
-Does the landscape match the house style
-Does the feel of the house go throughout, is there flow?
-Did your pictures cover the entire house, was there a better area that could be photographed?
-Bonus Points for:
-clear, large photos
-having the photos that need judge above any extra shots and not having shots of rooms mixed so I have to go back and forth
-I would download/play your house
-ingenuity with furnishings. IE Creating a mirrored dresser with a standing mirror and a dresser.
-not an overwhelming amount of CC.
-If I can scroll through your pictures in one tab instead of having to open them 1 by 1


I take 2-5 points off for missing items. 2 would be for something small like a toddler toy and 5 would be for a stove or bed or an entire room.

I hope it's not too late. I think it's 170 tiles, I've made sure everything from the list is there and that they can use everything. I used the decorative china cabinet as the sideboard. There are three counters in the kitchen and a sink in each bathroom and in the kitchen. There is a bookcase in the room with the chess and one in the sunroom, the theird one is showing in the pictures. The two tile loveseat is attached to one of the double beds.

Hi all, just a quick message before I fall off the planet again. Apparently, I have a massive infection in my left jaw, and going to the doctor, then the dentist, and then taking the antibiotics/painkillers has wiped me out. Not exactly happy. I've pm-ed BP about getting a two-day extension for the MTS downtime, but haven't heard back yet. As it stands, I'm going to close this round at midnight TUESDAY, and post round 4 then too. I'm going to assume (eek!) that we'll be granted the extension, if not I'll just keep the contest through whatever the new last date would be anyway. We just might not be able to get that star.

Wickedblue: to keep who said what in the judging seekret I'v been asked to post the following:

"I didn't realise that the bookcase in the bedroom was as big as three tiles, so assumed that the two-tile item in the kitchen was another bookcase rather than the sideboard. Also I got your garden confused with another contestant's after looking at too many houses. Sorry!".

Your score has also been modified.

Ugh, that sounds horrible kattenijin! I hope you feel better soon!

Thanks to the judges who mentioned missing objects - I went through the list again and am missing a living chair, so I'm changing it now and then will upload a new aerial view picture to show the change.

Everything else is there, I think. I'm not sure if anything else is hard to spot, but I figured that there were a couple of things that people may not notice. Firstly, there are three bookcases - one in the kitchen/diner, one in the living room and one on the upstairs landing, which isn't shown in the collages. There are three dressers; one in each of the double rooms, and one in Boring-Grandma's room (the larger of the upstairs single rooms). They are all single-tile dressers, two from the Ikea SP and one custom one (the pine one in the red/black master bedroom). There are also 2 toddler toys - one in the downstairs hallway (the rabbit head) and one in the kitchen next to the highchair (a custom one, looks like a pile of pots and pans and works like a musical instrument, for Creativity). The fridge isn't next to the rest of the kitchen stuff, it's on the opposite side of the room, next to the bathroom wall and the door to Crazy-Grandma's room. The potty is the yellow blob on the upstairs landing. The sideboard is also on the upstairs landing, with plants and towels and stuff on it. It's visible in one of the Living Room collage pictures - the one with all the mirrors on the wall. I think that everything else is fairly obvious. I have checked about a dozen times to make sure everything is there, so judges, if you think anything's missing please let me know so I can tell you where it is! :-)

**EDIT** Ok, I added another living chair and changed the aerial view picture. Both living chairs are upstairs - one in the yellow double bedroom and the other in Boring-Grandma's room.

**EDIT #2** I asked Vampy what they thought was missing from my house, and they said that they weren't sure whether or not a 3-tile dining table had to have 8 chairs, or if there just had to be a minimum of 6 chairs. I have 7 chairs in my house, one for each of the household who can sit on a chair (ie everyone apart from the baby!), so I hope that that's ok......

I've updated my post now, so everything's complete. Thanks for the extension kattenijin, and hope you get well soon.

I feel fine basically, no pain or anything, I just look like a chipmunk with a load of nuts on the left side of my face. It's the combination of the medication that has me unsorted. Either by itself probably wouldn't be to bad, but both together, OI! Anyhow, we got our two-day extension, so when this round ends tonight, you'll have untill Midnight GMT-5 Monday Feb 28 to do round 4.

Oh shoot! The last few days have been nuts. I have no idea what time zone you are using when you say midnight so I'm going to very quickly do my collages and hope I get them posted in time.

kattenijin - ouch! Sorry to hear about your jaw. I hope you will feel better soon. And thank you so much to you and the judge for reviewing and updating, I wasn't expecting that at all. It's not like those points are going to make me the winner or anything but I feel validated anyway.

Edit: No one has posted so I guess that means I made it in time. Phew.

I went with a more contemporary building this time.


First floor:


Second floor:


Side and back of building:

I don't know if you can tell from my pictures, but there is an entrance. It's on the side between the rows of flowers.
There is a telescope on the balcony.

Pictures from the first floor:




Bedroom 1 is for the college kid upon his return. He's a bit cluttery.
Bedroom 2 is for the wild granny as you can see by the pills, alcohol and ashtray on her nightstand.
The Master Bedroom is for our original couple. Their room isn't very big but they have a great view.

There are 3 bookcases on this floor - 2 by the sideboard/wall cabinet in the kitchen/dining area and the third is in the wild granny's bedroom.
Each bedroom has a nightstand and dresser.

And the second floor:

Bedroom 3 is for the other couple. The nightstand is next to the dresser and there is an easel in there also.
Bedroom 4 is where the traveling granny will stay.
And the nursery - obviously is for the baby. There are 2 skill toys in there. If you are looking at the arial, the red toy pictured in the close-up shot is right under the light and the other one is on the rug.

I used all 185 tiles. All objects are there and are usable.

Round 3 is closed, will post round 4 as soon as I wake up a bit more, lol!

(These meds make me sooo *yawn* sleeee....p....zzzzzzzz!)

Round 4: All that's Old is New Again!
 

So, your lovely, cosy, tiny home was everything you ever wanted. Then you met that special someone, and things got a little tight, but you were "in lurve" and made do. Then one day...!!! Suddenly, tiny was NOT an option, however having a baby is expensive and there wasn't a lot of money left over, so...WAIT WUT?!! This sounds familiar!!!! Well, you didn't let me finish! Now, where was I?...Oh!

...so life happened and there were many changes, especially in the last year! One that you'd rather forget, but there are those pictures, that video, and heaven forbid, THREE newspaper articles! Will life never get back to normal?! Not that there's ever been a normal...

In this round you get your dream, sorta/kinda/maybe! Choose either your round 2 or round 3 home; and using 10% more of your current tile count (current tiles:135 + 14(10%, yes, you may round up)=149 tiles) create the future home of your dreams! And, yes! you may finally get rid of the crib! (woot!) Although there are no specific item requirements for this round, remember, it is your reward for all the years that came before. Make us go WOW!

Unlike past rounds there will be NO TILE BONUS for fewer tiles. You must ADD the required tiles! (but not go over! well, ok, maybe 1 or 2, possibly 3 if you can show your design really needed them. Like not having that wall end 1 tile short, or getting rid of that funky corner; oh wait! I've seen your houses! y'all LIKE the funky corners!)

Rules and photos are the same as in the aplication round.

Scoring will be: 45% Beauty, 45% Creativity, 10% re-design (ie: how well does the new lay-out compare to the old)

Please PM me with any questions.

So if we redo our Round 3 house we'd get 185 + 10% = 185 + 19 = 204 tiles, right? And we can use 2 or 3 extra if we really really need them?

Is the idea that we are designing this house for our original single sim, or can they still be married?

I'm looking forward to this round! :-D

You are doing this home for the current family. Currently, the only people living there are your original sim and their spouse, and possibly the college student when not in school. All the "overstuffed" sims have moved on. This round is about balancing the wants/desires/dreams against future unknown needs (not that these come into play in this contest...oohh!! Contest idea!! I AM EBIL!!! HEH HEH HEH !!!).

Hey, potential ideas involving you hosting another contest like this one in no way count as evil! Or even ebil! :-D

Okidoki. If I have a vague story in my head (and in my game at some point - I actually made the family for Round 3 and they're rather fun!) where the original sim got divorced and is now living with a new partner, is that ok too, or does it have to be the original spouse? After all, the incidents of the past year, with the pictures and the video and the articles and all, could well have involved stuff that could lead to a divorce :-D In my head it did, anyway!