It could potentially be a new partner/spouse. If you look at the pics I have posted for the round photo, it's about adapting space that wasn't functional to the way your familly "really" lives to something more usefull. (Although, personally I'd have extended the den/office out to the same depth as the family room addition so there is guest bedroom potential too)

As to being EBIL!!! (heh heh heh!!!) if you look back at the previous contests I've done, they are all very twisty . To give you a hint of how twisty the idea is, try to imagine designing in one round for the unexpected of the next. Like having to fit round three needs into round two space. (well, maybe a small addition). EBIL!!!!

Is that 10% more than the tiles for the round or the tiles we used for the round? Either way I have no idea how many it is, I can't count in %. How close to the original house does it have to stay? Is it ok to keep some parts exactly the same and do a complete makeover on other parts?

10% more than you used. For most of you, this will be 204 tiles including the additional 10%, I think only Cloudburst and Hotaru used less tiles last round.

*Stares* So... My computer is in the shop and right now there is a 50/50 chance that when it comes back it will be wiped... If the horrible happens... Can I attempt remaking one of my homes in the same design? Or is that gonna be a no no? Because if everything is wiped all I'll have to go by is what I posted here... Either way, I'm gonna post something. I have come to far! Lolz!

Oh and I do Georgia math (Yeah, below the Mason Dixon Line is a scary place)... So I'm guessing... (.1 * number of tiles used) + number of tiles used = what we have to use this round? I'm pretty sure I'm right but just in case...

Eww!! I hate when my comp is in the shop. I would try to re-create as best able from the pics you've posted. Minor discrepencies can be hidden by your re-design. They must be doing something right down there, you got the math right.


I've been in the shop myself today, 4 hours at the dentist, plus 1 hour travel each way, ugh!

My Round 3 scores are in. Woo! :lovestruc

There's at least one house in this lot that I actively want to download once the contest is over .

For me there is more than one that I want to download. You all set up your game a notch this round.

I have a busy day today, but my scores will be in later tonight... need to type out the paper notes I did yesterday and send them off.

Agreed! There are one or two from this round I'd quite like to see available for upload, and about half a dozen I'd consider downloading from the entire contest so far.

(and obviously I'm quite fond of mine too!) :-D

My scores are in. Good luck to you all.

Round 3 scores
 

Scores!

• Lauratje86
  This is a lovely set of apartments. I would certainly download this from the site. However that is not a complete positive. This house is so downloadable because it lacks a little personality which would make it easy to adapt it for one of my own families. (Something I like as a downloader, but not as a judge.) It would have been nice if you’d added some curtains or rugs. Just a little extra. All comments aside: you did a great job on this one. I love the style of the house and adore the wall with the masks.
  
  Yay, a terraced house! (I miss those in Sims 3). This house is simple, classic, and seems deceptively spacious. The garden is lovely. However, I felt there weren't enough traces of the personalities of either the original couple or the eldest child and partner who have moved in with them. I also felt that with this room layout, there is potential for the warring grandmas to meet on the upstairs landing, get into an argument ("She got a bigger room than me, and I'm here to LIVE whereas SHE's just VISITING."), and cause the baby to start screaming!
  
  I love the idea of row houses, and I love to see that you added houses to either side just to finish the look. You should try a different inside style; some lighter, cleaner colors probably would have fit the interior a bit better. Some items were hard to find and I missed them several times. You also seem to be missing items.
  
  Total 1: 75
  Total 2: 72
  Total 3: 80
  Average: 75.66
  
• sandymdh
  This house is a bit crammed, but a joy to look at. I think you really did a great job at making this house suited for the family that is described in the contest. I really like the basement. Love the bedrooms. The fulness and mix and match madness of the house really suits the crazy family. I do wish you could have given a bit of your personality and chaos to the other contestants, and turned it a slight bit down on your own, that would have balanced out all the entries into perfection.
  
  This is a really brave house design, using so many extra squares and building cheats to create the bedsits. Hooray for basement windows! Logical room layout with all personalities catered for. I did feel that the décor within each bedsit clashes horribly, but this was perhaps intentional, giving the impression of items salvaged from previous homes? I love the study, and am amused that the college kid's room has relatively few books and CDs, as if most have been taken to college.
  
  Such a cute house. I like the small rooms and how they each have their own personality. Very nice. I love how you continued the story
  
  Total 1: 82
  Total 2: 83
  Total 3: 76
  Average: 80.33
  
• wickedblue
  Pretty. Clean. Well thought out design. Maybe a little too perfect for my taste. (I would have liked if sandymdh had given you a little spark of chaos.) Give it just a little more personality with clutter. I would certainly download this house, though. As I said above to Lauratje86 too, I look at a house differently as a judge than a player. Great entry, nontheless. Good job again.
  
  I really love this house and its garden. The college kid's room and nursery are both awesome – very well decorated, and there was a strong sense of all of the personalities except for travelling granny. The house feels real and lived-in. Really, my only criticisms are that the parents of the baby's bedroom should be next to the nursery, and a double-width upstairs landing might prevent the inevitable sim blockage once the seven adults have visitors over. Other than that, very well done.
  
  This is a very lovely house. I love the exterior as well as the warm tones on the inside. It had a nice lived in feel and every room did have its own personality. If your pictures would have been zoomed in a bit more and a bit clearer, that might have improved your score.
  
  Total 1: 76
  Total 2: 86
  Total 3: 85
  Average: 82.33
  
• Sulyuki
  Lovely house too this one. Missing a slight bit of personality here and there maybe. I would certainly download this one too. As I said before, this is not really the best opinion I can have as a judge because that does mean I think your house has the kind of blandness that would make it easy for me to personalise it to my game and family without too much trouble. Anyway, I do think you build a gorgeous house with a beachy-feel to it. Very light and clean and pretty. A little clutter would have made it just a little better. Good job.
  
  This is an interesting house built in an attractive location. I like the idea of the sunroom, and the nursery is great. However, I really don't like the lack of windows along one side of the basement, or the long walk outside needed to get from the basement to the upstairs living area. Even in a place with perfect weather, it would be annoying to have to do that multiple times per day! I also thought the bedrooms are in a strange order - shouldn't the parents of the baby be next to the nursery? It feels like a show home – there aren't enough traces of the occupants' personalities.
  
  I like the beach theme, its cute and I love the sun porch, but the Victorian living and dining didn’t really seem to match with the sea/lake side theme. The house looked lived in but not overly cluttered. You were missing items.
  
  Total 1: 78
  Total 2: 62
  Total 3: 55
  Average: 65
  
• hotaru801
  What a cute little barn. I really like the exterior in this entry too, it looks authentic. I’m not too sure if the inside of the house has been build at its most practical, the space isn’t used to full advantage imho. Creative design, though. I do think you accounted for all familymembers and their different personalities and I can really see you tried to give every room its own uniqueness and identity.
  
  Nice theming, and I love the orchard! Having so many people living in the house, not all of whom have jobs, the sims will need to save money - so being able to grow their own crops is useful. Logical room layout with all personalities catered for. However, one bookcase appears to be missing, and I'd have preferred only 2 photos of the outside, so that another of the 8 photos could be used for clear shots of the inside, without such wide-angles. I felt that some of the patterns on wallpaper etc. were too intense for the size of the rooms, which made me feel claustrophobic in combination with the lack of windows. Consider using building cheats?
  
  I love the barn, looks wonderful! I don't want to say the rooms are cluttered, but I will say they are a bit busy. It takes away from the room when you have to look at all the patterns and designs. I think you are missing a bookcase.
  
  Total 1: 76
  Total 2: 75
  Total 3: 82
  Average: 77.66
  
• Cloudburst
  I like to give extra attention to the outside of your house. I think it is beautiful. Lovely combination with the bricks and woodwork. I wouldn’t mind living there myself. You really came back into the game with this entry after a dissapointing round 2. I don’t think the crib by the bed is weird either, it’s an elegant solution in a full household. I do think the house would have gotten just that little extra personality with a rug or plant in the interior here and there. Good job on the whole.
  
  The outside of this house is visually very interesting. I rather like houses which use the same flooring continuously – it seems more realistic somehow. However, there are some odd structural defects. There are two holes in the upstairs floor that you can see through! And neither of the curtains chosen lines up with the windows: the upstairs curtains don't cover the top of the windows so light would shine through (if they were real), and the downstairs curtains are out of alignment horizontally. It is also an odd choice to have only one double bed in a house with two couples. I could not tell who was supposed to have which bedroom.
  
  The house was very pretty, I liked the very warm feeling to the interior and the style was consistent throughout. I’m very happy you rechecked your items. It really improved your score and the closer, clearer, interior shots earned you a few more. Great job!
  
  Total 1: 83
  Total 2: 58
  Total 3: 79
  Average: 73.33
  

The top three scores for this round are:

#3: hotaru801 77.66
#2: sandymdh 80.33
#1: Wickedblue 82.33

Congradulations to you all!

Thanks for the comments :-D

My basic idea behind the house was that the original sim & spouse had bought the house for themselves, decorated the kitchen/diner and master bedroom in black/red according to their tastes (like their Round 2 house), but then had to add an extension (Wild-Grandma's room/bathroom) and decorate the rest of the house to suit the unexpected extra household members rather than being able to have the entire house to their tastes.

Unfortunately rugs (bigger than 2 by 1 tiles) don't place right in my game, no idea why! :-( It's a shame, I used to use loads of rungs but now I can't because they look really weird. I agree about the curtains though - I never use curtains normally so I forgot to put them in, and when I noticed it was too late to change it. My Round 4 house will have curtains though! :-D

Was the visiting grandma's room bigger? I had it down as being smaller, or at least less personalised so it could be used as a general bedroom when she left.

May I also ask which items judge 3 thought were missing, if I lost points for them, as I did check very thoroughly. There was some debate (between me and Vampy) as to whether or not I needed to have 8 chairs with a 3 tile table or if 7 was ok, but other than that I think that everything was there.....

Thanks again for the scores/comments, I'm working on my Round 4 rebuild now - having laptop and game issues so it's taking a while - grrrrr.....! Should be done on time though!

What items did I miss?

lauratje86: dresser and toddler skill object.

Sulyuki: changing table and a nightstand.


There was quite a bit of cross-pm-ing about objects, where they were and what they were. If we can't tell that item "x" is item "x", with 4 pairs of eyes looking...

Any lost points for missing items that may actually be there, if applied to scores, would not change the outcome in any significant manner.

I'm not doing this for the scores! As far as I'm aware, the only way I could win would be if nobody else posts an entry for Round 4! :-D And I like seeing people's houses, so I hope that doesn't happen!

I did write out where all the objects were that I thought you guys may have trouble spotting, as quoted below, with the bits about the dresser and toddler toys in bold. This was to make it easier for you all to find everything, as I worked hard and put lots of time and effort into including all the required objects and didn't want them to be overlooked! If people (like me) are using cc and objects from lesser-used EP's and SP's is could be easy for you and the judges to miss something, or think that it's something else!

As someone posted previously (maybe wickedblue?) - it's not about the scores as much as having our efforts recognised! Getting a slightly higher score for not having missed any items may not change the ranking, but it will make me happier to know that the score really reflects my house.

Here is my entry for the final round. Which house I picked was an absolute no-brainer for me as I would have loved to have used the inaccessible space in the upper converted church house before but was limited by tiles. I think I am either spot on with tiles or maybe 1 tile over but you'll see that I was guided by the space available.
As it has been several years since my couple lived in this house some items have inevitably been replaced and some of the rooms redecorated. I have tried to tone down the colours and clutter a bit in this one (I blame the fact I live in a brand new house and in the UK this means it's cream/magnolia throughout which is probably why my Sims' houses are so colourful)! My couple are heading towards retirement and cutting down on their working hours so have given up the exercise machine and moved to lower impact activities, Mum has taken over the teenager's room for her painting and sewing hobbies and Dad has created a music room out of the previously inaccessible area in the upper front of the home. Some pictures are the same - the exterior ones anyway as no exterior addition has been made.
Here are the pics;


Front View


Ground Floor


First Floor









I have been saving my recently created houses for the world I'm making but I am making a CC free version of this with a cellar which I will probably upload if people want it. Maybe the boat too though it is on a weirdly sized lot.
I also want to thank Kattenijin and all those who have given up their time to judge for such a fun contest :-)

There are no changing tables in TS3, I assumed we were still suppose to replace it with a two tile dresser. There are four dressers that are clearly visible in the pictures.

All four nightstands are showing more or less in the floor plan pictures. Two are also easy to see in the other pictures. The only ones you could have missed is the one in the sun room, which is in the corner of the picture. And the one in the bedroom with a double bed and a love seat. That one is showing a little bit in the corner of the picture of that room, and is quite visible in the floor plan picture.

I thought I pointed out anything that would be hard to see, apparently I wasn't clear enough. Not that I have a chance anyway, I'm going to get the lowest score of the ones that did all rounds. That is if I manage to do this one, it's not going very well.

I am gonna ask earlier than normal for an extension into Tuesday... I am supposed to get my computer back on Monday, but if I don't I will have to attempt to re-download sims 3 on another computer and remake one of my homes minus cc... so yeah... But if I can post it before midnight it will be posted before midnight on Monday...

The normal end of the round is Tuesday, March 1st at 12pm GMT-5. I've forgotten to change that in the first post. We got an extension due to all the downtime MTS had.

Sulyuki:Even after adding in the extra points for missing furniture, your average score for the round only goes up two points. I think you are too focused on the wrong issue, kind of like when people were focused on getting the tile bonus points, but loosing more points in other areas than they gained through being under the tile count.

I gave everyone the benefit of the doubt when judging and didn't take of any points for missing objects if I saw something that could vaguely replace the object that was missing.
Which meant that I didn't take of any points for it with any contestant.

Lauratje86 - Round 4
 

**EDIT** Tiles! I forgot about tiles! I think I am 2, maybe 3, over. I used extra tiles to extend the extension and add the first floor (second floor for you Americans!) extension. As you can see, it would've looked weird without the extra 2/3 tiles as the two floors would've been different sizes..... I hope that's ok!

Original Couple left the new modern home to their children so they could retreat back to the familiar comfort of their farmhouse but first, some renovations had to be done.

Starting with a fresh coat of paint on the outside:




Some walls were knocked down and others were added:


New furnishings and converting the teen's room into a larger, private office:


The child room/nursery was expanded and converted into a guest room ready for a visitor:


Master Bedroom got a bit of a makeover too:


Perfect for a couple to spend the rest of their days. In peace.

I originally used the full 138 tiles on this house so 14 tiles were added this round.

I moved the house to a slope with the best view I could find. I'm trying for Victorian btw. Last time it was 169 tiles, so I added 17 tiles.

Exterior.
Upper floor.
Bottom floor.
Bedroom, bathroom and casual living/study.
Dining room/living room and sunroom.
Master bedroom.
Garden.

I accidentally killed a Sim while testing the lot, It was only the second playable TS3 Sim to die. It took me about a week or two to kill the first one.

I won't be able to make it for this round. I just got my computer back and it is gonna take longer than expected to have the game up and running. I might have everything reinstalled by midnight... I would have to work until the wee hours of the morning... *sigh*

If I could give an extension, I would. As it stands, we're pretty much maxed out. I guess thet we just need Cloudburst's entry to complete the round; which closes in two hours. If anyone feels a sudden need for any last-minute changes, you'd better do them now!

Round 4 and the contest are now closed!

I'll pm the judges in the morning; round 4 and final scores will be up by Friday night I hope. Good luck everyone!