Those of you who are regulars on this forum and have long memory, might catch what the title is a reference to! Today it is 10 years to the day since I posted my thread called “It’s actually happened, at last”, celebrating the fact that my long hood rebuild was complete.

On November 9th 2012, I posted a thread in game help because my neighborhood would no longer open. After a lot of crying, kicking, screaming, protesting, I had to accept the fact that it was irreparable. But I wasn’t going to give up on my pixel buddies, I was determined that they would not stay gone for long. It took a little (or a lot) longer than I had anticipated, but after 2 years and 7 months, they were back and living in a new and improved version of itself. I am so glad that I never gave up, I've now had another ten years with them and I hope to have many many more.

I hope you'll all once again forgive me for indulging in another long essay that's purely about my game, and some of the things that have gone down in the last 10 years. The milestone feels momentous to me, and I wanted to once again share it with the community

Originally a copy of Pleasantview with custom sims, the rebuild turned it into Simville, and the hood has since evolved another step into Evergreen. Located in the sunlight valley of the region Aurora Shores, Evergreen is a thriving little town. The geographical location makes it a little warmer than is typical for the region, which over time has given its residents an appreciation of plant husbandry, and a real love for the outdoors.

OG hood from 2010


2015 completed rebuild


Current day Evergreen (cries in pink flashing mandated tree chopping)


I play slow and real life has been challenging so in these 10 years I’ve gotten through about 15 years worth of Evergreen. One of the things I was saddest about when I thought I'd lost them was that I’d never get to know Karl, the first 4th generation baby who had just been born.

But in 2015, baby Karl was born again, and his birth marked the end of my long journey. This was the picture I took of his family to mark the occasion.


And this is the picture I have for you today, opening up our anniversary celebration.

Sims from left to right: William, Sigrid, Joel, Karl, Emma (Family: Sernman-Nilsson)

As it turns out, Karl is an absolute delight, a total goofball that never fails to make me laugh. When he stumbled upon the picture of him as a baby, he insisted they recreate it with the whole family to make a new memory. His mom made him a new jumpsuit as the old one was just a tiny bit too small for him now, and they did their best.

Their house is utter chaos to play, with three kids and more pets than is really good for them. Emma has a soft spot for cats, so when Karl found a stray she could not say no and well… two cats became more cats. Funny how that works out! Sigrid is not amused. She’s rather tired of the fact that there never seems to be a moment for her, what with her older brother and her cousin always taking the spotlight, and her parents so busy with everything. She’s turning into quite the middle child, and I’m very curious to see where she’s going to end up one day. Little William doesn’t mind the chaos as much, he’s always chasing the cats who do their best to avoid his little toddler grabby hands but somehow still quite often find themselves in one of his bear hugs.

In the 2015, I showed you the wedding of Moa and Matte.


And this is Moa today, on a quiet Saturday morning out on the hiking trail.

Sims from left to right: Mia-Maja, Matilda, Moa (Family: Sernman)

Her marriage to Matte was a bit of a shock, the man she thought she knew suddenly a slob that expected her to do everything. Their happy ever after turned into a rather ugly divorce that set her father Daniel on a rampage that has overhauled divorce legislation in the region. Moa herself has sworn off dating and men, focusing on her career and the only good thing to come out of her marriage — her beautiful twin daughters.

Mia was born with down syndrome, and much like her cousin Karl, she is a real ray of sunlight. Matilda is a bit of an old soul, growing up faster than her years as a result of her circumstances. She lives with her father part-time, an arrangement unique to her as Moa does not trust her ex husband to be capable of handling Mia’s situation. Unlike Sigrid, Matilda does not harbor secret resentment for the family focusing more on Mia, she simply tries her best to be good to make things easier for everyone.

The Sernman family were the original family that started my love of this town, and they remain very special to me. Their third generation is where things started branch out and I stopped a Legacy-style play to instead become a rotation player with multiple households. I wanted to follow all three siblings, not just Joel (who was my favorite back then), but Moa, and her twin sister Elna as well.

In 2015 Elna had just begun a relationship with Max, after many years of pining after him and thinking her feelings one-sided only to find they were reciprocated.


And this is Elna now, still together with her longtime love Max.

Sims from left to right: Elna, Max (Family: Sernman & Flex)

Their journey is a long one, with twists and turns that I struggle to summarize into any kind of brevity. How does one neatly pack together a history of unwanted pregnancies with one of struggling to get pregnant, unconventional relationship boundaries, and broken hearts? Things have not been easy in the last year, but one thing both they and I know for certain — no matter what comes their way, these two will always be together. And that is something to celebrate Let’s hope it is with ginger ale, because I may know something that Elna and Max do not

One of the best things though, of the rebuild and the 10 years since its completion, is the fact that my world now goes beyond this one center family. Years of inspiration from seeing posts and talking to other simmers, ideas and creativity, all fueled into this one place in different ways.

This was Max’s younger sister Alicia in 2015, freshly graduated from college.


And this is Alicia in 2025!

Sims from left to right: Ciara, Henrik, Chloe, Alicia (Family: Lindström)

A pleasure sim with no ambitions beyond a life of music and taking it easy, Alicia would have envisioned her life to remain much as it was then. Busking for rent money at her leisure, throwing parties and at most going on casual dates. And yet, somehow she found herself accepting a surprise proposal from Henrik, the chief of police and all around social glue of the outgoing side of Evergreen. Neither they nor I expected them to have kids, but a birth control failure had other plans and in the end they decided to embrace what fate saw fit to throw at them. They got a little more than they perhaps envisioned when Alicia produced not one but two daughters. But when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, and that just so happens to be Alicia’s favorite drink.

2015 we also met Andreas, sitting on the couch with his roommate third wheel and a lady friend by the name of Isabelle.


In 2025 he still likes to hang out on his couch, with Isa and their two children.

Sims from left to right: Tore, Isabelle, Andreas, Eira (Family: Hedlund & Nilsson)

Alicia is not the only Evergreenian to suffer a birth control failure, in fact it's a full on epidemic of ridiculous proportions. While still in college, Isabelle had one in her fling with Andreas. Even though their relationship wasn’t exactly official, or all that serious for that matter, Isabelle did not want to have an abortion so they decided to make the best of it and see where it would take them. The pregnancy was rough, Isabelle got hyperemesis gravidarum and nearly died, resulting in an early delivery for her sake. It was all worth it though because in the end they got Tore whom they absolutely adore.

Their relationship did not start under the most romantic of circumstances, but they are happy. They remain a simple boyfriend-girlfriend situation. Others may have lost patience by now with Andreas and his commitment issues, but not Isabelle. She knows he loves her, and that's enough. Baby Eira recently joined their family after yet another BC failure that they chose to embrace, thankfully with a far less dramatic pregnancy this time.

In the rebuild thread I also showed the orphanage, and I spoke of the stories awaiting them.



I post about that particular arc in my hood thread, and I won't spoil things as I'd rather tell it in full. But…


And to wrap things up, just like 10 years ago I would like to introduce you to some of the sims that have relocated here in the time since that post.

Meet Selene Stark, a talented chemist and the founder of a small pharmaceutical company.


Truth be told, the most standout element of Evergreen in the last 10 years has been the absolute onslaught of unplanned pregnancies in women that used contraception to seemingly no effect. 50% of births are of this kind, and the only reason it’s not higher is because Sally Mae has never seen birth control in her life and she had 7 kids. Selene heard tell of this region and their little problem, and her inner romance sim is offended on behalf of all the people denied the joys of safe woohoo. She knew she had to relocate her company to launch her product here. Everyone has a fundamental right to reliable birth control, and Selene is determined to be the one to provide it to the women of Aurora Shores.

Though births are not the only thing increasing the population of Evergreen! Elna and Max despite being childless (?) have actually raised the population count almost as much as their siblings combined! Six of their townie friends have become interesting enough to graduate from towniedom to full playables.

Sten the actor built his dream home by the river. He loves to cook, and he loves to party, so to celebrate being a home owner he threw a little get-together for his friends that are also newcomers on the housing market of Evergreen.

Sims from left to right: Sten Södergren, Ellie Wilman, Ashley Hudson, Ville Hjort, Pernilla Löfgren, Benny Edelman

Inviting both Ellie and Pernilla may not have been the best choice, all things considered. Is it too much to ask that they just enjoy a nice sunny afternoon together? Yes, yes it is, at least according to Ellie. They may all have friends in common but that does not make them friends in turn. This blonde piece of work hurt Ellie's best friend, and she's not going to let that go, no matter who asks her to. Sten's pork skewers had better be damn good to make this particular party a success!

I really cannot put into to words how much I love this hood of mine, and my pixel people in it. It has given me endless hours of joy, of escapism, of creative outlet and satisfaction. I love this game, but truly, I love it because of the sims who make it special to me. The only reason I am still here 15 years after it first began, is that they keep me wanting to come back. I will play it for as long as it will let me, and you best believe I’ll do everything humanly possible to ensure that I still can!

And if you’ve ever enjoyed any creation I have made, you have my sims to thank for most of them. They are what inspires me to learn new skills and make things that I feel they need. Here’s just a short list of creations, and what Sims inspired them!
Elna & Max - Updated Inge table and counter controller, Backrubs give comfort
Selene & Sten combined - Optional autonomy
Isabelle & Maja Nilsson combined - Pet treats require purchase
Maja Sernman & Karl Sernman combined - Teens and pregnant don't drink
Sten - Smooth talk gifts rose
Ellie - Trellisor flower arch de-wedding-ified
Joel, Emma & Karl - No spoon when sharing bed
Alicia - Starving artist tip jar default
Moa - Painting autonomy changes, Jogging motive changes

Finally, I would like to thank all of the wonderful people who have inspired me over the years. MTS has been such a big part of helping develop the playstyle I have, and the storytelling element of my game-play. I cannot possibly name everyone, but I would like to give a special thank you to @Charmful , a very dear friend who inspired me long before I even really knew it was her doing it. Kashmire has had a really big impact on me and on Evergreen, especially in the last year and a half, and it really would not be the same without her. I would also like to thank @Peni_Griffin, for all those times she’s written very passionate posts about listening to your sims and embracing the chaos. Lots of people and posts have impacted me over the years, but hers are ones I remember well as being the stepping stone to being more open minded as a player.

If you made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read through my long celebration of love for this game, for this hood, for this shared hobby we all have. See you in another 10 years!

Your update pictures turned out sooooo well! My favorite is Selene's, its such a great intro picture and setting to support her backstory/arrival to Evergreen, which truly needs to get its birth control issue under real control. More like Birth conTROLL, as it's trolling those taking it with accidental pregnancies left and right.

I love how Ellie and Pernilla look lik ethey are arguing and Ville is caught in the middle just trying to have a nice time. And Benny, is he brooding??

Custom hoods sure are special, and the fact that you were willing to not only recreate everything after it corrupted but even play out so many years' worth of progress to have accurate memories is a testament to just how special this hood is to you! I also love that your playing inspires quality of life mods that tweak behaviors that you would like to play and or see and thank you especially for sharing those with the community too as many people also agree thats how they want those behaviors to be in their games.

I also am interested in seeing how Sigrid grows up and if she can wrestle some spotlight her way.

I'm glad Kashmire has inspired you, because I've gotten so much inspiration back from Evergreen in turn. You can really take off interpreting wants/gameplay actions into coherent and compelling narratives for your stories like a sculptor with clay!

Ahh, beautiful sims and neighbourhood(s)! Back in 2012 I was mostly busy building hoods for Sims 3, but I too resurrected an old Sims 2 hood by rebuilding it (I had Mootilda's help, too!). How wonderful that you are still enjoying these characters; gorgeous pictures, I enjoyed reading!

5 cats and one dog. I think they outnumber the humans in that family. XD Are the cats related? I love the cat showing that there's always one family member who'll be caught licking their ass when the camera goes off.

I remember reading stories about this hood! Sally-Mae and her asshole husband, who kept getting her pregnant. And Sally-Mae's friend from the orphanage, whose name I cannot remember, but his wife was keeping their kid away from him (and might have burned down their house?). And the teenager who had to raise her alien baby in a cottage in the woods. I remember Daniel and how mad he was about the divorce, too.

I think she's my favorite picture too! I look forward to her finally ridding me of constant unplanned pregnancies left and right, with her superior product (that I still need to code )



They are indeed arguing, and Ville doesn't know what to do because he can't tell them to stop arguing, but he doesn't want them to be upset and can't they all just have a nice time? And Benny is certainly brooding, trying to resist being all gentlemanly and defending Ellie. She can fight her own battles, she wouldn't appreciate him butting in even if he feels the urge to. Then again he thinks Max made his own bed in that situation, so he's not quite in agreement Pernilla deserves the lecture she's getting. This whole caring about someone is so much trouble, suddenly putting him in situations where he's not sure how to act.







I miss Mootilda! She was such a cool person and simmer, and I feel very grateful she was there to guide me when this all happened. I was definitely a bit of a baby about losing my sims, but thanks to Mootilda and others here on MTS I found the way forward and I got them back :3



Yep, they are related! Eeyore is Emma's cat, he's the grey tabby that's very concerned about Emma attempting this stunt and is trying to help her stay upright. The stray Karl found is Stina, she's used to the streets and decided now was a perfectly valid time to groom herself. Stina and Eeyore got along well and oops there were four kittens. One they gave to a cousin as a birthday gift, the other three are still here causing chaos. Emma truly adores cats and has a hard time trying to give them away, and Joel is too fond of her to protest even if it is a bit much. And Karl loves all animals and chaos so he's not going to suggest giving any away either. Sigrid would say get rid of the lot of them but she mostly writes those thoughts in her diary, she doesn't say them out loud.



I am impressed by your memory! A lot more has happened in my game than I have yet posted in the thread, and I intend to update with all that eventually, I would just like the gameplay to resolve first, and I'd like to make a backlog of posts so I can actually be consistent as I finish it. In a way they are the product of the rebuild, because they were the households and stories that I came up with during the rebuild when I needed a break from it all, and as such they prove Evergreen now is more than it was back then :3