Redecorating

Hello folks! I hope you had a great day yesterday celebrating whatever winter holiday you celebrate. I did a looooooot of work hosting Christmas at my home and making the dinner mostly alone for the first time. I was on my feet all Christmas Eve night and half Christmas day, and my back and my feet certainly do not appreciate what I have done! But, when I finally finished my last dish, sat down, ate, and listened to everyone else enjoy my creations, it was all worth it 🙂

Anywho…the Pruetts have done a little redecorating! I actually did this a few weeks ago as you can probably tell from the most recent chapters. So, a few readers–who shall remain nameless–are excellent visionaries when it comes down to building, landscaping, and decorating. They make me insanely jealous (in a good way) because my brain just doesn’t go that way. Anyway, so the Pruetts have a LOT of money right now. Those flowers from space are INSANELY valuable! No one really needs a job. Anyway, so I wanted to spend some of it improving the house, but, they have all the bedrooms they need, I don’t think they need anymore bathrooms, and I can’t think of any other rooms they would need because they already have a gym, art studio, music hall, den, office, playroom, game room, and balconies. What to do, what to do! I like the house how it is, but I was thinking of making it look a little more modern, but how would I do that with the current design without starting from scratch? I was going to do that, but I chickened out. So, I settled on redecorating a few things that were bothering me.

The main thing about generation 6, as it relates to the house, is that the house is full of young, vibrant Sims. I want the house to reflect that. True, the house is an inheritance, and it is quite natural for the house to look dated and never change. But, the house, does change over time, and I want to stay current with it. Back in Ava’s day, when she married Avery, he had the Mansion Barren lifetime goal. So, to appease him, I had to increase the value of the home. I think that’s how the house got that dated look. I was using the most expensive wall treatments, flooring, furniture, etc., and all that stuff looks so Victorian to me. Well, now that Avery is gone, and no one has had that lifetime wish since, it’s time to bring the Pruett estate into the 21st century as well as make the bills a bit more palatable–not that they having any problems paying them or anything. I was surprised that this renovation and a few other smaller things I did a while ago reduced the value of the house by like 20k!

There were three immediate issues I wanted to address: the kitchen, the dining, an the exterior.

Kitchen

If you have an eye for detail, or you’re familiar with what I’m doing to edit the pictures Photoshop, you’ve probably noticed that I always struggle with keeping the kitchen scenes consistent. That yellow wall almost always throws off the color balance making the pictures look weird–to me at least. Usually, what I do is find the the right look, and then use that  same exact set of adjustment for every like picture. But when it comes to the kitchen, I never edit the pictures the same way twice! It’s unnerving, not to mention that wall is just plain ugly. So, to make things easier for myself, and to pretty the place up, I redecorated the kitchen!

You’ve seen this already, but you’ll noticed I changed the cabinets and made everything else black and white. At first I wanted  a white kitchen with subtle color accents, but every item in this room that came in white was a different shade of white! It looked hideous. So, I went with mostly white with darker accents based on a kitchen I saw in real life. I was happy with it one day, and the next day I hated it. I thought white cabinets were hideous, so I went with the black and white theme.

That painting isn’t exactly what I really wanted back there, but that wall is soo huge and empty, and I always end up taking pictures in front of it. I needed a large pic that looked modern, so I went with that one.

dining room

The dining room has always screamed for help–even long ago in like generation two or three. First of all, it’s like a dungeon because there was no window in it. Second of all, it looked very dated, and if I were Lance, Allen, Cadence, or Melody, I wouldn’t want to have a party in there. So, I fixed it! First things first, I added a window!

I try to minimize the amount of personal “Easter eggs” because I like for everything you read and see to be a reflection of the characters, and not me–your author. However, this is not one of those times. I’m NOT an interior designer, although I wish I were. Coming up with a completely new design for this room was tough, and so I had to pull the inspiration from my own real life ideas. I am so in love with the gray, yellow, white color scheme. When I get around to decorating my guest bedroom, that’s what it’s going to be. It’s very fresh and can be done in numerous ways. So, that’s what I was going for here. Of course, TS4 doesn’t have too many yellow options for anything, so it was a little frustrating to do, but…voila! Here are a few different angles to show the other artwork. I suppose the theme for this room would have to be fresh and modern.

Exterior

When I first choose the colors and textures for outside, I was basing it off a house that I had driven past that recently got a face lift. It was an older house–probably from the 70s–but the reno COMPLETELY changed the look to something current. They didn’t do a whole lot to the outside. They just painted it a different color and used a lot of stone accents around the doors, windows and roof. That’s what I was going for, but it just didn’t work out that way. I fixed that problem a few weeks ago, but I still didn’t like right. Long story short, I was messing around in build mode and saw some things I had never seen before. Voila!

It still looks like a house in the suburbs, but it looks like a really nice house in the suburbs. I also changed a few roofs and made them all the same type.

interior

I don’t have many shots in hallways, but I haven’t taken a hallway shot that I’ve actually liked yet. In all my renovations, I have yet to get the “right” look. I still don’t have it, but it’s much closer than any other. Basically, I changed the wallpaper to make it look more fresh and current. Most houses today have neutral colored walls and white trim, so that’s what I wanted to do. I’m not 100% sold on the floor, but at least it matches the floor in the den…for now 🙂 I think I’ll update those stairs next. They have never been changed.

suggestions

If you ever have any suggestions for me, I’ll gladly take them! I’m always looking for ways to improve this house. I’m still thinking about building a new house from scratch…but not today 🙂