I know exactly what you mean. It's got to the point where I'd rather use furnished houses - with my first, biggest 'hood especially since there's so many sims - than go through all the buying and placing of furniture every time. Except when I'm tuned in enough to a particular sim's traits and what I know their tastes to be, I find it easier to do then - in fact I quite enjoy it

Empty rooms? Well, depends. They're good for keeping career/aspiration rewards in, but in my quest to find the Smith's PD hobbies, I plopped down the sewing machine into that little box room they have downstairs. Think I put an easel or something else in there too. With all the extra hobby related stuff that came with FT, those empty rooms are coming in handy - there's a lot of things you can buy these days where you're in a similar dilemma - "That'd be great to have, but where do I put it?"