Insimenator.org

I just spent the past four days on a house for one of my families. It's not quite finished (but then, they're never quite finished, are they), but done enough for them to live in.

I was looking at it last night and thinking, "Wow...four days to build", and it got me wondering if this was normal or if I was just a freak, as I am in most other things.

I spend anywhere from 30 mins to an 1 1/2 hours. It really depends on the style I am going for & if I add anything or am leaving it empty to upload.

LOL...the least amount of time I've ever spent on a house was something like five hours. It was one of my "just toss it together" places.

On average, I spend around 2 or 3 days on a single house. Sometimes as a little as a day, if I'm working on a starter.

There was one time though I spent about two weeks on one, and ended up junking it afterwards. Hah.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one.



*nods* I've done that too.

I usually spend about 3-4 hours...building, decorating etc...and then I'm never happy with the results, cause I start thinking to myself it could always be bigger or I need more room...the next thing you know...I'm hitting the un-do button....back to the drawing board:grin:

During the week I only get to play about an hour at a time per day, so sometimes it will take me a week to build a house! :lol: But I've been known to spend a weekend building a house. I stop once every hour or two and make my boyfriend marvel and the newly completed rooms... ahh, ... yeah you're not the only one. And no, the houses are never finished! Gameplay changes a lot of things (>_<) !

I never make houses.

But depending on the size it takes me 15-30mins to decorate minimum

Depends on my mood, Sometimes minutes other times I can be on it for a good half hour, dont think ive ever been longer than that .. I dont think, and it depends on if i got new stuff or not to use.

It's not uncommon for me to put up a "house" in 2 minutes or less.  2x3 room for the bathroom and let them live outside until I know what I want.  :grin:

When I actually build a house though, it will take a couple hours just for foundation, walls and some rough rooms.  I usually don't bother to decorate it until after I've played a bit to see if the house is usable and what the wants are of the inhabitants.  I tend to start small, and keep it expandable up and out.

I once spent a good couple of hours on a house, with breaks in between hehe. Its the only house I have ever made. I loved it in the end, it looked great :)
I tend to get bored decorating, I find myself just putting anything in so I can get it done hehe.

wow im surprised that so many people take a long time to build houses. mine usually takes an hour and a half if im trying to make it nice. i dont spend much time on the building probabley because actually playing is my favorite part! :P

Here's the four day house. I'm still not completely happy with it. lol. I'm such a nitpicker.

(http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g54/caffeinatedjoy/Miscellaneous/Houses/Thefourdayhouse.jpg)

Gorgeous house Joy!  Just remember, you're a woman.  It's your job to be a nitpicker :grin:

Mostly when I start a new house, I build the base idea of the house.
Then I move a family in and while playing with that family I get more idea's.
Then I build those idea's and have the sims test them.

For me building a house up while playing it with a family, makes it more fun.
And this way I can also test the house with the sims in it.
Objects that can't be reached by a sims can then be replaced or removed.

Needless to say, my sims like the free money they get while I build lol.

Building the house and foundations takes me two hours tops.

But when it comes to the interior I am so fussy and picky.

Going through my too big dls trying to get the perfect lamp that harmonizes with the wallpaper but doesn't clash with the floor or overpower the endtable that its on.

And only a few rooms am I usually satisfied with :angry7:

Thanks, ancient!

I must be doing a good job of nitpicking then. I've also been told I'm a good nag, and a make a good mom (even though I have no kids) :laugh:





It's gotta be a girl thing! :sign5:

I too spend a lot of time building, 3-4 days is not unusual for me. I have to get everything just so. Each room has to be co-ordinated. Pictures have to be hung, rugs picked out. No detail is too small to overlook. Each room has a specific purpose too, music room, study,games room, play room, and they all have to co-ordinate as well.
My most fustrating part-I always forget to put a fireplace in, and then I have to start all over!

It will take me hours to complete a house.  Then I play it, and make changes as I play.

caffeinated.joy what a beautiful house, i spend anything up to two days on building a house

beautiful house caffeinated joy, im a lazy bulider, i pretty much dont build. i could spend hours making a sim look just right, and then throw her or him in a maxis or downloaded house.

I start with this really great idea for a house .I map out what i want it to look like and start building, my problem is i get tired of building after a while and want to play with the new house.So then i throw the rest of it together and just make adjustments ever so often as i am playing.If i didn't get so impatient I would spend more time.I think the most it has ever taken me was a day, but my houses aren't as elaberate as other's.

Lol-you're all insane! :D I don't build house's, because I can't! I'm so bad-I just download everybody else's then I add bits when my sims have the money (I don't use money cheats, ever)

As long as you keep coming up with those great clothes you make, I'm sure many of us will gladly share our houses with you.

Yep, 'insane' is my middle name. Caffeinated Insane Joy. :D

But you wear it so well Joy :grin:

I spent a week on a house while I was out on sick leave, and it's still not done. Admittedly I'm completely compulsive about decorating and landscaping and a lot of that time was spent searching the 'net for items I needed. :/

As you know it takes me weeks to finish a house. The mansion for my contest took me five weeks, and I had to force myself to finish.
 
I can't count how many times I have trashed the Ishkibibble house. And am about to do it again. LOL
 
Edit:  is that the James' house????  Oooo .... Twyla better have herself a maid! :laugh:

Honestly, I spend less time on building a house and hours decorating the interior more. How ironic of my name...

Yes, that's the James house, edition five now! lmao!

I am too lazy to build my own, though I should really. I usually download premade ones. I suck. :crybaby:

Ha! I suck at house building so I usually d/l them or stick my families in a pre-made house.

That's pretty much all I do is build house's... i love to build and decorate

Wow joy, that house really is lovely :).  Personally, if it were up to me, they'd be living outside, because I hate building houses.  Usually I'll make one mansion type house (about 1 -2 hours), one nice house (45 minutes - 1 hour), one okay house (20 - 30 minutes), one crap shack (about 20 minutes), and whatever community lot I plan on using.  I furnish the houses, then put them in the lots and houses bin, so they're saved and I never have to build another one lol.  Unless it's a really special family, I don't go out of my way to build them a nice, unique house.

Thanks, Iris! I'm the complete opposite. I've never used one of the premade Maxis houses, and I've only got two houses in my neighborhood that were built by someone else. I've got neighborhoods chock full of houses, and each one is unique. I can happily spend forever building a sim, and forever building them the perfect house.

This took me about a week and a half. Have been working for longer on another one now, but i don't have as much time as i did before. And with the sheer amount of time it takes for the game to load, most of the time i just go play something else entirely :s

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v412/Veon/fiveshadesofawesome.jpg)

There are a lot of details not viewable from this angle and distance, but i'm not at home and it's the only pic i have of it online

Oooh, nice Shander!

I wouldn't mind seeing more house pics from people, if you'd care to share them here!

I take forever to build houses. It's not even like they're big houses or anything, I just like for them to be just right.

Shander....I can honestly say that I would love to be one of your sims.  Great job!



I just don't have the attention span joy lol.  I think it's because Maxis gave you tons of walls and floors, and none of them ever match!  Plus, I put too much stock into the family's plot line, and not the house in itself, but seriously, I'd love to be one of your or Shander's sims.  I bow to you great house creators ;) :).

My houses take a good 5 minutes, inside and out. I build them for playability, not looks. Gorgeous houses, in my opinion, simply don't play well. Sims are too dumb to live in houses that nice. So, my sims get the square box treatment, and I never have to watch them throw a fit because someone else is on their stairs.

This was a perfect topic for me to happen upon because I recently changed my time spent on houses. I got the Sims2 shortly after it came out but I always used the lots and houses bin, or had friends make them for me. If ever I tried to make a house for myself, I usually built it badly, messed it up so it never looked nice asthetically. I experimented with making basements etc. but after that I built for playability. I never decorated. I never used curtains or rugs and they only got that cheapest square mirror when they needed charisma points. I built one story houses because that was what was easiest to raise a child in so that the toddler was never stuck upstairs etc.

When my friends would send me their houses to use they were always full of couchs and such I never knew the Sims even had.

Well, I like to write fanfics. And in a fanfic I wrote I had to envision a mansion. And after writing the story for about a year I decided to try and build the mansion on Sims. It's pretty square, it took me 10 hours spread over 4 days to build and was the first time I spent longer than 20 minutes building a house. I downloaded custom content to make it look exactly the way I pictured it in my head. I used curtains, rugs, fish tanks, sofas I'd never used before, I built a full kitchen with the dining room as an actual separate room. And I had so much fun. I loved it.

I couldn't believe building could be so much fun. I always thought I wanted to play and that building WASN'T playing, and now I'm really happy to have finally after years discovering this aspect of The Sims 2. Now, I totally want to build cool places for my people to live.

After the mansion/estate, I built a loft house and it only took me a couple hours over 2 days. Thus the mansion was a great crash course because I was like, oh I'm done :lol: and felt like it hadn't taken any time at all.

I do have to say even though I may try harder to make my houses pretty, I will try to keep them small. When I got done making the mansion which I had built on the HUGE lot. It was actually too many walls for me to actually play without horrible lag so I had to play it with walls down. Plus it takes Sims forever to walk from Point A to Point B. And they always pick the toilet with the bathroom that's furthest away when their bladder need is extremely low. I agree with Shadeaustar. Sims are a bit dumb and if they have a large house with lots in it, they don't function well.

I usually get very carried away and take a week or so for a large lot (villa and extensive gardens, landscape etc) Then go back and spend another three or four nights for finishing touches.

I never worry about neighbourhood screens as they lag me too much because of extensive foliage etc

I only build houses when I need a specific type house for a specific family-otherwise they go into a downloaded one. Of course this doesn't mean I don't decorate, but I don't go overboard on that, either. My simmies don't need all that stuff, anyway, and they wouldn't appreciate the extra work I would put into a house. They'd whine about something!
I'm a player, not a builder, and they would be the first to agree with me!

If I'm just playing a house for the hell of it, I take around an hour or so to make a half-decent house w/o major landscaping.


However, when it comes to story sets, that time might become at least 5 or so hours a set, depending on the complexity of the set and any hacks I need to make the set work right.

Yay! I'm happy to see this thread come back from the dead! See? I knew I wasn't the only insane homebuilder. I've reached a personal best lol. The last house I built took me three weeks of work; anywhere between three and five hours a day.

I have spent around 1 week so far on a new house i am making for my newly-wed couple to move into and start a family it is all kitted out and has every top of the noch thing you could buy.

I always spend at least 1hour or 2on a room to make it look nice. It might sound weird but its what you have done at the end of the day.

.X.  :D

Wowie. It usually takes me about 20 minutes to throw together a small nice house and furnish it. If I want a big house, it takes around 45 minutes. Wow, I'm fast. Lol. But sometimes I'm lazy and build some then leave and come back and work on it later on.

I just build a pretty big two story house and it took me 50 minutes, longer than I thought. IT took me so long because I kept screwing up on the building the walls part and I couldn't find the wallpaper I wanted.

I'll post pictures soon. It's a colorful house, but a few rooms are the same color.

Walk-in Hallway is Orange.
Living Room is blue.
Kitchen is Pink. (It's like pink and grey . It's awesome!)
Play room is Orange also.
Bathroom is Purple.
The daughter's room is Pink.
Extra Room for Boys is Blue. (I'm in gen. 3 and still no boys born.)
Upstairs hallway is Orange.
Grandparent's Bedroom is Green and wood colored.
Current Parents room is Baby Blue.

If I am building for a Sim I like, it usually takes me 2-3 days. Of course I can always move them to house previously modelled for someone else, but then it is not going to be unique, is it. Furnishing is not that hard, the hardest part is to build having in mind how their lives are going to evolve and taking into consideration the kids to be born and all.

The last house I built was for a bishonen couple with 3 kids. The idea was to build an enclosed (sort of) garden whereas the rest of the house would be extended around it. Well, the house ended up quite big for my taste and not very impressive, and the garden is relaxing but kinda small. It took me 3 days to finish it off and move the family in, but there is no other house like that in the whole neighbourhood. Quite satisfied with the results but I think I could had done better.

I despise building houses. I have zero creativity when it comes to them. If I don't chuck my Sims in a premade house that I downloaded or one from Maxis, then I spend about 10 minutes throwing together a crappy house for them. But after spending two hours on the Sims, I no longer can be arsed to build them a house, too. LOL.

For me it can take from 5 hours or so up to about 50 hours. It just depends on what type of house it is. I usually build them on a foundation with a basement and attached garage so that can take some time. This is just build time. It doesn't include the outside lot decorations or anything like that.

I remember one house that I built with three floors and a basement.
Coming out of the third floor in the back was a balcony with a small pool that had a water slide down into a pool that was in the basement of the house. The pool in the basement had a square island in the middle where the sims could get out of the pool. Then they took an elevator up to the first floor. That one took me forever to finish. It was pretty interesting watching the sims swim up the water slide though.

I've still got that house on an old pc somewhere. If the mood strikes me sometime I'll fire it up and try to post some pictures of it.

For me it's usually a day for a house, a couple of days for the apartments, and up to a week for the bigger projects, like the castle apartment http://www.insimenator.org/index.php/topic,94405.0.html (http://www.insimenator.org/index.php/topic,94405.0.html) and my unfinished new project.  the unfinished really just needs to be set up, the structure is done.  It's huge though and it's hard to get back into a huge project when you've had to set it aside for months.

my current dell laptop (due to graphics) wont let spend no more than 30 mins on a single house. :cool:
so i tend to speedbuild.

I'm just too dang fussy. I can nitpick a house into the wee hours of the morning. LOL.

I wish I had the patience to build a really big cool house that would take weeks to build. But unfortunately I either take a pre-made maxis home and build a few extra rooms or I build a house that looks like a box. If I try to patiently build a cool house it ends up looking really crappy because in the end my patience is gone and I rush it. :p

Okay, gratz for your patience, and I mean it. For the life of me, I could never *ever* start a Castle project, no matter how intriguing the style, the location, the background story, who was going to live there and all. It takes me 2-3 days to build a proper 3x4 or 4x4 house, and still there are times the results do not fully satisfy me.  But to build something that huge...

I'm the same way. Sometimes, if I don't have to work the next day, I find myself behind my computer at four or five in the morning and go: "Wow, is it morning already?"

When it comes to timetable, it depends what kind of house I'm making. Sometimes it takes 2-3 days, sometimes a week or even more if it's a really big project, especially if I have to find specific stuff for the house or make them myself. :)