All in all, I kept to pretty much the Maxis color scheme; I didn't change any outside walls, just changed the stairs and the inside walls upstairs. I built the deck roof and the roof over the front door and spent the rest of my cash on landscaping.

( Let's see some of that landscaping )

Maxis had some interesting starter homes in their neighborhoods, but some of them aren't practical for starting a family. Challenge #4 will be taking the assigned house and redesigning it for a young family.

( The House and the challenge rules )

Starting now you can post your challenge creations as a new post. You must include the challenge number in the subject line (ex. Challenge 1, Beach Starter) and tag it with the appropriate tag for the challenge you are posting. The tag you want will be Challenge ##, where the ## corresponds with the different challenges. The challenges tag will be the one you can use to look up past challenges

How about a new challenge? For Challenge #3, we're going to build community lots, specifically a shop. There maybe other businesses on the lot (like a restaurant or salon), but there needs to be a shop of some sort too. You can do a normal community lot, or for Open For Business players, one that a sim can purchase

Rules:
- There needs to be a minimum of 1 Shop on the lot. There can be other businesses too, but atleast one needs to be a shop.
- Only 2 floors of playable space. Meaning, sims should only be able to access 2 storys, but you my build more levels for the appearance of the structure, so long as the sims can't get to those floors.
- Shops and businesses need to be ready for use. So standard community lots need to be fully furnished and decorated. OFB businesses need to be ready so you only have to stock the shelves and price things.
- The shop must have space for 3 employees. Could be anything from 3 cashiers or a cashier, crafter and sales/restocker. Feel free to write in the employees role if it makes it clearer. For the Non-OFB players, you need items that spawn their own NPCs to operate them (coffee cart, register, bar, etc.)
- Needs atleast one register and counters to place it on, atleast 1 restroom with toilet and sink, and if its an OFB ownable store, it needs 1 open/close sign as well
- No budget, or lot size restriction

Cookies if you play test your lot. Not required for challenge, but you should play test a copy if you intend on sharing it.

Part One: Reading Floor Plan Symbols
( The Symbols )

Tips on Building from Floor Plans
( Our Tips for you )

It's mid month, so time for a new challenge to test your skills. This one will be using a floor plan to make a sim house.

Charming Country Home

This one is pretty simple, no grand knowledge of building tricks or cheats needed. Just foundations and stages (or ability to get stage look if you don't have OFB).

Rules:
- Follow the blueprint as exactly as you can. Personally, I'd suggest leaving off the door at the top of the stairs, attic door and pantry under the stairs, but its up to you.
- No budget constraints, go all out
- Remember, a minimum of move in conditions

If you need help planning, you might like to try the blueprint floor tiles HERE or HERE.

Also, Laurie and I will have our tips on reading and making houses from floorplans soon, but this one is nicely labeled so hopefully you all can figure it out yourselves. If you need help decifering the plan before our tips are ready, just ask.

Some of you might like to share your lots you build via forums, your journal or websites. So we're going to cover some of the basic etiquette rules, since some lot builders don't and that can lead to problems.....and subject of secrets and rants ;)

1. Always list what eps you have installed when you built and packaged the lot. The game saves things differently when each new EP is installed, so if I make a lot and have all EPs, and you don't, you can't use my lot. There is no hack or program to make a lot backward compatible. You should also list which SP you have used content from so people can expect missing things, or decide not to download from.

2. If you use mods like BaseGameStarter, AnyGameStarter, or LotExpander/Adjuster to make or alter a lot, state so. These utilities can cause little quirks of their own. LotExpander/Adjuster can cause problems with lots if not done correctly. BGS and AGS built lots must be installed via CleanInstaller.

3. Use CleanInstaller to clear out useless junk from the lot before sharing. REMOVE ALL HACKS that might get stuck on. If people want the hacks, they will get them themselves. Also, every custom recolor for a given mesh used in a lot gets pulled into the packaged lots. REMOVE UNUSED RECOLORS. If you didn't choose them for the lot, they don't need to be there.

- If you plan to submit a house to a forum, look carefully at the forum rules. MOST require you to adhere to the original creator's rules about redistributing their items. Use cleaninstaller to remove non-distributable items AND make a "shopping list" of the things the lot was made with that downloaders must download themselves. You find this information in Terms, FAQ pages and Readmes. Some forums double check these things but do it wrong because they only bother checking for a terms page and not readmes and don't respond to questions when you need help because they did it wrong.

4. Provide valid credits for items used in the lot that you didn't create. A screenshot list from CleanInstaller IS NOT VALID CREDIT. At the very least, provide a website name, or if its a forum, the username for the creator at the forum. Something useful so you can do a web search if need be. Including the set names the items are in is very helpful, ie bed from ATS's Ethnic Bedroom set. The ideal way is the include linkage, urls to the websites or forum profiles or forum posts where the items are found, along with the item names.

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Useful Links:
AnyGameStarter
BaseGameStarter
Clean Installer
LotAdjuster
ModTheSims2 Lot and House Upload Guidlines

Anyone who tries to build a lot according to budget constraints knows how easy it is to go way over budget. So lets share some some of your tips about how you like to stay on budget when building. And I'm not talking finding cheating priced CC (ie. only using things priced $0-1).

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- Think small. A house filling most of a small sized lot tends to look more appealing then a small house on a larger sized lot. You also spend less on land you can't afford to use, giving you more for building and furnishing.

- When using foundations, outline the area your foundation is supporting instead of filling the entire area in. Use 1 square width for foundations, as if you are making a basement, then fill in the area with flooring so you can place walls. If you are building with a family already on the lot, find or make a $0 floor tile so you don't waste their funds

- Use fences sparingly on small budget houses. I've found that the far easiest way to blow a budget, after using too large a lot, is fencing. Alot of the game fences cost in the $30-50 per section. So while you may think adding three lengths of fencing onto the back of your house to fence in a 5x5 backyard, you are blowing $750 on that fencing alone.

Is there a certain style of house or tool in the sims that you'd like more practice with? Feel free to post a little request here and we will see what we can do to incorporate it into future challenges.