Sorry to bombard you guys with updates! I've been gone a while

So while I was under the influence of Vicodin, I tried working, and just failed miserably...much to my annoyance I had to waste almost a week's worth of time. And the best way to do that, as it turned out, was to play the sims 3, which Nick kindly bought for me a few weeks ago.

I started getting pretty bored with the game, however, so I began to build houses. At first the urge was to make the best house possible, my "dream home", but that was boring. There were too many super-perfect mansions already. Then I challenged myself to build a starter home (under 16k) that still looked nice and had plenty of space. I did that. But I wanted something more unique. Something almost violently off-putting.

I started building what I called "the thrift store house" on the third day of my recovery. I was explaining to a friend the appeal of owning something with history and personality as opposed to something new and shiny and perfect. My home is cluttered with a lot of secondhand stuff that I've accumulated over the years, and I dream of fully decking it out with lots of bright clashing colors. So this was the result of that inspiration...a house that practically bleeds kitsch and has no regard whatsoever for matching, reasonable decorating standards or perfection.

I ended up calling it "Thrift Story" (har har). It's a multilevel house that I built with randomness in mind, and it's actually fully functional even though I used a few moving cheats to get certain objects into position. I've been testing it out with a family of roommates. So far it just seems to annoy them, but I kind of love it.

Screenshot time!



Here's a long shot of the whole house. It doesn't look great from a distance, that's for sure. There's a "main" house with two stories (one is a loft), a middle house with a low-to-the-ground breakfast room/greenhouse and a rooftop garden, and a yellow hexagonal brick tower with three levels.



Rooftop dining, complete with flowerbeds, potted plants, and some groovy music. Note the mismatched chairs...I had fun with those.



One of the queen-sized bedrooms. I put a fancy orange chandelier in there...it provides a ton of light! There's also a giant glass pane window to the right there.



Here you can see the wall decoration (classy) and the alternating striped and red walls, as well as the recockulously big window.



Here's the breakfast area. It's a step down from the main house, which is on a foundation; there are short staircases leading to and from this lowered room, which is lined with more flowerbeds. I thought that was kind of neat.



The opposite side of the breakfast area, with a bar and some kickass windows.



Here's one part of the exterior. Two grills (I always see lots of those little grills at thrift stores), a weird park bench, lots of flowers. There's a tree there but my camera faded it out when I zoomed in.



The lunch table and the random couch on the front lawn really add to the classy atmosphere, I think. (argh, I just realized I forgot to fix the mailbox. It's striped yellow and blue and facing the right direction now.)



Shot of the back porch, exercise machines and the awesome (default!) red columns. That's the kid's bedroom hanging precariously over the incredibly gaudy olive-colored porch. I really wish you could repaint the fencing, because I could have made that brown wood SPECIAL.



Here's my favorite bathroom. I downloaded some really nifty newspaper, wood and rainbow patterns, and they really came in handy here. I love the baby's mobile hanging from the ceiling, I totally have to do that in my own bathroom. There's also a random cabinet and countertop with a coffee machine in the nook between the bedroom and bathroom; I wasn't sure about what to do with that space, so I thought, hey, doesn't everybody love coffee?...



Here's the work area on the second floor, near the bedroom with the big window. It's in the circular tower above the other master bedroom.



On the other side of the (painfully boring) staircase, we find a cheapo bookcase, a corkboard and a potted plant.



This is the kid's room! It's equipped for a baby right now...but my sims don't have any spawn yet. I particularly like how the crib fits right into that little nook. Later on, it's perfect for a school desk or bookcase.



Kitchen! It's got a cheap fridge and an expensive stove...I really didn't pay much attention to expense here. Thrift stores have a mixed bag when it comes to quality.



Another study area, tucked between another bathroom and a double bedroom.



I had a really hard time getting good screenshots of this room, for some reason, so I took one through the (glaringly green) window. Inside there are two beds with thrift store sheets (one's got lime camo pattern with toille sheets, and one has an orange slice pattern with checker sheets), a wallpapered dresser, a cute end table with antique clock, and a big old crate of flowers.



Another queen bedroom in the tower. I like the cowboy curtains on the otherwise fancy-pants bed.



Um...really unflattering shot of the loft bridge. I wish I had gotten a better shot of this. Oddly enough that child's oven looks unusually bright, even given the overall bright clashiness of the rest of the house. The loft bridge doesn't really serve a purpose except to lead onto the 2nd story wraparound porch; it could pretty easily be converted into another set of rooms, but I like being able to see down into the kitchen when I'm upstairs.



Main room living area, next to the kitchen and double bedroom. I love that wild west door. I figured every TV needs a Mr. Gnome.



Exterior shot of the wraparound porches. One of my sims started an ill-fated painting here. It'll probably never be finished, as she has commitment issues.

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So....this is how I wasted time this week. This is probably the most eye-bleedingly horrifying house ever created, and I am very proud of it. I hope to make a shed and/or silo to go in the backyard, and to decorate the living hell out of that garden. It's back to work on commissions tomorrow, but I had fun while I was recooperating, so that's not all bad!

By the way, "cosoa" is another username of mine..