Architectural Permits and Fees

I'm always looking for new ways for my simmies to suffer, I mean, live. I've been upset that remodels don't cost anywhere near as much as they do in real life and often sims can get paid when they remodel-what?!?!?!

So I'm introducing a system of permits and fees for remodels done in my hood. The fees will help it to be a bit more realistic and will force some of my families to either work with what they have, save up to make big changes or move.

Combined Terrain, Part 3, Townies

I'm very picky about my game and what goes into it. I used to play on a laptop and I wanted to ensure that I didn't spend hours waiting for the game to boot up. With AV, I create custom townies and use hacks to keep the numbers low.

I plan on having six sims in each of the five social group for a total of 30 adult social townies. They would be equally spilt bewteen male and female as well as skin tones and genetic diversity. I plan on randomly generating thier names, family ties, personality, aspirations and zodiac. Thier career level would be chosen based on thier social group.

•Gearheads
--Low social class
--Careers (level 4 and below

•Bohemians
--Low or middle social class
--Careers (levels 2-5)

•Jocks
--Middle social class
--Careers (level 4-6)

•Techs
--Middle or high social class
--Careers (level 5-7)

•Socialities
-High social class
-Careers (level 7 and above)

This pool of social townies would be the main pool that my sims find thier mates once the family ties become too intermingled.

In addition to the 30 townies, I plan on having eight teen townies and eight children townies, again equally spilt and diverse, and a countessa or count.

When creating each townie I plan on giving them a bit of a backstory as well as relationships bewteen the townies (ie sibling groups, single parents, family groups, etc). I will also create six vacation townies for each vacation subhood (a total of four subhoods, one for each season which means 24 vacation sims) and six young adult townies to populate the college campus.

In all there will be 76 nonplayables for my sims to interact with and possibly find mates. In terms of the FSBS sims that frequently visit Apple Valley, they will be made into tourists. Accessable when needed, otherwise out of sight.

Combined Terrain, Part 2, Hood Decor

Once the buildings are created, I then start adding hood decor. This is what makes the hood come alive. In this view you can see the lighthouse, old pond and rocky cliffs. You can also see the farm fields and vast amounts of green space.

You can start to see Apple County come to life with it's urban center and rural area. The aerial view allows you to see to the far edges of the hood, such as Lady Starr, the waterfall and the trail along the coast. Let's have a closer look.

The Apple Dumpling Children's Park. The addition of the carasoul near the trail emphasized that this it the kid zone.

Here is the Simonian statue flanked by the visitors center and Alisa Crawston Park. The statue and courtyard are hood deco, so no up close and personal visits just yet. The information sign and entrance to the wooded area are also deco...I wish my sims could go back there.

We're now entering Apple Plains. The community garden is completed and ready for volunteers to come and plant the new seeds. Rural farm deco emphasize the small town feel.

A quick trip to Apple Valley Metro, or "The Metro" as residents call it. Some parts of the metro are not a sight for sore eyes, instead some residents wish that these areas could simply disappear. Maybe in the future they will, but right now Fiona has her hands full with other projects.

Here's a nicer area of the city, at least the recycling bins are clean and there's even a bus stop for those late night taxi cab rides for when the walk is too long. There are no cars allowed in Apple County, except for taxis, social services vans and emergency vehicles. Residents walk to their destination which allows for some creative city planning.

A view of Pierce University. The campus is pretty much self contained on one lot, but the students enjoy a view of the coast and Lady Starr.

On the other side of the island sits Li Yoo's baby. She hasn't revealed much about her plans for the bay, but residents are excited to see what she has in store.

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How do you make your hood? Do you try to have the hood complete before moving sims in or do you allow the hood to grwo over time with your sims?

Combined Terrain, Part 1, Building

Here's a peek at the progress so far for Apple County-the combined terrain for Apple Valley, Apple Plains, Apple Valley Metro and Pierce University. I want to show you a step-by-step overview of the progress of building the new combined terrain.

Recall the plan for combined terrain, above. I always start with a plan, no matter how loose, there is a plan. I tend to build using the principles of new urbanism so taller buildings are restricted to a certain area of the hood, the hood is laid out in a pedestrain friendly manner.

To help me create the necessary lots I keep a list, taken from the Isle of Thyme tutorial linked on my main website, and check off as I create that lot (current according to snapshot in time #1):

• Bookstore/Coffeehouse/Bakery = CupaJava, done
  


• Baby/Toy Store = Toy Shoppe



• City Hall/Newspaper Office = S.Grey Administration Bldg, done



• Clothes Store/Salon/Jewelry=39th Ave, done



• Clothes, Bridal=TBD



• Farmer's Market = Grey Farms, done



• Gentlemen's Club = not sure if I will put this in the hood again.



• Gym = 39th Ave, done



• Nightclub = 39th Ave, done



• Park/Playground = I have several of these in my hood, 39th Ave/School/Jonagold Lane/TBD



• Performance Hall/Music Venue = TBD



• Pool Hall/Bowling Alley = TBD



• Pub/Restaurant = Several, 39th Ave; Apple Square;



• Art Gallery/Photo Studio = Herendez Art Gallery



• Church and Cemetary= Memorial Church



• Medical Center=39th Ave, done



• Firehouse = TBD



• Jail/Police Station = TBD



• School = done



• Hotel = 39th Ave, done



• The Brothel/House of Ill Repute = TBD



• University Campus=Pierce University Campus, done



• Beach lot = TBD

Residential Lots

• Dawson home = done



• Humphrey home=done



• Humphrey, Faith home=Metropolis Apts, done



• Grey home = done



• Wilsonoff home=Jondgold Lane, done



• Herendez home=Jonagold Lane, done



• Kent home=Jonagold Lane, done



• Warwick Home=Jonagold Lane, done



• McMillian home=Metro Townhomes



• Sweeny home=Metro Townhomes



• Yoo home=Metro Lofts, done



• Shazad home=Daniels Townhomes

Snapshot in Time #1

Behold, the work in progress, snapshot in time #1. Pierce University has been moved to be closer to the Metro (the beige buildings near the rocks) otherwise the plans have stayed the same as the original plan. A few pieces of essential hood decor have been added such as the train tracks, Lady Bella and some rocks blocking the view of the train tracks from the Metro-they intefer with the whole urban vibe.

I tend to custom build most of my lots so that I have have the crowded city like vibe needed. Most pre-built lots don't give me the same ambience when placed around in my hood, unless I use the same builder, which I don't.

For example the Apple Valley section above is actually only five lots. The school (dark brown building) is a 3x2 lot, next to a pre-built, but highly altered 2x2 shopping lot (which I'm not happy with the height towering over the rest of the buildings, so it may face the chopping block soon), in the middle is a 3x5 lot with a "street" going through it and four homes and private spa/playground/pool in my 'apartment style, but not apartments' gated community style. On the other side is a 3x2 custom lot for formal events, outdoor dining and basic shopping, next to another pre-built, but highly altered 2x2 lot which contains the admistration offices.

Snapshot in Time #2

I borrowed quite a few of the lots from the other Apple Valley neighborhood. Why reinvent the wheel when I have handcrafted some lots that I truly love, playtested and am happy with. As a result, I deleted some of the prebuilt metro lots and rearranged the Metro. The way it looks now, Pierce University has the land reserved near the rocks for future expansions while the Metro then spills over the to the rest of the upper island. The lofts are towering over other buildings in the Metro and it looks so lonely without any buildings around it, so I plan on adding some taller (4+ levels) buildings near it or simply adding some neighborhood urban building decor.

Apple Valley has expanded a bit beyond it's quadrant with the addition of some parks, sim-owned businesses, church and additional housing. I added more neighborhood decor in the form of lighthouses, waterfalls and rural decor in Apple Plains.

You might notice that there are some empty lots. They are reserved for certain functions, but until I can come up with a plan, they will sit empty.

Combined Terrain Found

Finally found a combined terrain that's larger than my current terrains, but not huge. Aptly named "The Island" it's from ClicknPyscho at MTS.

I plan on have the quadrant become Apple Valley Metro, bordered by Apple Valley, Apple Plains, Pierce University (which could be moved to border AVM instead of AV) and then I made some beach frontage areas so there can be some beaches for the hood.
I've started building some of the core buildings and progress is going slowly. After building all the buildings and adding neighborhood decor, I will do a clean sweep on the character files and start creating townies and dormies.

Combined Terrain Sooner?

One of my favorite couples has experienced the jump bug. Yikes! I created clones and moved them into the hood and successfully killed off one sim, but the other one is walking around as an elder townie. The sims in the hood still have lots of memories with the original couple and I can detect that things will start getting glitchy as evidenced by the static thought bubbles and occasional strange occurances.

As a result, I fear that I may need to move to a combined terrain sooner. Why not just deal with the affected family? I can, it would be tedious in terms of memories, but it should even out after a generation. However, since I've been playing around with combined terrains, perhaps this is the push I need. I'm not ready to pull the plug on AV and move all the residents. I still haven't found a terrain that I'm happy about, most of them are too large, even the smaller ones. I guess when you're used to using tiny terrains, everything seems large if you have to move the camera around to see any part of the terrain :P

Overview of Apple County

I recently combined Apple Valley, Apple Valley Metro and the brand new Apple Plains into Apple County. Here's a brief overview of the tiny hood and subhoods. How tiny? The largest lot-not including the massive beach lots-is 3x3. I use Amber's Journey terrains from MTS2.

This might change since I've been debating switching to a larger terrain that would combine the three areas. I've had the seperation mostly due to the downtownies that spawn downtown-such as Mr. Big and the Diva and the Countessa and Count. If I move to the one terrain, I would create my own townies and then create the Count and Countessa.

Totally snatched this from Laura at Lakeside Heights.



Apple Valley


Apple Valley is a quiet suburb, great for families however land prices are increasing and forcing families with smaller paychecks to look elsewhere for housing. The hood lies on a tiny island with jutting rocks surrounding it, making transportation to the hood very difficult. Apple Valley looks different from past views because it's growing and residents are demanding that facilities are updated.



Apple Valley Metro

Apple Valley Metro lies on an island smaller than Apple Valley about a 40 minute ferry ride west from the suburb. A light rail connects the urban mecca to a nearby airport and train depot. Lady Starr stands to the west of the island. Some cheap housing can be found, but for the most part young professionals long for the city life and everything at thier fingertips.



Apple Plains

Apple Plains is the last land incorperated into Apple County. A rural landscape and rich soil are abundant here. Notable properties include an historical train station, farmer's market and general store. Land is plenty and cheap as well, however amenities are few.

Building Downtown-Part One

Decided to do a post about building a custom downtown which is what I had to do once I decided to expand Apple Valley's borders. AV is small since I wanted maximum time playing, but after a while I grew bored of suburban living. I'm a city girl at heart (and an island girl in my soul, but that's another post). I decided to allow my simmies a downtown and Apple Valley Metro was born. (note-AVM is still a work in progress and like AV will always be).


Let's start at the very beginning.

Inspiration

I decided to go for a New York City/Chicago (especially Chicago) vibe since they are both waterfront cities and Apple Valley Metro would be an island. Why an island? The terrain is smaller and faster to load! I LOVE Chigaco and would live there if it wasn't so cold (remember, I'm an island girl in my soul). I knew I wanted a beach boardwalk for closer beach access than a vacation and some urban apartments. I added Lady Starr (the Bella statue) by editing the terrain and building up a small island to place the neighborhood decor. Using MTS I found some ferry decor and pier decor to make a small walkway and Lady Starr Isle was born (modeled of course after Lady Liberty). Lady Starr is not named after my webname-starrsim, but it is named after Greymount's (Apple Valley's TS1 roots) first spokesim-Starr Grey.

Terrain

I decided on Amber Journey's Sunset Island as the terrain since it was smaller than Apple Valley's terrain (Golden Bay Island) and had the makings for a ferry dock. I love small terrains, it allows loading times to run much faster and it would provide a very dense appearence to the urban city once lots were added.

Layout
Apple Valley Metro couldn't be much of a city, mostly crowded and urban. The ferry access is to the north. Luxury apartments and penthouse are towards the north, seady cheap residences are towards the south. The beach is to the east while Lady Starr lies to the west. The center is the business and civic center and a small apartment complex based on a set of lofts (I've found that my commerical lots made with Lot Adjuster lots don't seem to work as well so I'm in the process of creating commercial lots on default maxis lots-ETA: Duh! There's a seperate download for community lot adjuster lots-whoopie! Now I can still have tiny commercial lots!). Not much room for other neighborhood decor except a raised train and a few billboards.

Construction

AV Metro is still in process and undergoing lots of construction and reconstruction until I like it. I recently took out a lot of the apartment buildings (there was room for about 45 sims, which I barely have that many in the main hood) and replaced them with more green space.

Apartments

Needless to say, the apartments went (are going) under multiple renovations, deletions and rebuilts. I deal with mostly 3x3 and smaller lots, which meant that sometimes entire apartment units would have to fit on a 2x1 or 1x1 lot. At the moment the city is overcrowded with apartments. There are 12 lots total, 8 are apartment lots. I am working on decreasing that number to 4-5. Why? Well, I want various lifestyles represented and space is limited so I narrowed it down to the following apartment types:

Morningside Co-Op [2x2]
Description: 2-2 bedroom luxury apartments with one 2 level penthouse (north). Penthouse includes a lower level rooftop garden. Common area includes bowling alley, business center and sauna. Heavily based on this building from dacyco which I couldn't download :(
Construction Progress: Complete, currently being playtested. MAXIS thinks this expensive lot should be for low class ($1,230 (for the smaller apartments) and $6,450 (for the penthouse) in rent?!!?) I am testing it with the cheat-lot class changer, but I have to reset it each time I enter the lot/add a family. Grrr! I am looking for something a bit more permenant in terms of changing the lot class.
Social Groups: Socialites

Metro Center Lofts [2x1]
Description: 2-Mid-Range Apartments in Loft Style (center). Each apartment has a large lofted bedroom and 1 full baths. Features exercise room, party room with bar and buffet and rooftop .
Construction Progress: Complete, currently being playtested and reworked. Will probably add additional floors to showcase an urban view or simply add a penthouse. However, the lofts are in the center of the city, which would mean the other lots would need to be built higher as well as I don't want the lofts to be the highest building. I added rooftop amenities instead and remove the sauna and massage center to add more square footage and am currently playtesting the changes. Social Groups: Techies

Oakwood Townhomes [2x4]
Description:3-Mid-Range Townhomes (west). Each townhouse has four bedrooms, three full baths, enclosed backyard and front yard. There are no common areas...unless you count the bus stop by the street. Great for families.
Construction Progress: Complete, being playtested. Again, for some reason MAXIS thinks this expensive lot should be for low class ($4,450 in rent?!!?) I am testing it with the cheat-lot class changer, but I have to reset it each time I enter the lot/add a family. Grrr!
Social Groups: Jocks, Techies

Carmela Artist Community [2x2] or [1x4]
Description: 3-4 Mid-Range Apartments. This is the urban Artists Colony with community garden (south). I am experimenting with building with containor crates, but I also like the look of Black Orchid's Green Village.
Construction Progress: 2x2 complete and playtesting, 1x4 in progress.
Social Groups: Gearheads, Bohemians

Economy Studios (south)
Description: I would love to have cheap cramped studio apartments, we'll see where they fit in since AVM is so small and the seedy part of town is really close to the the nicer parts of town (there's pretty much no seperation!)

Facilities

Current Commercial Lots in Progress or Built:

39th Street
Cultural Musuems (Regional Aquarium, Musuem of History), Coffeehouse, Clothing Store & Salon, Gym, Pet Shop, Electronics Shop

8th Ave
Seedy Nightlife (dance club, strip joints, hotels)

9th Ave
Art Gallery, Indoor Skating, Concert Halls (Regional Orchestra, Regional Ballet). In Progress: Jazz cafe

White (or East) Shore
Pier and Boardwalk with beach access.

Dimensional Park
Parks & Green Spaces with view of Lady Starr

At Home in Kimikura

Recently I drew a ROS for a family to live abroad for 3 years. Ok, that's a lie. The ROS was for the wife to leave the husband, but this couple are ALWAYS in the bed thanks to ACR and ALWAYS walking about in thier undies-even when the kids have friends over for dinner-a bit embarrassing if you ask me, but I digress. Since this couple is rock solid, I decided to chose another option in the ROS. The ROS is actually "Your family decreases" and it choses one of six options. So I chose the live abroad option. After brainstorming how and why the family would live aboard I then had the task of creating a dwelling place for them. The best part is that since the house is provided to them at a discounted cost I could spend a bit more than usual.

The spoiler for the ROS is that the family moves to Kimikura for thier time aboard. As an additional teaser, here's a preview of the home. Those who follow the Apple Valley families may be able to determine which family is moving away, but since the home is a traditional Kimikurian home and decorated in that sense, it may be a bit difficult.

Anyhoo, without further adieu, here's the tour of the new home.

Entrance of the home flanked by two statues rumored to bring good luck, health and blessings to the occupants of the home.

The foyer features space to put mail from family and friends back home in Apple Valley.

The kitchen/dining room is a cozy spot with bar, plenty of open shelving, bright green curtains and effecient kitchen layout (opps, I forgot the sink! Need to add that!)

The living area is sectioned into a comfortable seating arrangement for watching TV in Kimikurian (with simlish captions!) or chatting about the new culture. There is a desk area for emails, business reports and research, school work and basic bill paying and list making.

Upstairs are three bedrooms

one for each child. The oldest one insisted on plenty of room to study, especially with university so close, there isn't time for studies to go lacking.

The master suite has a private bath and balcony with room for a tea table and private tea ceremonies.

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Did you guess which family is going to leave Apple Valley for a little while?

The Tiny Travel Center (aka Travel Corner) & Vacations

It's our 1st year anniversary and we're taking a short weekend trip. To celebrate I'm posting about how my simmies travel.
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Recently a few of my sims have been rolling in the simoleans. Even with expensive property taxes they have plenty of money. This is my fault. Most of them are business owners and I had all business owners sell thier lots (1x3) and purchase 3-1x1 lots for thier businesses. Of course, the construction and furnishing everything was cheaper. Then I had several of them sell off thier extra businesses and focus only on one business. Since I was beginning to not enjoy the OFB concept since so many of my sims had thier own business or had several business lots to tend. Thus, sims have tons of money. I had one commission an university building, which leaves two more families with excess funds. Well, the Warwick family told me :P that they wanted to spend thier simoleans on vacations. So I obligied and now here's a peek into vacations in my hood.

In my tiny travel center (actually it's more like a corner in the gift shop) located in the hood's administration office, I sell posters of different travel locales (in addition to the Bon Voyage posters, I also use the following posters from MTS2, I am currently creating similar vacation destinations to match).

If a sim purchases a poster, this is thier indication to me that they would like to travel to that location. The cost of the poster serves as thier deposit for the trip.

For example, if a sim buys poster #7, which is a ski vacation to Schatazweitzier Mountains (soon to be destined as a fall foliage vacation and the new Cusinaire Ridges (I'm a teacher :, all my other teachers will recognize the name) will become the winter vacation destination) , then once they get home, I book them for a vacation and allow them to stay in the ski resort. I only book the 3 day/2 night trip. It's the perfect amount of time to play in one play session and it syncs nicely with my one simday=one year aging in my hood. Of course, the sims can pretend that they were gone for longer :P

During thier vacation, I make sure they experience plenty of snow sports and snow ball fights.

Notice how tiny the terrain for Schatazweitzier Mountains is.

If a sim buys the same poster repeatedly, that serves as an indication that they would like to buy a vacation home there whenever possible.

This is what happened to the Warwicks. They went to Three Lakes (the precessor to Schatazweitzier Mountains) for thier honeymoon (http://thekentfamilyfujicourt.blogspot.com/2007/09/husband.html and http://sun-exchange-sandy-warwick.blogspot.com/2007/09/some-fotos.html). Then they took thier daughters there for a family vacation (http://thekentfamilyfujicourt.blogspot.com/2008/09/family-vacation.html and http://thekentfamilyfujicourt.blogspot.com/2008/09/more-family-vacation.html) and finally they rolled a want for buying a vacation home. They brought thier vacation home in none other than Schatazweitzier Mountains.

Some random vacation photo spam

Gypsy Clearing, home of the Glasha Clan in Schatazweitzier Mountains. This small campground is available for a small fee to sims who wish to live the life of a gypsy for a while. It's encouraged that appropiate attire and hairstyles are worn to experience the complete...experience :P




Tiny Residential Cabin, available in Schatazweitzier Mountains for a small fee of $25,653. It's located on a 1x1 lot, features one bath and one loft bedroom (with double and twin bed), tiny kitchen and living room and room outside for a small garden...if my sims decide to stay here for a long while.
Larger Cabin, available in Schatazweitzier Mountains for a modest fee of $73,096. It's located on a fairly large 2x2 lot, features three bath and four bedrooms, large kitchen and family room and large living room with fireplace. This is actually the vacation home of the Warwick family I was speaking of earlier.

Jah Sal Bazaar, downloaded from Parsimonious and renovated for my purposes. The Warwicks just returned from thier holiday here. Located in my Tiki Isles tropical vacation destination, the bazaar is my interpetation of Arabia. The small outdoor market, colorful tents that also serve as sleeping tents, bright colors and wonderful foodstuffs. To be honest, it's still a little bare. I'm experimenting with leaving the lots bare instead of filling them with crappy items/concepts. In this lot the far right lower building is empty waiting for a purpose. Same thing for the top two middle levels. I do have a restroom, a resturaunt, DJ booth and bar taking up space in the middle two sections, hot tub on the roof, random easels and chess sets, bubble blower, store that sells clothing and perfume and the camping tents.

So if you have suggestions for this lot, let me know.

Tour: Farmer's Market

Ever wonder what happens to all that natural organic produce the Grey family grows on thier farm?

It goes to The Farmer's Market, owned by the Grey family. The Farmer's market is next door to the farm, so Grex walks there everyday.

The Farmer's Market sells fresh organic produce. Grex doesn't use pesticides on his crops and until recently had been hand watering everything. Now he has a greenhouse with a sprinkler system so he can spend more time talking to the crops. Yes, he chats with the crops. He says it makes them happier and healthier.


Besides veggies and fruit, both crated and loose, the market sells fresh fish. Once a week there are fish sales called Fishy Fridays in which the loose fish is marked down for customers to buy. The market offers turkey dinners seasonally and orange blossom honey. The market is also host to the annual summer Food Expo and quarterly All Natural Cooking Contest in which participants bring dishes created from all natural organic produce and fish. There's even a popular spot to get married overlooking the boulders and silos.


Recently, Grex had the idea (to be honest, his mother-in-law told him to do it) to sell hand crafted items. Now there are handsewn potholders in the midst of fish and fruit and there are plans to add handcrafted quilts.

Grex recently promoted Jadhira from cashier to full time florist. The previous arrangement had Jadhira delivering batches of flower arrangements that she crafted in her freetime and manning the register. Now she is free to spend her working hours creating beautiful arrangements and she throws pottery, for the Herendez Gallery, in her freetime. The arrangement works a lot better now. There's a corner devoted to floral crafts inside the market and Jadhira is on hand for custom arrangements for parties and weddings, as well as general questions of 'which arrangement is best for a first date?'

The Starr Grey Centre (Administration Offices)

A little bit about my administrative building and some insight on the playing style of several interactions. Note, there will be more detailed posts about certain aspects, this is mostly an introduction. So if you have questions/comments, please post and I can address them in the detailed posts as well.

The Centre features several amenities for residents and visitors of Apple Valley. This complex is owned by the current Hood Council President and many other residents assist in making the building run. The lot has three attached buildings with several offices.
The ground level contains: the Apple Valley Welcome Center and Gift Shop where you will find Apple Valley souveniors (teddy bears with Apple Valley t-shirts) , the latest edition of the Apple Valley News (newspaper from SimStash), and a small area to plan your next vacation in or out the hood (my version of a tiny travel office, more on that in another post).

Next to the welcome center, residents can find a small bank (with an unoriginal title of Apple Valley Bank) where they can purchase investments, deposit/withdraw from savings accounts, and make arrangements for thier mortgage or student loans with the Financial Advisor. (more on banking in another post)

To the other side of the Welcome Center is the two level Apple Valley Ballroom. The ballroom is the site of many formal events in Apple Valley and can be rented for weddings, formals and even elaborate parties-all for a fee of course. Sims can hold your wedding ceremony downstairs and upstairs enjoy cake and champagne for a lively party. To hold a party, I simply have the hosts visit the lot, teleport in the guests, fill the buffet and poof! instant party. The only downside is that when the hood council president is visiting the lot for her play session, residents have a tendency to crack open the champagne :P

Above the Apple Valley Welcome Center and Gift Shop is The Hood Council Meeting Hall, where residents can come and participate in the hood council meetings. When it's time for a hood council meeting, I have the members teleport to the lot and have a seat. Whatever they discuss (ie what the thought bubbles tell me) is what the meeting was about. Like in the photo below, former hood council president Ayanna Kent is informing Educational Director, Johan Dawson (top left) that there isn't money in the budget for more school renovations.

Sometimes they give me some great ideas. Like the meeting above caused Johan to create a fundraiser with students selling baked goods to raise money for the school. Once the meeting is over, everyone is deselected and free to do what they will.

The Apple Valley News office is next to the meeting hall. It's more like a corner than an office. If you're lucky you can see the hood reporter hard at work. The office doubles as a small historical library where archives and residental information is stored. Residents can register any marriages, births or deaths at this office.

Above the the Hood Council Meeting Hall is the Hood Council President's Office, where residents can chat with the president about any concerns and also find the president hard at work managing the hood.

Former President, Ayanna Kent, (top) Current President Fiona Kent (bottom)

This is where the hood president does most of thier work. They collect taxes and fees (more in a later post), dispense salaries, respond to emails and chat with spokes sims from other SUN hoods.

Back of the admin buildings as the good witch arrives :P

EDIT: So what's the government like in your hood?

Neighborhood View and Consilidated Blogs

You know how sometimes you capture a really great view of your hood? The game loaded the hood facing the opposite way in which I normally view the hood (usually the bridge is facing towards me). I'm glad it did, I LOVE this view!



So let's do a little tour. You can see the Grey farm (red barn and blue farm house). This is Jonagold Circle. All of the houses used to be off of this circle. To the right of the farm is The Farmer's Market. Across the street from the Farmer's Market is Apple's Landing (home of the Dawson, Warwick and Humphrey families). To the left of Apple's Landing is the Apple Valley Memorial Church and Cemetary, to the left of it is the Alisa Crawston Park with small amphitheater.

To the left of the park (across the street) is the new Children's Park. In front of the Alisa Crawston Park is the Jonagold Shoppes I (home of The Peacock, Posh clothing, and Red Movies). Now the tour is going to get crowded. Across from the Jonagold Shoppes I is the Jonagold Shoppes II (it looks like a bunch of buildings) and the Daniels Row Apartments (home to the Sweeny and Shazad families).

Across the street are two small boxy buildings, The Toy Shoppe and The Herendez Gallery. On the other side is the Veronika Kent Medical Centre (grey building), which sits next to CupaJava, which is next to the Apple Valley Academy (two orange buildings).

In front of the school are the Starr Grey Administration Buildings (trio of buildings) which sits in front of Dawson Central Park. Across from the park is Greymount Pointe (home of the Kent, Wilsonoff, and Herendez families).

To give a sense of the scale of my hood, the Dawson Central Park is 3x3. This is one of the largest (non beach lots) lots that I work with. It's amazing how small you can build.
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When are the consilidated blogs coming?

Most readers have noticed the Apple Valley Blogs link to the side. Yes, I am moving all the family blogs to one consilidated blog. When? This April will mark the first postings of the families and the beginning of 2001.

EDIT: What's your hood like? Large, small, medium? Urban, rural, suburban?