Bathmophobia, the fear of steep slopes, is an awful thing for a builder. It limits you to flat terrains

...or unsightly lots. Oh, it's fine for the sims who live there, but for the neighbors? Not so much. If this looks good to you, you're reading the wrong tutorial. I'm going to show you some tricks for building a house that follows the contours of your terrain.

We'll be building today on Easter Island, from the awesome creators at Simcastic Designs.

It looks like a park, doesn't it? It would be a shame to spoil this gorgeous terrain with awkward blocks of flattened land... so we won't. We're going to build houses on these empty 3x3 lots - one on the downslope and the other on an upslope.

Just look at that view! Who wouldn't want to live here?

See those level tiles lining the sidewalk? You'll need some of those, even if you only level a few to get a starting place. You can use a driveway if you play Nightlife or Deluxe, but I used the shovel to level from the trashcan to the corner.

You need the level tiles to start laying foundation. We're going to build a walk-out, daylight basement on the downslope.

Here's the trick: diagonal foundation. Draw it from your level front corner to the opposite corner.

Select a paint with a kick moulding and SHIFT-click to cover the entire foundation. PAGE DOWN to paint the inside as well. Our basement exit will be at the height of the upper kick moulding.

You may need to level one square to the moulding to get the right height for your basement walls.

Level the inside as well, either by drawing the shovel tool in a square or by clicking. When the terrain is the same height as the moulding inside your foundation, lay a square of flooring. The flooring will stabilize the terrain at the correct height and act as a marker.

When you've got your marker, delete the diagonal foundation.

Starting at your level edge, lay out the design for your basement. You can either draw a block to the marker and then demolish the center, or use four lines with a hollow center like I did here. You'll want to cover your marker with the foundation.

Very often, the grid above the foundation will be uneven. But that's easy enough to fix.

Simply draw your shovel from one corner to the opposite side.

And the grid is repaired.

Even though you may not play Nightlife or Deluxe right now, it's a good idea to leave some tiles free so that you can add a driveway later. It's much easier to allow for one now than to try to fit it into an occupied house.

A driveway is 5 tiles wide by 8 deep, counting from the sidewalk. An extension is another 8 tiles deep. I'm allowing 6 wide, with an extra tile on the end of the extension for a door or steps.

When you've got your driveway and extension allowance marked with flooring, you should cut away any foundation that covers it.

Remember to repair your foundation so that the basement will be usable.

From your marker, draw the shovel just one tile inside the basement.

From that level square, you can flatten the whole interior.

A coat of paint tells us that the wall is still at the correct height.

You won't be able to hang anything on these walls - including doors or windows - without using moveobjects on, so let's fix that.

CTRL-click and drag with the foundation tool selected to delete the foundation.

Using the room tool, draw a box around the level floor.

Starting at the edge along your driveway, draw a new line of foundation in the ditch.

You only want to surround the part of the basement walls that will be covered by dirt. If the terrain outside the wall is level, leave it alone. You can add doors and windows in those.

My lot is extremely steep, so I need to cover most of the basement walls with foundation.