A beginner's guide to outdoor cheats and landscaping

That's some view, isn't it? I could sit here all day while my poor sims are slaving away in the city. But we're here on Blue Soup's Mountainside Village island terrain from MTS2 to build some vacation homes for the poor, hard-working things. The gardeners have off this summer, too. I'm using Two Jeffs' No Gardeners hack. I also found lots of plants at 4ESF and MTS2. Go look - I'm in no hurry.

Back already? OK - let's get to work. First, though, prepare yourself. I'm about to show you something really scary...

Frightening, isn't it? Ever since Nightlife, with its ability to clone any lot put into the Lots & Houses Bin, I've been using bases to save building time. This one is a 9x14 house base on a 2x3 lot. It's got a basement, four walls, a driveway, and nothing else. We're going to turn it into a little beach house.

I've disabled shadows in order to show clearer pictures. It's under Game Options.

Once you've got your base built, you should clone it because we're going to use it for another project.

Construct your roof. A gable shed roof creates a 5x9 (usable) area on the 2nd floor. The three tiles under the lowest point of the roof aren't good for anything.

I found this weathered siding on TazziannaLuck's simpage. It looks beachy enough for me. Find something you like and splash it on.

Big 2-story windows on each side will light up both floors.

Some Tornado Steel fencing and weathered board decking creates another 5x9 area overlooking the water.

I want a pool on this lot, which will go in back. The entrance should be centered between the living area, pool, and driveway. We'll also need some sort of path between the entrance and the mailbox. We do not want to block the view between the street and the water so I'll use a bridge foundation for the porch. To keep the informal look, I'm going to use terrain paints instead of flooring wherever I can, along with an invisible driveway from MTS2. Ready?

The 4x4 porch is finished using the same decking and rail as the upper deck, with steps in front and back. I covered the entire lot in sand terrain paint, then used Simply Styling's pretty rock paint as driveway and path surfacing. The path curves from the steps to the driver's door. It also traces an S-shape to the mailbox & trashcan and around them. The island between the driveway and path is filled with a yucca and some cacti. Palms in 3 heights follow the roofline down to the sidewalk, thereby emphasizing an architectural feature. The mailbox post is redesigned in a weathered grey wood.

The looping path created a blank face under the window, which I filled with lavender bougainvillea. More of the shrub fences off the backyard. I used a dried grass paint from Tribecca Sims beneath the plants. Shadows are still off.

Peeking through Numenor's glass walls, you'll see spiral stairs from MTS2 that connect the two floors. Although expensive ($3000), they're a great space-saver. This main room - living and kitchen area - overlooks the pool, which is surrounded by more of Simply Styling's rock paint. I painted the pool walls to match the inside floor. The invisible diving board and ladder are also from MTS2.

To paint pool walls:
Open the cheat window by holding CTRL and SHIFT, then typing C
Enter the cheat boolprop constrainfloorelevation false
Using your shovel tool, raise the edge of the pool by 2 clicks or so.

Select your paint and fish around for the spot on the wall where it will stick. I have the best luck near the top edge. When you find it, hold down the SHIFT key and click to cover all the walls.

Using your shovel again, level the edge you raised.
Open the cheat window and type boolprop constrainfloorelevation true

Muted pastels and the glass wall let that fabulous view act as the focal point for your main room. Who needs art?

To enhance the appearance of your little house, you can contour the terrain to create a dune effect. If it's too dark inside, you can add some small windows under the roof edge like I did here. Then just pop your finished house into the Lots & Houses Bin to clone it so you can line a whole street with these little beauties.

Here's how it looks in Neighborhood view.

$22,407 - 1BR, 1 bath unfurnished beach house with full basement, pool, driveway, deck overlooking bay. SOLD! Let's build a slightly trickier one.

This one will be a little lakefront cabin. We'll use the same 9x14 house base on 2x3 lot as we used for the beach house. You cloned your base, right? If not, you should build another one and pop it in and out of the Lots & Houses Bin so you can keep a copy.

Shadows are still disabled here in Mountainside Village.

Cover your base with a long-gabled roof.

You can use lattice or bridge foundation for the deck, but I chose the solid one because I want to paint it. This deck extends four tiles in back and two on the side of the house. I left five tiles free in the front to give it a staggered look.

That sun is bright, isn't it? Let's cover our deck.

I built walls around the circumference...

...then popped on another long-gabled roof.

I then removed the walls.

We don't need this little bit of the first roof and it will interfere with a loft room, so I demolished it. That gives us a 5x9 loft area that wouldn't have been here if the sun wasn't so bright.

See the stagger? It doesn't block the view much more than the base house did, but effectively doubles our space. Add your front steps...