It Was an Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny.....

.....House!  That's right. It is a real life variation of a Sims 10x10 house challenge with a twist. This little house in Seattle recently sold for almost $400,000 and it only has 830 square feet.  I love a tiny house...probably more than the average person....but that is just crazy!

I found this on Yahoo today and I had to share. This sliver of a house is just 55 inches wide at the narrowest point.  Shaped like a thin triangle, it is actually so small that you have to stand to the side to take things out of the oven.

Best of all is the name.  It's the Spite House.  No one seems to know for sure why such a minuscule home was constructed, but apparently one of the leading theories is that it was done out of spite for a neighbor due to a property line dispute.

That little triangle to the left is the Spite House.  The $400k house.  That someone actually puchased.

Go figure.

If you would like to read more about this unique dwelling, you can check out the Yahoo article here: Super Tiny Spite House

And if you would like to get into the "small spaces" spirit...plop down a 10x10 micro lot in your game and see what you can come up with....or better yet, try using a 15X20 and only using half of the lot.  Good luck and happy building!

Spooky stuff at the Winchester House

As an anniversary present (don't ask which one...been married longer than many of you have been alive),  my husband and I took a trip to San Francisco. The last day we rented a car and drove to San Jose to the Winchester House.  I have been wanting to see it since I was a kid and I discovered a book of unusual architecture that had a few pages covering the home. The sad and creepy story fascinated me, as did the pictures of the house.

This beast of a Queen Anne Victorian was built by Sarah Winchester starting in 1884. I say starting because until she died, construction was constant. Apparently old Sarah was a bit....um...eccentric. The death of her only child as an infant and then her husband left her so depressed she went to a psychic medium.  The psychic convinced her that she was being haunted by spirits killed by Winchester rifles, which were the source of the vast wealth she inherited from her husband. Because rather than...oh.. I don't know...being mad at the person who actually shot them....the spirits were going to come looking for the heir of the gun inventor. Seems legit.

So our girl Sarah had all the ingredients for a first class haunted house: a psychic, spirits with an axe to grind, a ton of cash, and no husband to tell her she was bat crap crazy and needed to stop.  She figured as long as she kept building, the spirits would be appeased.  Every night she would conduct a seance in a secret room and drawn plans under the direction of the spirits.  The next morning she would hand them off to the workers who were told not to question her under any circumstances and they built whatever she requested.  No matter how insane.  The result is a huge sprawling monster of a Victorian with 160 rooms, stairs and doors to no where, secret passages, twisted stairs that turn multiple times, a door that opens to an 8 foot drop, and more.

While we were there a couple of odd things occurred. It was a nice sunny day and they had several windows open, but some rooms were freezing cold.  Not just a little chilly, but "make your guts shiver" cold.  Not all of them...just one or two. Even my husband noticed, and he doesn't notice anything...hehe.

I also noticed shortly after entering the house that my hips and knees began to ache terribly. I really hurt! We had gone hiking in the Muir Woods the day before so I thought it might have something to do with that...until it completely stopped when I left the house. It was like a switch had been flipped.  I felt just fine walking through the gardens with no pain at all.  During the tour we learned that Sarah suffered from arthritis in her legs...that is why she designed some of the stairs with very low risers.  To make it easier on her aching legs. 

Yeah. Creeped me out just a bit.

Then, I sent my husband off to buy a couple things from the gift shop while I checked out a display of antique Winchester rifles in a small room nearby.  I heard the floor creak with footsteps behind me and so I turned to say something to my husband, only to find I was totally alone. No one else in sight.  I had been so sure it was him coming up behind me....but no. There he was...walking up a minute later and asking why I had such an odd look on my face.

So...make of it what you will.  I am generally skeptical by nature, but the Winchester house was a bit spooky. And inspiring! Even though the proportions are all wrong, I love the idea of a wonky, cobbled together, creepy kind of build. Maybe I like to think I could come up with something a little nicer than a sad old lady doing nightly seances to get building instructions from the spirits. Add this to the list of planned builds....a Simchester house, so to speak.

The Future is so Bright....I Gotta Wear Shades

Loving the new expansion pack for The Sims 3:  Into the Future!   Before I can actually play the game, I must build.  Always.  So here is a house I promised Zeke for Into the Future...The Ascella.

6 bedrooms

5 bathrooms

large kitchen for entertaining

study

work out room

game room

music room

inventors work shop

patio

pool/hot tub

futuristic/modern interiors

NO CC

40x40 lot  $295k

Click here to Download from the Sims 3 Exchange

Click here to download from Mediafire

***The name Ascella was chosen from an astronomy site because it is a bright star in the Sagittarius system.  I thought a star name was appropriate for a futuristic build.

(apparently it also means armpit in Italian..lol!  I am now a cautionary tale to all builders using astronomy names for a build: do a background check! :D )

Getting Into the Future

The Future is now...but how do you get there?  Here is your quick start guide for making that jump into the brave new world!

 When you load up the game, one of the first things you will notice is that there is not a new world in your menu. You might think " Huh?  Where is Oasis Landing?"  It is not a world like any other and getting there is a bit different as well.  Select any town in your menu or open any saved game.  

Within a few minutes of entering an active household, you will see a mysterious object appear on the lot:

Direct your sim to examine this oddity, and a bright light will appear as the contraption spits forth a unique visitor

If your sim is anything like mine, this will be the perfect opportunity to discuss whether or not Yetis exist.  Forget about the glowing machine and the blue haired man.  Chatting with the visitor will reveal an opportunity for your sim to collect power cells.  Don't ask why!  When someone in a blue glowing suit asks you to collect something, you do it.

The power cells look like small cylinders and you will find them all over your lot.  Click on them to collect them all.  Easy peasy.

Once you have all of them, return to your visitor and ask him to repair the time machine.  Whoops!  Its not a machine...its a portal.  Fancy.

He will happily comply, enabling you to click on the machine....er.....portal....and travel into the future.

Your sim must be a teen or older to do this, by the way.  You will have a load screen and then your sim will arrive in Oasis Landing.

What a beautiful world it is!  Gorgeous.  Apparently white is really BIG in the future.  The time portal is located in a visitor center which is effectively the future version of a "base camp".  Your sim has a place to eat, sleep, and hang out without having to immediately purchase real estate.  However, unlike a base camp or vacation world, there is no set time limit on your sim's stay.   So pull up a jet pack and start poking around!

One of the first notifications you will get is where your descendants live.  That's right: descendants.  This IS the future after all and apparently your sim has procreated at some point.  There will be a special map marker so you can go meet the family.  My sim's descendants happen to live in the "anti-tech" part of town for those who have rejected futuristic advances and choose to follow a more traditional life style.

If your simmy really likes Oasis Landing, you might just decide to buy property or build your own.  Here is the home I am currently working on for my sim:

I hope to have this lot completed when I get back from my vacation next week.  In the meantime, I hope you enjoy your adventures in Oasis Landing.  I know I cannot wait to spend more time exploring and admiring this amazing new world. 

Go Home Amazon, You're Drunk

Found this today as I was ordering a new water filter for my refrigerator (ah!  the glamorous life I lead....)  Then I looked a little closer.  That's December of 2014.

Wow.  Makes you wonder.....is EA just playing it safe or have things been pushed back much farther than any of us thought?  If it is pushed back that far, could it be a good sign for those of us still holding out hope for certain features...or am I being overly optimistic?  Probably that second thing.

Logically speaking, no one is going to release a game AFTER the holiday shopping season, so to me, this just means that they have no idea when in 2014 this game is going to be released.  Which means things are still up in the air.  

I don't know about you, but I am more than willing to wait for a quality, smoothly running game with tons of features.  

Hansel and Gretel

The witches house from the dark tale of Hansel and Gretel

Made of gingerbread and candy to entice lost children to come closer, this spooky home holds a more sinister secret....

Includes 1 bedroom suite

a caged bedroom

bathroom

spellroom

No CC except 2 CAP patterns I made myself

$77k on 50x50 lot

Click Here to Download from the Exchange

Click Here to Download from Mediafire