This Tutorial will guide you through the steps on how to build a house that is situated on the bottom of a real Lake. They are the ideal house for your Mermen and Mermaids.

I suggest reading through the entire Tutorial before you begin building just to be sure you would like this house in your game

These houses behave like houses built in the conventional manor and Sims can live in them

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It is a good idea to read through the entire Tutorialprior to starting it, so you can determine if this type of Lot is for you. 

Before I start the building section of this Tutorial,there are some things that I need to bring to your attention and some hints tohelp you.  I feel that it is only fair to let users know that they canencounter some oddities with this type of Lot.  I do not want you to go to thetrouble of building, and then find out about them, so here they are

For those with Seasons

This type of Lot can not be uses in a Neighborhoodwith a Winter setting, because the Lake will behave like any other Lake. It will freeze over. 

You will get fish.  Also be aware that Sims will fishfrom this Lake and will do so from any area that is suitable. I suggest alwaysplacing a fence along the front of the Lot. 

Large numbers of fish may be a problem for users with lowperformance cards. You can minimize the amount by not lowering areas of theLake.  There may be occasions when fish swim through walls and furnishings.  Ifthis would annoy you, placing Patios of at least 3 tiles around the entirehouse can counteract some of this.

Everyone

I strongly advise only building single story houses or ifyou like double stories, only lowering the first story.  It becomes very hardto see inside the house past that point.  

Sims can not walk on the Lake bottom, only onfoundations. Nor can they swim in the Lake.

Due to the water causing distortion, this type of housedoes have its draw backs.  The placing of walls, items and furnishing in theinterior of a lowered house can be a bit difficult and time consuming.  Thiscan also apply to placing items on surfaces. I will explain more on this at theend of the Tutorial.

If you were to use the Eyedropper or Design Tool the itemyou select will seem to disappear. This is only an illusion caused buy thewater.  It will still be there and the action will work.

 The water will give all colors a faded appearance andsome may appear as a different color.  Sims hair styles will seem to changewhile they are in the water. Also you will not see the water in Bathtubs or HotTubs.  The same applies to clear glass surfaces, vases and jars. Mirrors arenot effected

I recommend planning your house before beginningbuilding. I build the skeleton of the house

[walls only] in the conventional manner on another Lot,so that I have a better idea of the size Lot I will need. It saves gettinghalfway through building to discover the Lot is too small and having to startagain.

Special tip – Please do this

This may seem like going to extremes but as you finish ‘Levelingthe Lot’ and ‘Building and Furnishing the House’.  Save the Lot youare working on into the Lot and House Bin, then place a copy back intothe NH and continue working on it. That way if things do not work as theyshould, you will be able to retrieve a copy of the house prior to where thingswent wrong. This could save you having to start all over again.  You can do itmore frequently is you choose to.  This is also very handy if you wish to testthe Lot as you build.  For those that can not save copies in the Lot and HouseBin I can only suggest packaging the Lot at the recommended stages

Choosing the Lot                                                                                                              

Make sure you choose the right size; this does not workwell on the smaller Lots. As this house is to be a Starter House, I am usingthe 3x3 and it is the smallest I would use. Also take into account yourcomputers performance before going for the very large Lots

Preparing the Lot

Using the largest of the WaterTools click once in the centre of the Lot

Now turn most of the Lot into a large Lake.   Do not tryto go deep, as a shallow one is preferable at this stage.

If you would like to have some trees around the edge ofyour Lake, leave enough land to allow for them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also leave at least 4 or 5rows of ground in the front of the Lot, to allow for placement of access to thehouse.   If you would like to place a fence around the entire Lot, leave onerow of ground around the boarders of the Lake.  Remember to leave an area ofland on the left if you intend to place a driveway

Leveling Lake Bottom

Be very careful here, as this is the most critical part of the wholeTutorial.                              

Use the ‘Level Terrain Tool’ andselect a dark blue area of shallow water. 

The lighter blue is too shallow for our use.

Now level out the bottom of the Lake, doing small areasat a time.  The green leveling indicator clearly shows up any areas not level.

WARNING - Do not touch on any bankarea. Thiswill happen – the water disappears

If this does occur go ‘Undo’ immediately and continuewith caution.

If you wish to Extend theLake at any time during the Tutorial, use the Water Tool andremember to level the new area.  Avoid using the Leveling Tool to extend theLake as it will cause the above

You can Straighten and/or Reduce the Lake at thisstage using the Level Terrain Tool, provided you work from theoutside in.

Do it one row at a time and if anything goes wrongremember to Undo.

WARNING – it is absolutely essentialthat the Lake bottom where you intend to build is completely level before youdo the Foundation.  If it is not, then the later part of this Tutorial will notwork correctly.  I very strongly recommend following the ‘Special Tip’ on Page1 at this point.

This is what you need a completely flat work area. TheLot is now ready to build on

Placement of Foundation                 

I recommend placing the foundation towards the back ofthe Lot.  If you build right at the front, your view can be blocked by the LakeBank as well as not leaving enough room for the access stairs

Leave at least 2 tiles between the foundation and theside and back Banks. If the Lot is large you can leave more.

WARNING-The same applies to the foundation asdid the’ Leveling Terrain Tool’ – avoid the Banks of the Lake and remember to‘Undo’ if any thing goes wrong

You will need a distance of 5 tile space between thefront edge of the Foundation, and the Lake Bank to place the access stairs,which will be covered later in this Tutorial

You will be using the Floor Elevation cheat, so if youare not familiar with this procedure then I suggest you use either the Stone orLattice Foundation. Experiences uses can use what ever you like

Building the House

Build and furnish the house the same as you would anormal house. Place all windows, doors, wall and floor coverings, lights, wallhanging, including curtains, blind and mirrors.    Finish off patios andverandahs.   

Leave the roof and stairs. They will be added later. Savethe Lot and considerfollowing the Special Tip again.

As you can see, for my house I have chosen to use theDeck Foundation and have made it the shape and size I want it to be.

Calculating Depth                                                                                                              

Select a corner area outsidethe foundations that is large enough to fit the medium Water Tool.

If necessary, increase the size of the area using thesmall Water Tool.

 

 

 

 

 

Make sure the bottom of this area is the same level as the Lake bottom under the Foundation

This area is to be the test area to get the depth thatyou wish the house to be

 

** With ‘Top View Down’ selected, use the medium Water Toolto click down about 2 or 3 clicks.  Keep the Water Tool centered. This isimportant so that the area stays level.

In the snapshot on the right, you can see that the WaterTool is off centre from the light area under it. Move it back to the center andfinish clicking the required number of clicks.

Now place a 1 tile Foundation in the centre of thesection you just lowered.

Return to the normal view andgo up 1 level so that you see the top of the Foundation. Build a 2 story, 1tile wall and add a wall covering to the top wall ***

                                                                                                      

You can see how far up the wall the water comes.  Thedepth will be of personal choice.  I like having the water just covering a flatroof.

If you are not deep enough, remove the Test Wall andFoundation, then repeating from ** to ***.  If it is close to what you want,only do 1 or 2 clicks.

 

 

If you go too deep, then Isuggest you Undo back to the Level Test area and start again.  

Now you can see that the water level is over the firstwall and just covers what will be the roof, using a flat roof  

Remove the Test Walls but leave the Test Foundation andSave the Lot     

 

 

 

 

Lowering the House

Now you get to see if you haveyour Lake bottom level.  If not than the next section will be a bit of a mess. 

Take you time doing this next stage. 

Go down in levels until you can see the bottom of theLake under the Foundations.   Bring up the cheats window [Ctrl-Shift-C] andtype in

 boolProp constrainFloorElevation false exactly as itappears here, then press enter.

 

 

WARNING

Use caution not to go too close to any edges of the Lakeor you may suffer the disappearing water problem.  Remember, if you do, use‘Undo’

Using the Level Terrain Tool and starting in thecentre of the Test Foundation, click and hold the mouse and drag to the edge ofthe Foundation, release the mouse button and part of the Foundation should dropdown.

Still usingthe Leveling Tool and starting on a flat tile at the corner edge of the loweredhouse foundation, drag the green indicator along the front edge of thefoundation to the opposite corner.

Now level the rest of thehouse as shown in this snapshot. 

For those with Seasons, stay inside the Foundation if youwish to reduce the number of fish you get in the Lake.  

There may be times when you can not do a full row, sojust do small sections at a time.   Just be sure to always start on lowered,level ground and remember to keep saving as you go.

 

 

Lowering using DeckFoundation

In this snapshot you can just make out the image of theFoundation [like a darker blue shadow]. The groups of posts mark the corners.

The same instructions for lowering apply also to thistype of Foundation

  

This is a snapshot of a partly lowered house

 

If you LakeBottom was level you should end up with this.  A house completely under water

If it does turn off the cheat byentering

boolPropconstrainFloorElevation true

Straighten Walls andFloors

If you house looks like this it is because areas of theLake Bottom were not level.

You need to go from a raised wall and floor to a straightwall and floor

This is a way I have found to solvethis problem. 

I have tested this on partly and fully submerged houses.

You are going to need the cheat:

boolProp constrainFloorElevation false

 *Lower the walls and select a floor tile of a differentcolor.  Move the tile around the floor until you can see thedifferent carpet tile, on a flat area, as close to the raised floor as your canget.  Place 1 floor tile.**   The floor should level out.

Repeat from * to ** for every unlevel wall and floorarea.  If it is successful replace the different colored tile with the originalones and turn off the cheat using

boolProp constrainFloorElevation true

If it did not work, then I sincerely hope that you did asI suggested. Saving you Lot after the ‘Leveling the Lake Bottom’ stage, to yourLot and House Bin.  Because, I am sorry, the only other recommendation I haveis to begin again from there, after checking the Lake Bottom for unleveledareas.

Removal of Triangles [Optional]

So you now have yourunderwater house

Look closely at this snapshot and you will see smallfloating black triangles. 

These are above were the walls join. Note the littletriangles at the wall joints.

You can remove these is you wish to. If you are not bothered by them, you can skip this section and move to the next

 

 

 

 

 

Because you are now workingunder water, it will be a lot easier if you turn the house so that the end ofthe affected wall if facing you.

Starting at the exterior wall edge, delete the entirewall past all joining walls.  Now select ’Undo’. The wall and all trimmings will beback and the triangles should be gone.

If the wall is in the interior of the house do not try todelete it from the interior of the house.

 

 

 

 

 

Place the Wall Tool on the exteriorwall in line with the wall you wish to delete.  Now delete as though there wasa full wall until you have removed the interior one.

Do not worry about furnishings, the tool should passright through them.

Again select ‘Undo’ and the wall reappears with everything but the triangles.

Repeat for all joins and Save the Lot

 

 

Placing the Stairs

Select where you want thestairs.  I hope you remembered to leave a distance of 5 tiles between the outeredge of the Foundation and the bank. If the distance is further, you have twooptions. You can extend the stair foundation out into the water or you can movethe bank closer to the Foundation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you choose to do the bank,use the Terrain Leveling Tool but you need to be careful.  The waterwill not disappear but the level can drop and you do not want that. You willsee it happen.  Remember to use Undo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this snapshot you can see thestretch of high land just under the water. This will not be a problem whenplacing the stairs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The stairs will level this land as seen in the snapshoton the right

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stairs in place

 

 

 

 

 

Smoothing High Land [Optional]

The stretch of high land can be a nuisance when viewingthe house from the front on small lots

Using the medium SmoothTerrain Tool, start under the stairs and smooth the land on both sides.

Take care not to touch the banks. When this is done toyour satisfaction, add the steps up to the stair foundation. 

You can now take away the Water Height Testing Foundation

All that is left to do is to finish off outside thehouse. Add the roof and do the yard

                       

 

 

 

 

My completed Starter House costing 19,617

Does not leave much change but has the necessities

At the back of my house I have placed access stairs tothe roof.  This gives your family a bit more recreation area

The following pages will show you some of the oddfeatures of this type of house. 

After reading through the Tutorial, I hope some of youare still interested enough to try to build your own Lake House 

I will keep an eye on the Tutorial so I can answerquestions and give what help I can.  I also look forward to seeing snapshots ofhouses you create.

The DifficultiesPlacing Interior Walls in the centre of a Lowered House

I would like to add a wallbehind the lounge

                                 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This happens when I try. Notice how the curser is now on the lounge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is where the wall ended up

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is possible to do this.  You wouldneed the starting point of the wall facing you. 

A wall had to be placed across the length of the room andthen the unwanted section was deleted.

Exterior wall are easier provided you have the wall yourworking on facing you

 

 

Difficulty in PlacingFurnishings in a Lowered House

Trying to place a fridge onthe other side of the room

 

Even though you can see the green go ahead it did notwork

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is where it went.

The roof seems to be a very popular place when buildingunderwater

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The position I had to be in toplace the fridge. You have to actually see the piece of furniturebefore you can place it.  I had to rotate and tilt the Lot as well as zoom inand out and until I found the

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The position I had to be in toplace the fridge. You have to actually see the piece of furniturebefore you can place it.  I had to rotate and tilt the Lot as well as zoom inand out and until I found the right angle to accomplish this. 

This applies in particular to furnishing in the centre ofthe house. 

Moving some furnishings near the outer walls and placingitems on surfaces can also be tricky but there is a way.  To do this you needto tilt the Lot.

Tilting can be achieved by using the Tab key or byholding down the Mouse Wheel.  A full Explanation is on the next page

Tilting the Lot to Place Items on Surfaces

This section will explain how an item can be placed onsome surfaces by tilting and zooming in on the Lot

Forward – the front of the Lot tilts Down        Back – the front of the Lot tilts Up

Left to Rotate the Lot to the Left.                   Right to Rotate the Lot to the Right

Mouse Wheel – hold down to tilt and/or rotate Lot- release the wheel when finished

Tab Key – press once - tilted and/or rotatesthe Lot - pressing the Tab Key again when finished

 

Working from the front of theLot

As I do not have any children to leavetheir homework on the floor, I will do the demonstration using a decorative item

I want to place a decorative item on the counter next tothe sink

You can see the green marker but not the item 

Remember you must be able to see the itemto be able to place it.

You can zoom in if it helps but be sure not to go tooclose

 

 

 

I have kept the Lot in thesame position but I have tilted the front up as far as possible, without havingmy view totally blocked by the fence.

I was able to place the decoration onthe counter.  I was also able to place it on the other counters, the kitchentable, the desk and the bedside table. You will need to do a bit ofexperimenting to get the right angle.  

This will also work for items like the juicer maker, foodprocessor, homework, Smart milk, etc

 

 

Doing things My Way

There may be a bit of fiddling building then lowering,but believe me, lowering them building can send you batty. The Screenshots inmy profile are of a house built after lowering and it took me for ever tocomplete.

To overcome the difficulty of renovation, I have built aStarter House, a 2 bedroom, a 3 bedroom and a 4 bedroom completely furnishedand decorated house.  I have copies in the Lot and House Bin and have packagedthen to a file on my computer.

When my Mer family could afford the next size house, Imoved them out and had them purchase it.  The old house was demolished and acopy put in its place ready for the new family.    Since finding the ‘ThingsStay After Move Out’ shrub, deleting the house is no longer necessary, but thecopies still are in the house bin just in case I forget to give the family theshrub.

So Good Luck if you are ready to try this Tutorial