The Burb Family - Addendum

Just an update on what's happened with the Burb family.

It's a struggle, what with trying to juggle Tiffany's fashion career with the odd hours, especially when it comes to building up skills to the highest degree:  it takes forever, and there's only so much time in each day for Tiffany to work on her Charisma.  True, she could skip work once or twice--and has--but given that even at not quite where she wants to be, she still brings in a sizeable paycheck, she can't miss work too often...the family needs the funds.

Of course, now that Ian has made it up to being an Exorcist, bringing in 1000 Simoleons a day, the pressure's off Tiffany.  On the other hand, the pressure was on everyone for a time, because while all this was going on, Ian and his wife Willow...well, they decided they were ready to expand the family, and had a baby boy.  The whold family was in an uprorar as they tried to juggle sleep with missing work, not missing work, and maintaining the relationships needed to get everyone to where they need to be.  Long story short, the newest Burb--Ash--wound up being sort of Neat, very Outgoing, not especially Active, exceptionally Playful, and very Nice as well.  He's bonded quite well with Dottie, the Dalmatian the Burbs adopted.

Willow decided to go the Business route.  Really, her starting skills were high enough that she could go into any number of professions, but since she was a little greedy, she went for the money--950 Simoleons a day.  Now, if Tiffany could just get up to being a Fashion Columnist, the family would bring in 3000 Simoleons total each day, more than enough to build up the family coffers, especially since they haven't gone out of their way to buy a whole lot.  On the other hand, they all really need to update their wardrobes a bit.  They went shopping in Old Town the same day they adopted Dottie, and Johnny had a new swimsuit and new PJs, but everyone else is still in their same old clothes.  Well, not really...Ash, after getting comfortable in a stained gray shirt and blue jeans, decided to drop that in favor of a green long-sleeved shirt and blue jeans (courtesy of the TSR Archive).

In order to accommodate all the new additions, the Burbs had to expand their original house.  They enlarged the foyer so that there were fewer traffic jams going in and out--especially with Tucker and Dottie always racing to meet people at the door and getting underfoot.  They put in another bathroom upstairs, and expanded the rooms upstairs as well.  Downstairs, they relocated the washroom and installed a shower.  They also built a separate room just for the dogs--Tucker's old doghouse got moved inside (though it's now usually Dottie in there), and the dogs' bath is also located inside.  The garden shrank--as mentioned before--so Brad could do it all on his own--but the stress is wearing on him--between working in the getting up early to make breakfast for everyone, working in the garden, and trying to keep up his relationships, it's no wonder the poor man hits the espresso machine fix or six times a day.

The Burbs are thinking of taking a vacation sometime soon...maybe after Tiffany gets promoted again...but they may forget that entirely, since their Creativity skills are thus far only as high as they need them to be.  Besides, they just planted a hedge wall all around the inside of their fence, and planted hawthorne and juniper bushes on the outside of the fence.  It cost a bit, so the vacation may have to wait until they're more safely solvent again.  Of course, they need a few more items in the home too, and a pool in the backyard would also be welcome.