I built a mansion with The Sims 4: Cottage Living
Hello my friends, this video is brought to you by EA Game Changers because they sent me the pack early, no I'm not being paid, don't worry. I will be paid if you buy my merch though, lilsimsieshop.com. Unfortunately though, because this video is brought to you by EA Game Changers we have this horrible watermark on the screen and I can't get rid of it. So I want to apologize in advance. I don't think it's that distracting,
like I thought it would be worse, but it's already annoying when the game is in regular time and when you speed it up it just, I know. I know, and I'm sorry. I can't do anything about it, that's literally just on the game.
So for context, when I built this house, I built this using the beta access version of The Sims 4 that I had so I had access to the new pack for a week, and I had this weird beta version that didn't have the gallery, it's got the watermark, that's literally just on the game. It's not like I put it there. I swear I'm not being annoying like that, the game just has it on it. So I am sorry, I'm so sorry. But today we're trying to build a pretty big cottage mansion in the new Country Living expansion pack in The Sims 4.
This is one of my favorite builds I have ever done. Although I must admit it took me a really, really, really, really long time and I cut out a lot of it because I didn't want to have to speed up the video too much because of the watermark, so I cut out like the bathrooms, and a lot of the landscaping, but I did film a tour for you so I'll show you that at the end of the video. This house was actually heavily inspired by a real life house that I saw online. This is the house that I was really heavily inspired by, I actually saw this house before the pack even came to me. Like I was doing research trying to figure out what I was gonna wanna build when I got it, and I saw this house online and I was like, wow, that is beautiful. I want to live there.
And so when I actually got the pack, naturally I was like wait, now I gotta try and build this. So this was kinda the inspiration for the house, though it doesn't end up looking exactly like this. But it kinda has these vibes and you'll see it sorta come together. I did struggle with the roof a lot actually, because I wanted it to be big but not too big and the other house, the one in real life, it looks like its got two gabled roofs that are like, next to each other.
I couldn't see the back, so I couldn't really figure out how it was supposed to look but it looked really odd in The Sims when I tried to recreate it like that perfectly, so I ended up just like, changing it and trying to mimic it a different way. So I think it still looks okay, it just was a bit weird. It was weird trying to make it work. The other thing I did, I put kind of like a sunroom thing on the left side of the house, I actually did this a lot in my builds that I was making with the pack and it was very inspired by HeyHarrie.
The build that HeyHarrie did in town, the one in Finchwick, the like fancy house in the town area it's got a sunroom kind of thing sorta like this with the columns and all the windows, and I just thought it looked so beautiful so I kinda wanted to use that on this house. It felt appropriate for like, the big mansion to have like a nice sunroom area like this so I managed to copy that and I put it in this one too, so shoutout to HeyHarrie for that idea. And then the landscaping of this one became really complicated. Because this is a big lot. It's a 50x40 lot, so there is a lot of space that I had to fill up on this one. And so I wanted to make use of it, I wanted to have a barn, I wanted to have some chickens, I wanted some farm land, like I wanted it to be full.
I wanted a pond, y'know I was really trying to take advantage of all of the things they had offered me, y'know with this new house. So I did just that. I actually like how it looks a lot. I have like, in the front yard it kinda becomes like a courtyard area in both the front and the back. So the front's got some plants and like, some landscaping and a pond, it's got some seating areas. And then the back has another courtyard space and it takes you into like, the little chicken coop and where the cow is, and stuff like that.
So I think it kinda works out well. Like I think I managed to use the lot really well which is cool because often times I find I really struggle when I'm trying to build like proper mansions and have these big giant lots they're on. I've noticed that I have a really hard time filling up the lot when it's this big, so I've been experimenting a lot with new kinds of landscaping as I was building with this pack.
I was using a lot of terrain paint, a lot more terrain paint than I usually do. And I kinda had fun with it. I don't know, I'm feeling very inspired. I've come out of these pack builds feeling really inspired to do more which is quite sad, because I don't have the pack anymore. I only had it for a week, and then obviously I'm gonna get it back when the actual pack comes out and stuff, but we had this special beta access for just a week and so now, they've like, taunted me. They're like, "Here, Kayla, do you wanna play the new pack? For 7 days? And then I'll steal it away from you again?" They literally added a separate version of The Sims 4 into my library, they did it last year for Eco-Lifestyle and Snowy Escape as well. They give you like, a second version of The Sims in your library and it's just the base game and this pack, and you have it temporarily.
Just to finish some videos before the pack comes out, and then they steal it! It's fine, I'm not upset, I'm okay. I'm not sad, I just -- I miss Cottage Living. I had so much fun with it, y'know, so it's kinda sad that it's gone. Speaking of the British, I'm actually going to the UK this week, which is bizarre. When you're seeing this video, I'm going to be there. So here's the TL;DR, I realize there's a pandemic and I also don't want to be traveling right now, trust me. But the situation is that my boyfriend, Dan, you might know about this, but
he lives in the UK, I have not seen him in a very, very, very long time. But he's actually moving to the US like, this week, Well, at the end of the month. And so I'm going there to help him like, pack, and finish preparing, and like, get all of his stuff together, and then we can fly back together, so I'm literally going there, quarantining at his house for 10 days, and then we're gonna fly straight back.
So the plan is just to help him move, right, but I'm kind of excited because again, I haven't seen Dan in a super long time and this pandemic. It's a weird time to be in an international long distance relationship, let's be honest. Of all the times, now is not a good time, but it's okay. It's almost done. I made a couple videos about that visa process, if you want to watch them I'll link them for you, but we've been in this process of trying to get him to move, for like a year and a half now, so we finally have the visa, so obviously like, once you get it it's kinda like okay, get a move on before it expires. So, he's coming at the end of the month, and I'm really excited! But there's still a lot to do so I'm a bit stressed, so you'll notice that my next videos, for like the rest of the month are all prerecorded.
I've recorded a lot the past couple of weeks because I wanted to have videos ready for even like, after he gets here, because we're gonna have a lot of like, immigration type stuff to do, I just wanted to not have to worry about videos, but don't worry, I'm still uploading. And uploading a lot, because I made them all already. But that is the plan, so I'll keep you all posted. I'm really excited,
I'm gonna have like, probably some like, pictures and stuff to post online, which'll be fun. Maybe I'll make a vlog. I thought about that, I thought about vlogging the moving thing, but I am not a vlogger so it makes me a bit nervous, I'm not gonna lie. I am not a vlogger. But I mean, it's a pretty exciting life event, so maybe I'll film some stuff to just to have, for like, myself, and then if it's cute, I can post it for you, I don't know.
But anyway, don't worry, I have both doses of the vaccine. To go there, the way that it works to fly to the UK from the US right now, you have to get a negative COVID test, obviously, before you even board the plane, and then you have to quarantine while you're there for 10 days and get tested on day 2 and 8, but you can also test out of quarantine on day 5, so I'm gonna get tested on day 5 as well. but I don't plan on touring the UK right now. I'm gonna sit at his parent's house, and stay there, and just help him pack, and then come straight back. I just feel really awful about the thought of him having to move by himself, y'know, like the idea of making that international move, right now, alone, is terrible and this way I can help him like bring extra bags, and it'll just be better, so.
I'm very excited and he's finally moving, so we have a lot to look forward to, it's just I'm a bit scared of making that flight right now. I know that like, I have the vaccine, everybody's gonna be tested, everyone has to wear masks on the plane, I just, the thought of that like, super long flight right now is a bit like, oh my God, ahhhh. Sitting in a big metal box, a big metal COVID box. But I'm sure it'll be okay, I'm sure it'll be okay. I'm gonna wear like three masks, mark my words. Double vaxxed, double masked.
Double tested! I'm just paranoid. But by the time you see this, I'll be there, so it should be fine. I made it, we're good. Also don't worry, I am still planning on streaming while I'm there, I don't know how often I'm gonna be streaming this week but I will be streaming. Obviously like when the pack comes out, I wanna stream and stuff like that, so again, I'm quarantining at Dan's house.
It's not like I'm gonna be that busy, so I can still stream. The one thing is that we wanted to spend some time with his family, obviously he's moving to the US, and he's not gonna be able to see his family for a super long time especially with COVID, like the borders are still closed, they can't come to the US right now, so we have literally no idea when they'll open and when he'll be able to see his parents again so the goal is to spend time with his family while I'm there and like, I don't know, watch films with his parents, and stuff like that, because it's been a while and he has to move, so we're gonna be spending a lot of time with his parents and stuff while I'm there, but I'll still stream a little bit. Actually, I think the day I'm posting this video is the day the patch is gonna come out. They still haven't confirmed when the patch is coming out, so it's all just guesswork like I still have no idea. What that means is that there's always an update before a pack comes out for The Sims 4, like a free update, and usually for expansion packs, the update is pretty big so for example, like the pond tool is coming to the base game for every body.
We're gonna have the ability for kids to cook and garden in the base game soon. I think, if I have guesstimated correctly, if my calculations and predictions are correct, I think the patch will come out today. So you'll have to tell me in the comments if I was right, I'm recording this on the 13th so I'm pretty sure the patch is going to come out today, like today the 20th, but I'm not certain, so if it is out, have fun building some ponds, my friends. I hope that you enjoy it. And if it's not out, well, I'm sorry. But I should be streaming today, I think that's the plan. I'm planning on streaming the day the patch comes out and the day the pack comes out, so I probably will be live tonight, if I'm correct.
But, I don't know. Follow me on Twitch, just Twitch.com/lilsimsie. It's a weird time, this prerecording business is very odd. It's very weird to like, prepare videos for this long, and to be planning on going somewhere, like going somewhere in general right now, bizarre, I've not been anywhere, y'know. I don't even go to the store! I've been at my house for the last year and a half straight.
Anyway, it's been a very busy few weeks because I've been prerecording so much, so I've made so many videos the last like, three weeks, and I'm still going. But I think this is the second to last video I'm going to record before I leave I'm almost done, I'm just gonna make one more after this, and then I'm gonna be ready. My plan for the rest of the week -- it's just Tuesday, I'm leaving on Saturday.
My plan for the rest of the week is to finish packing and cleaning and stuff, because Dan's moving I've been trying to like, deep clean everything for the last couple of months. Like slowly going room by room and closet by closet, and like helping to clear out stuff, and make space in drawers, y'know, I've been trying to do that kind of thing so I've been really cleaning and I gotta finish up a few things before I leave. I also wanna clean, like, regular clean too, like I don't know, I wanna clean the shower and all that stuff, so that's the plan. I'm going shopping on Wednesday. I plan to go to Target and buy new mascara.
So, really exciting stuff going on right now. Also, I realized I told all of you I was flying out on Sunday, I'm actually leaving on Saturday. I lied because I was scared about people knowing what flight I was on.
I've had some incidents this past week, with people knowing where I am. So. I've decided to be a bit more careful. Sorry for lying about when I'm flying though, I do feel a bit guilty about that. But do you know what? It's better I lie than I don't know, people know. Because that could be bad. So like I said, it's been a weird week.
Um, I apologize. I've been really stressed. Combining that with all the work I'm doing, ahhh. There's a lot going on right now. But the house -- we're on the inside now, I'm sorry, I'm just sitting here talking about myself, I don't know. But on the inside of the house, you'll see it's a pretty open floor plan that whole like, main living space is pretty open right now. I ended up closing it off
a tiny bit more and I think this is a very realistic floor plan for a house like this. Like it's got kind of a closed off entrance. To the right there's a door into like, a smaller, more formal living room. And then to the left, you have the dining space, the kitchen, there is a TV room, there's like a sunken sun room living room, there's a bunch of living areas in here, and I think it looks really, really good.
So I was pretty pleased with this one, I did close off the kitchen because I wanted to have it look, like, a little more interesting, but I do think at the end of the day it looks pretty nice. There's also like a utility room, sort of space where the backdoor is, I think if I had all the packs installed, I would have put laundry in there. Like. I like the idea of some sort of mud room,
type thing when you first walk in from the back, so there's like the watering cans hung up, there's some counters and a sink, stuff you might need for storage. That kinda thing, maybe you hang up the broom in there. I don't know, and then that's kind of a hallway that'll take you into a bathroom and an office downstairs. And then upstairs there's three bedrooms, and a couple bathrooms. So it's not really like, a big house. It looks really big, but it's only three bedrooms at the end of the day.
I think in real life, a house like this would probably have a lot more bedrooms. But I guess the upstairs isn't that big. When you look at it for real, the upstairs isn't necessarily massive. The downstairs is pretty big, and I suppose if you wanted to make the office into a bedroom, you could. And then this like, second living room space could be a bedroom as well. Like I know in Dan's house, they've got a converted garage that was already converted when they moved into it, that like, is his bedroom and then the old dining room's his sister's bedroom, so I mean that's the nice part I guess about these houses is in the US it's not as common, especially down where I live it's not very common to have like, doors into rooms.
like we have super open floor plans, which is nice, It's nice to have like, arches, and big open, wide, airy spaces but it sometimes is also nice to have like that dining room have a door that you could make into a bedroom if you need extra space, you know? Like that part is kind of a perk. Because you don't always need a formal dining room, but you might need an extra bedroom so when you've got a big, giant arch into it that's a bit more difficult than just a door. Perks of older houses. Less bedrooms, but more rooms you can make into bedrooms, right? And I guess, this house I sorta imagined as probably super old, like in real life this house would've been built a super long time ago. We don't have that in Florida. We don't have old houses around these parts.
Orlando, Florida? Pretty new. Everything here, pretty recent, I'm not gonna lie. It's um, all built yesterday. And that's not even an exaggeration. I've always loved old houses so much, I think it's one of those want what you can't have kinda things like I've always loved the idea of living in an old house, a more charming house with character, that really excites me, but I feel like people that live in old houses are like aw, I'd love to have a brand new house.
I mean my house isn't brand new, but it was built in like 2000 or something, y'know, so it's not old by any means that's brand new in comparison to things built in like, 1900. So. But I don't know, houses built more recently just don't have any character to them, they're so ugly. I hate to say it, but it's true. Like, most of the houses in Florida? No charm, just weird. Every single one of them. And I've lived here a long time so I say that with confidence, it's true.
They're all a bit odd. I can't believe Dan is willingly moving here. To be fair, there's a lot worse things in America going on right now than just our lack of charm in our houses Truly, I can't believe Dan is moving here. But it's okay, it'll be fine. Because at least I won't be alone anymore, right? Anyway, the house has two bedrooms, I've got one bedroom for like, a younger kid, and then one more like teenage bedroom kinda thing.
And I'm gonna let you in on a little inside joke with my Twitch stream, you know how I put those little sports things on the floor, like the the baseball bat, basketball, like that little pile of sports equipment? The other day on stream I was building a house and you know when you're streaming and you've been talking for -- at that point, I'd been live for like, 6 hours, so I had been live all day. You kinda lose your mind a little bit. And I was talking and I was like, oh we can put some sports on the floor! And I grabbed that item and put it down and my whole chat was like, Kayla, you're gonna do what? And I was like....you put some sports on the floor. And now they keep mocking me for saying sports on the floor, so yes I put some sports on the floor in this house.
Now you're in on the joke. It's not even that funny but everybody was laughing at me. To be fair, the way I delivered that was kinda funny. Anyway that's pretty much the whole house done. I know I cut out a few of the exciting parts of the build, so I'm gonna show you a quick tour. I did record this like a week and a half ago, so I'll be in a different shirt.
So I just finished building this mansion with Cottage Living -- mansion's a strong word, it's not even that big, it's three bedrooms, but I finished building it and I didn't record all of the speed build because I figured that the dumb watermark would be so annoying like, floating across the screen. It's already so distracting and I figured sped up it'd be even worse. So I'm going to give you a very detailed tour of the house now that it's done.
Now obviously I was really inspired by this photo, and so when I actually started building I was kinda trying to go for a similar shape. Obviously, it looks different in the end. I realized that it looked kinda silly in The Sims, so I had to make some adjustments. I've been having a lot of fun with this pack trying to like, branch out with my landscaping, because usually I think that mixing and matching flowers looks a bit busy, so I'll pick like one color and I'll have like all yellow flowers in the front yard, which I guess isn't even that realistic, I just -- I don't know, I usually do that but with this one I was trying to branch out some more, so all my builds have pretty detailed gardens like, really fun, lively gardens. I also tried to have like, big courtyards in the front and back of all these houses which is different than what I usually do, I don't usually have an enclosed courtyard in the front.
and this one actually has some living space, like the front courtyard here there's a couple garden planters obviously lots of landscaping, and there's a table, a garden hose, there's even a pond. And then if you walk around it takes you kinda through a little windy back area back to the back of the house where like all the action is happening, y'know. There's another back sort of a courtyard area here too with a grill and like a patio table. There's some stuff for the kids, the chickens kinda have free reign of the back area, they kinda just hang out back here in the whole space and then the cow has its own little pasture spot.
I've been putting like little stacked hay bales everywhere in these areas, which I think looks kinda cute. And I used a lot of debug out here, so you can see like, all of this is debug landscaping. I tried to fill up the lot, because this is a 50x40 lot, it is massive. Neighbor's car alarm is going off, that's cool. I'm just gonna keep recording and we'll hope it stops. And then if you keep going along the pathway it takes you to the little like, plant, crop area. I probably shoulda fenced this in.
I feel like if it were fenced in, you'd have less of a problem with like, I don't know, foxes destroying it or something. But I left it open. And you can see on the outside of the house -- ooh, window glitch. Don't mind that. Just some move objects problems. The outside of the house, it's kind of an interesting shape. It's kinda long and skinny, like this room is a bit weird, you'll see.
Also, this part, the sunroom, I was really inspired by one of the builds that's in the town I think it was built by HeyHarrie, she did this with these windows and I thought it looked so cool so I did it too on the outside of this. I think it looks really realistic, as well. Like the columns with the windows, it just works, like, really well. I don't know, I really liked how that looked so I stole it and put it on this house. On the inside, it's supposed to be like a slightly older floor plan that maybe has been updated a tiny bit. So I opened up the living room area a little bit, but you still walk in to like a small, closed off little hallway.
There's a door into the fancy like, formal living room, I don't know. There's just two chairs and a fireplace. It's a big house so it's kinda got like three living rooms. This is one of them. And then to the left, you come into the dining room and then that actually leads you into another living room that's sunken in that sunroom area. And then there's like the
TV room area that you kinda just walk straight into, too. And then there's an archway into the kitchen, which is actually really big, there's a lot of counter space in here. But not a lot of good spots to put cabinets, believe it or not. There's a lot of wall, but a lot of it's covered in window, so. Like I didn't wanna put cabinets next to the windows because it kinda looked weird, so I just didn't, I don't know. But I think it's cute in here.
And then if you come this way -- this in my mind, I was pretending was like a utility room. Because it's where you walk in from the back. so I feel like in real life you might have laundry in there, or like lots of storage.
You'd put like, the broom and -- I don't know, you'd have stuff like that in here. Nice spot to have. And then there's another hallway that takes you into the downstairs bathroom which is pretty simple and small. And then this little long, skinny room off to the side is the study.
I feel like this floor plan is pretty realistic, to be honest with you. So I kinda liked it. And then when you go upstairs there's a big hallway, I put a desk in the hallway because I always do.
I just feel like it's useful to have extra desk space, you know, so I put desks in my builds like everywhere. And then there's three bedrooms and one bathroom, there's a hall bathroom up here for like everybody to share. There's one kids room, for like the little brother, I'm picturing. I think maybe a teen lives in this room, it's like a pink bedroom. I love the new bed so I wanted to use that swatch.
And then the parents have their own side of the house, they've got a bed, and a dresser, and a little desk, and a smaller bathroom, but they do have an en suite. And then that's the whole house. You probably could fit something in the attic if you wanted to put like, a ladder into the attic somewhere, you could put storage up there if you wanted to.
I just don't really do that in my sims builds because I feel like it's not necessary, like what do you need to store in the attic in your sims builds, because you have a household inventory, y'know, so I just don't always bother, but you totally could if you wanted to. Maybe like the old bassinet, you know, stuff like that you could throw up in the attic. If you have seasons you could like, put the decoration box and stuff like that up there too.
I think that kinda thing is cute. But that's the whole house! I've been having so much fun with landscaping and terrain tools with this pack. Like I've been spending a lot more time trying to make more detailed paths and obviously using the ponds and stuff like that, trying to make like, really nice areas. I haven't tried to make anything raised but I have been sinking things and filling them with water. I'm getting slowly more comfortable with terrain tools, maybe now I'll start doing more things with like, putting houses on hills and stuff. I just, it makes me a bit nervous. I don't know how to make it look good, so I just don't.
Maybe with this pond tool now I can start branching out more. The house ended up costing 102,000 simoleons, which isn't actually that bad. To be fair though, it's only three bedrooms. Like it looks like this really grand house from the outside and it's really expensive, and it only has three bedrooms so it probably could be better, I guess if you wanted to you could make this like, second living room, and the office into bedrooms, and then you could have five, and that would be better. But yeah, for now it's only three and that's a bit sad for a 100,000 simoleon house but it's okay, it's okay. It's meant to be grand. Well I hope you enjoyed this video, and with that being said, I will see you all tomorrow. Bye everybody. I'm gonna take this opportunity to plug my social media.
I'm gonna post on Instagram this week, follow me. It's just lilsimsie, same handle literally everywhere. But I swear I'm gonna post pictures, and they're gonna be good so I -- I mean, you should go there, immediately. I'm just saying.
2021-07-24 07:20
