picspam: randomness with Hayden and Piper

This all started because Hayden and Piper wanted to buy a house. They won't be married for another six months still, but I didn't want to do the moving hassle at the same time I'm having to deal with wedding plans, so we did this now.

This is in Hazel Park (and hey, look, train station in the background!). He's still just about a mile away from his mommy, because I figured he'd want to move too far away, lol!

I didn't build this, but remodeled it quite a bit, both inside and out. I changed out all the windows and doors and stairs, and the color scheme. Complete overhaul inside. The second floor was left unfinished, so I finished it.

First floor: master bedroom and bath, office, living room, foyer/hallway, dining room, half-bath, and kitchen.

Second floor: I added two bedrooms upstairs, and a sizable bathroom. So it ended up being pretty roomy inside - I don't think it's any mystery what Piper wants to do with all those bedrooms ;)

Back yard view - there's not much space there. They couldn't fit a pool, I don't think. But there's enough for a swing or to throw a ball around at least. Hayden and Piper have always been more indoor games kind of people, lol!

We did a tiny bit of landscaping in the front, and added a small driveway.

The woman in black is another new addition to the Hazel park neighborhood, and she stopped by to introduce herself. You'll meet her in the semi-playables post - her name is Diana, and she has three teenage boys. Yes, I totally did add all those boys just because Lakeside Heights is almost entirely girls, lol!

And oh hey! Did you know when you're already tabbed out to take a picture, you can press "page up" to get the upper story to show??? Five years and I never knew that!!! Just think of all the shots I tabbed out of to switch floors, when all I had to do was page up or page down!

Here's one of Diana's boys, and Ryanne thought she'd give him a nice welcome. This one is Lewis, I think.

I was also in there to give Hayden and Piper makeovers. This dress turned out a bit more "ruffly" that it looked in the previews when I downloaded it. Don't you hate it when you get something home just to find out it doesn't quite look the same as it did "on the rack"

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Now for some gameplay notes!

This house had about a $25,000 price tag, and they put down about half of that in a downpayment. They take out their mortgage with the mortgage shrubs, which actually live underneath their foundation. So they ended up taking out a loan for $12,000. And as part of a new financial restructuring plan, the county is now charging "closing fees" on every home loan.

So let's take them downtown to pay their closing fees and "sign" their loan paperwork. Closing fees are 10% of the total amount borrowed, so in their case, it will be $1,200.

And I realize now that not even once in his four-year term has Brady ever been shown doing his job, lol! So here he is, talking Hayden and Piper through their home loan closing. Do you even remember who Brady is? Aurora and Nathan's dad? Poor dude's been largely left at home while Meadow runs around doing her school board business.

Anyway, the important thing here is that deco paper and book - I might take a stab at recoloring it to be loan paperwork and a homeowner's handbook, lol! But for our purposes today, it's going to be the paperwork that they'll sign to close their home loan, paying 10% of the total loan, or $1,200. I think that's kind of steep compared to real life, but Sim homes are also a lot cheaper than real life ;)

I make Madison selectable to change the price - it has to be done using the custom pricing tool because that's the only way to make a very cheap item be priced very high. And because this is all taking place at County Hall, any profit paid here will go straight into the treasury like intended. I've chosen a very cheap decoration to use so that the county will still receive almost all of that amount as profit, minus whatever very small "administration fee" it costs them to restock it.

County residents can pay any other fees they might have the same way. I'll still do my taxes by teleportation, but this can be a handy way for residents to pay any other unusually occurring fees they might have - home loans, new business license fees (idea from Heredon Cove)... hmmm, need to think of more fees to charge them, lol!

I have all of my public offices set up in the County Hall building, so I can also set up a similar payment structure for each office and its corresponding fees. An item for sale in the police department for paying law enforcement fines. Court fees can be paid here as well.

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Just some cute randomness...

And this is the one I used for their family pic in the database.

And here, a little tiny mini-story, that I didn't want to stick at the end of a gameplay note, about his new shirt.