Part 4 | Upgraded House

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INTRODUCTION

Welcome to another week of my Midnight Sun Challenge blog. Last time we had a bit of a shock with Theresa dying. I'll just distract all my sims by keeping them busy with working on their skills. I'll try to get the girls ready to age up (teach them to talk, walk etc) in this part. I forgot to mention that Bao was actually at the Adult life stage already when Theresa met him, so he might become an Elder a bit sooner than expected. Just a heads up. 

WEEK 4, DAY 1

It's a new year! Since I turned off Winter for the island, 3 weeks is a year. It's summer time again, so if I can gather enough money, I'll try to upgrade the houseboat with a bunch of fun stuff (like maybe a pool, water slide, juice bar etc). That's quite an expense though, so my sims had better work hard!

The girls are finally sleeping so Bao might get a bit of rest this morning.

Lyle made this painting which is worth 185 simoleons, and since Bao's already made something identical to this, I'm selling it. Lyle is level 5 in painting now, which is great progress.

Not another one of these weirdos...

He's grabbing some breakfast and will then just work on painting for the rest of the day.

The girls are up and they're hungry. It's only 6:00 am but Bao is quite well rested.

The toilet's clogged again.

I've decked out this room with kids stuff for Isla and Marina. They're hopefully going to learn a few things today. Don't know what that hole in the floor is by the way.



Isla's learning to walk and Marina's learning to talk. Bao's just unclogging the toilet. Let's see how this goes.



Isla's already learned to walk! We'll put her in the playpen once Marina's done with learning to talk. Bao unclogged that annoying old toilet.

Also, probably should've fenced this off before I got Isla to learn to walk.



Marina learned to talk, so now I'll swap them over.

It's pretty hard to get Bao to do anything with all his crying.



He's just been standing around for 2 hours moping! The kids need to be taken care of!



Finally he has the brain power to pick up his child! Seriously, at this rate the kids are going to be taken away by social services.



I changed Bao's room around a bit. I was getting sick of it looking so blank and white. They are still on a really tight budget, so he really just has the absolute basics.



For some reason he felt the need to put Marina down here? Anyway, the girls have both learned to talk and walk. 

Lyle's been pretty sad and lonely lately, so Bao's just going to come and talk to him a bit.



They're both feeling a bit better now, so that's good.



Everyone's tired and hungry again, so they can have cupcakes for dinner and go to sleep.

That's about it for today. Bao took care of the kids, the girls learned a bunch of new things and Lyle painted. Things are going well considering recent events.

WEEK 4, DAY 2

Day 2 won't be much different from yesterday. Bao will take care of the girls as usual, the girls will learn some stuff as usual and Lyle will paint as usual.

Our first ghost visit from Theresa! This is kind of disturbing...



Ghost Theresa is making tea beside her own grave..



I didn't even know that ghosts could drink tea, but okay Theresa.



Lyle's painting skill is really coming along. I just sold one of his for around 260 simoleons.

Uhhh... I don't really know how to feel about this. It's kind of creepy but kind of nice?



Haunting the sink, because why not try to piss off your family?



That's all for Theresa's visit then. Also, apparently the girls did remember their mother because they're friends with her in their relationship bars. Anyway, Marina's getting potty trained right now because Isla is too tired.



Marina's potty trained! Lyle got to level 6 in painting also. 



The girls are both tired now so that'll take some stress off of Bao for a bit.

Lyle and Bao are cleaning a few things up. This house needs maintaining.



Lyle is playing with some building blocks. I believe this helps with the handiness skill later on.



Bao is learning how to cook now that Theresa's gone. 



After taking care of the girls, Bao's going to sleep, and so is Lyle.



Today was a little weirder than I had expected with Theresa coming to visit. We made a little progress with everything we've been working on though. Let's see what happens tomorrow.

WEEK 4, DAY 3

I'll get Lyle to work on just building blocks today really. Bao will try to potty train Isla this time perhaps. Marina might just work on the peg box. I don't know how often ghosts visit, but I doubt that we'll see ghost Theresa again for at least a few days.

The girls are just playing by themselves at 1:00 am.



I've lost track of how many times my sims have eaten cake for breakfast now.



Lyle's doing nicely with his blocks.



The potty is certainly a lot nicer than changing diapers all the time.



Lyle mastered his blocks, so back to painting it is.



Lyle just made this 300 simoleon painting.



Isla's already quite tired, so let's hope that this doesn't take too long.



Isla's too tired as expected, but we made some progress at least.



Bao's already had dinner, so he's having a quick shower before bed.



Lyle made a brilliant painting worth near the 400 simoleon mark. He's hungry and tired so he's going to eat something unhealthy as usual and go to sleep. 



Today was alright, we got some things done. By the way, Lyle's paintings have been the main source of income for us lately since Bao has been so busy either being an idiot and doing nothing or taking care of the girls (not that well most of the time either). We're at about 4,300 simoleons at the moment which isn't too bad but it isn't great either. Maybe tomorrow we can make some more money.

WEEK 4, DAY 4

Today Bao can hopefully finish potty training Isla and then work on some cooking. Lyle will work on painting like he normally does.

Another ghost visit from Theresa! This time she decided to come early in the morning. Let's see what mischief she gets up to this time.



Drinking more tea I guess... I was expecting something more exciting but okay.



Bao is almost ready to get up which is good since the girls are already starting to cause us some trouble.



Of all things she decided to haunt the xylophone?

The kids' toys are defying gravity...



Marina learned everything that she can from the peg box.

Someone broke the toilet again.



Isla is potty trained! That means that Bao has nothing else he needs to teach the twins for them to age up well.



Okay, these kids must be magic. Their toys are completely hovering now! Or maybe it's just Theresa messing with us again...



Bao is at level 2 in the cooking skill now.

Bao's newest painting is brilliant, so I'm selling it.



Fixing the same toilet again.

This is the scariest thing I have seen in this challenge so far. Like what the hell Marina, you don't just grow longer limbs so that you can climb down ladders! That doesn't just happen! I think these kids are possessed or something. They can make objects float, and they can turn into that.



Lyle painted this which is worth a few hundred simoleons! He really is getting better and better at painting.



Bao and the toddlers are asleep now. Lyle is working on one last painting before he goes to sleep too.



Here's his painting. He's at level 7 now. I'll get him to have some dinner and a nice shower before bed.

I really feel like we're getting somewhere with everyone. I'm really hoping that somehow we'll be able to get enough money for all that summer stuff. I might have something up my sleeve that will get them enough.

WEEK 4, DAY 5

Today I really need Bao to get to 30,000 lifetime points for something I'm planning. I'll just let him follow whatever wishes he has today and we might get enough. Lyle will paint and the girls can just play with their toys for now.

Laptop girl aged up! She also got another boat I suppose.



He wanted to watch the cooking channel so that's I had him do. It actually got him to level 3 in cooking which is handy.



After playing with Isla a little he got to 30,000 lifetime happiness points! My plan is to get the 'Inheritance' lifetime reward which gives your sims around 30,000 simoleons. That means we'll be able to get all that fun summer stuff for Bao and the kids! They got around 32,000 simoleons from purchasing 'Inheritance'.

Alright, so my game crashed. I don't know when I last saved, but I know it can't be back more than 2 sim days. Fingers crossed that we haven't lost much.

So it set us back to day 4. I'll replay up until Bao gets the lifetime reward. Things might turn out a little differently to before but I'll try to keep everything the same.

Unfortunately, after playing through day 4 and 5 I was unable to get Bao the lifetime wish again. I'll try some more on day 6.

WEEK 4, DAY 6

So, having the game crash sort of set us back. That's fine though, it just means that I'll have to really try hard to get the inheritance (hopefully by the end of this week). I've just given up on getting the summer stuff, since it's so close to fall now. Maybe next summer? I'll spend the inheritance on some nice stuff though. Lyle is having his birthday today and is going to be a teenager! 

Everyone's just sleeping late.

Birthday party alone...



So here he is! He developed the Insane trait, which I don't think is going to be a good combination with his Rebellious trait. I feel like Lyle is going to be one handful of a teenager. Anyway, time for him to get some new hair and outfits.

The university mascot is here! I don't think we'll be needing her for a while, but whatever.

Here is what his everyday outfit ended up looking like. I don't think it's too terrible.

Lyle made this awesome painting.

Finally Bao got the inheritance again. I think he earned enough lifetime happiness from playing with his kids or something. This time we got 30,000 simoleons rather than 32,000 but that isn't a huge issue. 

My game crashed again! Luckily I saved at a good time, but I'm really getting tired of this now.

Alright, after 2 crashes I was able to make 2 very simple floors. They're empty right now but I have plans for them. The fifth storey (and the last storey that I'm allowed to build on the house due to the game's building restrictions) will be the heir's room and a bathroom. The fourth storey will be the non-heirs' rooms and a bathroom. The third storey will become an empty nursery when the girls age up (until the heir I pick out of our current kids has children of their own). The second storey will become just Bao's room and the bathroom. The first storey will be just the kitchen, living room and desk. I'll move the activity area's stuff to the bedrooms. Since I'm trying to make the most of the space and money that we have, the house is basic (and it looks like some weird tower thing now) but it fits the sims' needs.





Lyle's working on a new painting of his.



Bao is just tidying the place up a bit. Surprisingly everyone is doing great right now (which is unusual for this household, since someone is usually tired, hungry, lonely etc), so I don't really know what to do with everyone. I guess Bao can do some painting like Lyle.



Lyle got to level 8 in painting and his dad finished this.



Here's the finished product of the painting Lyle was working on. He's a little tired so he can just sleep.



After all that crashing, things turned out pretty well today. I'm glad that we have some spare space now for future children and our current sims. We still have plenty of money left over for when I decide to furnish those 2 storeys that I added.

WEEK 4, DAY 7

Today Bao is ageing up into an Elder, which seems kind of crazy to me. It feels like just yesterday Theresa met him in China, but now things are so different compared to then. Anyway, let's start the day.

Everyone in this house seems to be nocturnal.




Besides this one here.



Lyle is having a mood swing today which might be a bit of a pain. He's taking care of his sisters now since Bao is going to be asleep for several more hours. It's great that Lyle can help out with them now, although he might not particularly want to. Especially not today.



Bao was given the opportunity to go on a free vacation, but I had to decline due to the challenge rules which say that the sims that live on the island must stay there for their entire lives besides going to the three WA destinations or university. This kind of sucks for Bao.

Lyle is doing a pretty nice job taking care of the twins.



I decided to just remove the balcony entirely because it was taking up otherwise useful space. 



Lyle and his sisters are actually getting along very well.



Bao have finally woken up and is ready to become an Elder.



He's aged up! He'll probably spend most of his golden years painting and chatting to his kids. I'll go change his outfits.



I guess that his son doesn't really like the new beard. Oh well.


Here is his new appearance. I think his outfits are nice and comfy for the island.



Lyle put the twins to sleep and is taking a shower before he heads to sleep too.



Bao is painting a side portrait of Lyle that actually looks kind of cool in it's own way.



Here's the finished portrait.



I also got Bao a nice solid cane.



I had him go outside and mourn his wife Theresa.



Bao's going for a little nap. He clogged the toilet so he can fix that tomorrow.



So that's all for today then, and this week for that matter. The family really is growing older by the day. I'm happy that we have plenty of spare rooms now and quite a talented little group of sims if I do say so myself. 

CONCLUSION

I just want to say sorry for all the times that my game crashed and I had to start over. It's really annoying when that happens, but I was lucky that I saved at some decent times, because if I hadn't then there would be some real trouble. Anyway, I'm quite content with the family's current state. Things are moving along well. Like always, the next part will be posted in about 3 days if I can get around to it. Sorry for any errors. See you again soon!

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