Household Skills Project

[hazelnut]

The rules for this project are here.

House 1
House 2
House 3

Full chapter listing


Chapter 1 - Not the best start in life



This is my founder, Lea Tinker.   Her traits are a bit of an odd mix:  technophobe, clumsy, handy, ambitious and kleptomaniac.  Her supermaxed skill will be handiness.  I’m hoping the clumsiness and technophobia will help her to break lots of things so that she can fix them again.  Since there’s no lifetime wish that only involves handiness, she’s going into the business career with the CEO wish.  Her ambitious trait should be useful there.

This is her not-so-desirable new residence, Watershed, at 574 Bayou Gulch Drive (in the swampy part of Twinbrook).



As well as being badly maintained,  damp and under the dam, it’s currently infested with insects.



I’m not sure whether she’s thinking of bashing those moths with a rolling pin or turning them into a tasty pie.

“So, what’s the deal here?  A horrible house, no money and bugs!”
You’re a founder, Lea.  You’re supposed to have a tough start in life.
“And then I get to marry Christopher Steel?”
Um, no.  Sorry.   Wrong town.  And he’d be off limits anyway.  Let’s talk about it later.  You’re going to be far too busy to marry anyone for a while yet.
“What’s in it for me then?”
You’re making it possible for your descendants to live rich and fulfilled lives.
“That’s supposed to make me feel better?”



“Help!”

Chapter 2

[Pam]

Very nice, Hazelnut.  Good luck!

[ratchie]

The best of luck to you and your founder. Poor girl not getting to marry Christopher Steel.

Rachel

[hazelnut]

Thanks, Pam and Rachel.

I'm sure she'll get over her disappointment about Chris.  Eventually.

[loveSims]

Great start!  Good luck with the challenge.

[hazelnut]

Thankyou

[hazelnut]

Chapter 2: Down to business

When we left Lea, our less-than-plucky heroine, she was panicking over the bugs infesting her new house.
Help duly arrived in the shape of Dai Sekt, who seemed to think these particular moths and cockroaches were fascinating.  Lea wasn’t impressed.



 “Which planet are you from?”

Not the best thing to say to a science geek.  He started lecturing her about space and the conversation went downhill from there.





At least she got his phone number (after all, he is a male NPC) before telling him to get back in his spaceship and swatting her own moths.





Then it was time get a job before visiting the library to start learning handiness.



And at the end of a long day, Lea settled down in the fire station for a cosy night on the kitchen floor.




For the next few days, she lived at the fire station, popping home at intervals to check for bugs.  The commuting got easier after she visited the Simoleon Savers household…



Unfortunately, she wasn’t the only one out stealing stuff.  The house got burgled before she could afford an alarm and one of her two lights was taken.  It wasn’t much of a loss in terms of money but she had to live with the bad moodlet – the last thing she needed, since her mood wasn’t that great to start with.

It took her three days to get her first promotion at work.  Gradually, though, life has started to improve.  At the beginning of week 2, she’s made enough money from her job, opportunities and collecting to move into the house properly.



She had a wish to buy a water slide, which seemed a good idea now that all the foosball tables are at the other side of town.  Good, clean, non-technological fun.  Of course, this is where her clumsy trait really shows up.  She spends a lot of time flat on her face…



...which hasn’t stopped her getting addicted to sliding.

Chapter 3

[ratchie]

Great update I am glad she finally managed to afford enough of the basics to live in her (cough) lovely home.

Rachel

[hazelnut]

It'a a very nice home.    I have to admit to enhancing it a bit - it was fairly tatty to start with but I made it worse.  The insects were a surprise.  I think it's only the second time one of my Sims has moved into a house with problems.  Very appropriate, though.

[Roxanne07]

Great start! The house looks extremely cozy  !

I remember starting a game with a house full of moths. It wasn't really bad, because some of them could be caught and sold, and the science geek would take care of the rest.

[hazelnut]

I was surprised that there wasn't an option to catch most of them, just 'stomp on' for the cockroaches and 'swat' for the moths.  On the plus side, she did end up with a purple butterfly and a couple of green ones, plus two or three fairly ordinary beetles.

[hazelnut]

Chapter 3: Onwards and upwards

With a decent bed and a source of fun, the happiness points started piling up and after multitasker and office hero she bought her first unique reward, discount diner. It’s one I’ve never been impressed with before but it’s great value for a Sim who isn’t allowed to cook.

The day before her adult birthday, this happened:



By a strange coincidence, immediately afterwards she heard that a distant relative had died and left her over §30000.  She hadn’t even known she had any relatives.

She celebrated her birthday all by herself, outside the military base, where she’d been teaching the recruits.



She has plenty of money now for moving but the skill requirement is still a long way from finished.



At least her grotty little house is looking better since she redecorated and filled it with things to upgrade.   Improving the TV reception got her to level 10 handiness and completed the tinkerer challenge but she’s barely halfway through her repairs.

Her work metrics are looking pretty good, so she’s going to spend a thrilling weekend at the library and gym, sabotaging technology and flushing toilets.


Chapter 4

[Roxanne07]

Congrats on completing the lifetime wish and lots of good luck with the toilets 

[hazelnut]

Congrats on completing the lifetime wish and lots of good luck with the toilets

Thanks

[hazelnut]

Chapter 4: Sometimes, everything just works out perfectly

The weekend went to plan.  Lea loved the sabotaging part, although she wasn’t too keen on mending things again.





By Monday, she’d finished her ten plumbing repairs and just needed one more electrical repair for the supermax.   She had to hold a couple of meetings after work but rushed home afterwards to try to break something.  After a frustrating evening of failed sabotage, she was on her way to bed when her phone rang.  Could she fix a broken laptop for Julienne Knack?

Tuesday was another working day and her run of good luck continued.  She came out of the office a Power Broker.



After mending and returning Julienne's laptop, it seemed like a good time to go and invest in a business.



It’s probably not the done thing for the new owner of the diner to celebrate finishing her moving requirements with a meal at the bistro but that’s just what she did.



And so, on the Wednesday of week 4, Lea walked down the steps of Watershed for the last time



and drove off to her new home.




Chapter 5


House 1 summary

Skill: handiness

Lea (founder)

Maxed career – business
LTW – CEO of a Mega-Corporation
Skill supermaxed
Building/property – Brunton’s Boxcar Diner
Unique rewards – discount diner, inheritance