Early Week 5

Grim Grotto in winter. A sad lonely town with two houses and one community lot.

The Elm family at the start of the week. Ella is a single mom to 6 kids (3 sets of twins). They all have the same dad.

Andy and Ann are teens, Bart and Bambie are kids, and Candy and Curtis are still toddlers.

Monday, 10:02 am.

Ella will become an elder in one day. The picture shows the lot at the start of the week. Next to the 2x2 pool you can see the remains of the first Butler. So far, he remains at peace (has not haunted). Sims paint if they don't have other wants that I can complete or they are in plat. I'm trying to keep them in plat as much as possible so they can earn their Perm Plat status ASAP. It doesn't always work out. Currently only Candy, a toddler, is in plat.

Monday 3:34 p.m.

Since their is only one day left before Ella is an elder, I decided to send the family on a vacation.

They plan to stay in a hotel in Twikkii Island.

I hire a Nanny to watch the Toddlers, since they can't come on vacation. The Nanny costs $250 as an initial cost then normal rates apply of $10 plus $15 per hour. Since time freezes on the home lot, I wonder how much actual cost is spent on the nanny. Is it $15 per hour while actually away, or just the time it takes the sims to get into the shuttle and exit the lot, plus time to return home until Nanny is dismissed. I'd guess its not actual time, since the clock time on the lot freezes.

Here are a few of the sims getting into the shuttle to the airport.

Here is a shot of the "Marriott Hotel and MORE" vacation hotel that I created a while ago. It has an area dedicated to each vacation spot. This allows my sims to collect more momentoes without loading multiple lots. Kind of a "one stop shop" for vacation. (click link here or above for more details of the vacation lot.)

Ella checks in. $295 per night plus. I reserved another room, then realized no one was using it so took the extra room off. The group (5+2 guests) share a double bed during the vacation. There is a tent in the "Three Lakes" area and a bench in the "Twikkii Island" themed area. The tent isn't available unless the sims check in one of the hotel rooms. It worked nice as extra sleeping spots for this group.

Ella spun a want to win a cooking contest. There is a cooking contest table set up in the middle of the vacation lot. I sent the mom to participate in the contest to complete her want. The cooking table offers me a creative way to feed the group and fulfill a want. Ella won the contest making her $500 simoleons richer.

Here is a shot of the family and Talin, a local (vacation townie), setting down to eat.

There are a couple other family members at a table near by.

The maid didn't clean up when the sims were done eating. When I returned to the lot at a later time, the plates from this meal was still there. Sometimes the maid will clean this area but for some reason, this time she didn't.

Here is a picture of their room. Its a double bed with an area to eat so they can order room service. Bathrooms are in the community area.

I had a horrible time trying to keep the sims in plat while on the Hotel (community) Lot, therefore I ended the vacation early. Even so, the vacation was considered a good one, they got three vacation benefits.

As soon as they returned home, I had Ella buy a vacation lot. She aged to elder just before she called.

She calls to plan another vacation for her bunch.

They arrive at there empty vacation lot.

Here is the lot on Wed. at 12:17. Some sims are painting. Ann is digging. I sent her to dig to see how many treasure chests she can dig up during the vacation. Andy is working at the toy bench, he spun a want to buy one then a want to earn badges on it.

Keeping them in plat was a lot easier on the owned vacation lot. They could also use the energizer making need building less of a struggle.

Ann dug up the map for the hidden area. Here is a shot of the family helping fix all the broken items on the lot. (Thursday at 9:33 am.)

They leave the mystery lot to return to the "Marriott Hotel and MORE." Before leaving their vacation lot, I purchased sculptured to reduce their money down to $387. I wanted to see what would happen if they didn't have enough money to pay for the hotel at the end of their vacation. I hope they get kicked out. :-)

Since I have more money than what they need for one nights rent, I sent them to buy food, learn to fire dance, learn a massage, and buy room service (get a few momento's that require money).

I have Ella call to check on the bill. Current bill is $302 and they only have $74 in cash. If they are going to get kicked out, it should happen soon.

Another day passed and they didn't get kicked out, so I had Ella check out. She got a pop up that said "Staying in a hotel isn't free and since you are lacking the necessary funds to pay for your stay, a bill of $625 has been sent to your home." That is the actual total, they didn't add a processing fee or late fee.

They prepare to return home.

They had $35,456, just after they purchased the vacation lot.

They had $24,548 after they made some modification to their vacation lot.

They currently have $44,860 cash.

They are going home with more than they came with plus the amount lost from building onto the vacation lot. Not bad for a working vacation.

Ann found 3 treasure chests. The amount she earned from them are not in the vacation earnings. I didn't sell those until later in the week. I'd like to try this again and see if a sim can earn more treasure chests.

They return home Monday at 9:48 pm. The pictures shows the Nanny walking in the living room with dirty bottles laying on the floor.

Home lot time:

• 6:25 pm when purchased lot, I don't have a time stamp later than that.
• 9:48 pm after I return with the nanny walking around the house.

My guess - I think the Nanny fee is $250 a flat vacation rate. Since time freezes, I'd guess they don't charge for the hours the sims are away on vacation. The normal fees apply to the amount of time she is on the lot while sims leave/return from vacation up until she leaves on her own or is dismissed.

This is a picture of the used energizers in the back of the lot. Just for fun, I'm collecting them to see how many energizers the family uses.

A couple stock ups and downs for the week. I didn't catch them all, but they did get some reports while they were on vacation.