Veronaville - Monty Ranch lot tour

An update from my Veronaville hood today. Well, I say my Veronaville hood, but when I had issues with crashing earlier this year, I lost most of this hood. Luckily I had detailed floorplans and images of my lots and so I've been able to rebuild... and I'm restarting the storylines there with some different matches, just to see what happens ;)

This is a lot that I've rebuilt differently though. Monty Ranch is one of those lots that in its original state just leave me wondering what the guy who built it was thinking. It's a HUGE lot and yet 80% of it is totally unusable with tiny tiny rooms and wasted space in the form of endless corridors. Now I love covered walkways as much as the next Mediterranean architecture enthusiast... but this lot needs WORK to be usable for a family.

quick 'before' shot. Stupid wrap around walkways, plain and useless courtyard, 3x3 living rooms!!! I mean... come on maxis...

Before I post the pics of my end result, I just want to say that I was heavily inspired by Galialady's makeover of this lot and some parts are very similar, if not copied. That said, on with my pics! =D

Externally I made a few changes. I added a 'fake' first floor over the front part, just to give the front facade some interest. I took out all of the arches, knocked the rooms through into the walkways, and then added some connecting pillars around the front. The annexe, where the master suite is, got a bit of an extension.

I added a garden wall and entrance gate like Galialady did because I really liked the way hers looked. =) The area to the front of the annexe is car parking for up to 4 cars. These mini pools at the front are purely for decoration.

 The main entrance of the house. =)

Behind the annexe part of the house, there is a proper pool and sunken hot tub.

The layout of the main part of the house - with the outside corridors knocked through, the two front rooms are now a decent size - I've made one the living room and the other the dining room. I haven't really done much with these besides change the wall colour and add some extra windows. On the left side, beside the dining room, is the kitchen. The area which used to be the dining area is now just a walkway through to the annexe. Beside that, opposite the kitchen, is a bedroom, currently used by twins Benedict and Beatrice (I moved Antonio and his kids back in with his parents so he can continue working). A small corridor leads from that room through to the memorial room, which I pretty much haven't touched, and also a bathroom shared by Antonio and the twins. The other side of the memorial is Antonio's room which is very small and basic.

The right side of the house holds Mercutio's room, Romeo's room and the boys' bathroom.

The center courtyard now has some plants and a fountain which makes it a much nicer place to sit and contemplate!

The annexe is a little larger than before and now has a walk-in closet as well as the en-suite bathroom. The steps lead up to a small room and the balcony, which Isabella uses as a hobby area for painting and flower arranging.

Mercutio is currently 17 in my game and working in the criminal career track (hence the suspicious dagger on his desk). He has a sofa-bed, so it can become a sofa if he has friends over (I have a matching sofa which I swap in and out of his inventory).

Romeo's room is pretty plain, filled with cheap furniture and, much to his dismay, he doesn't yet have a double bed. Mwahaha.

The twins have a very colourful room with lots of toys and posters =)