Sims2: Moving House

Cassidy Newson inherited a lovely three-storey house near old Strangetown from his parents, where he and his partner Rita Wilkie have been very happy.  However, they have a fifth child on the way, and that three-bedroom house is bursting at the seams.  They've decided to buy this bigger Victorian on Edgewater Parkway in Bluewater Village.  They love the big lot with trees and a fishing hole at the back of the lot, and it has three big bedrooms on the second floor and the potential for a master suite on the top floor, just like they used to have.

However, tensions are running high between Cassidy and Rita.  The twins Roberto and Catrina coming close after Ritchie, plus another immediate baby, PLUS moving house have put a lot of pressure on their relationship.  Even this idyllic location might not fix everything between them. The picture is not that clear, but here is the whole family just after moving in; two adults, two children, and two toddlers, plus two cats (although one has already wandered off to explore).

Sims can move house in two different ways. An individual Sim or group of Sims can move out of their household by clicking on a computer and choosing "Find Own Place". In this case, I wanted to move the whole household, which is done from the neighbourhood view. First I put some of the personal things I wanted them to take with them (like the cribs and kids' toys) into Rita's inventory. Then there is a "move family" tool that removed them from the house, sold everything for Simoleons, and put them in the Families bin. Then I could just drop them from the bin onto the house I wanted them to move to.  This is one of the pre-built, unoccupied homes that comes with Bluewater Village.

Sims that move from the Families bin to a new house always arrive at 9am on Monday.  A Sim that moved to the Family bin and was tired or hungry won't come out that way - their needs will mostly be in the green, except they invariably need to go to the bathroom. I find it handy sometimes if a Sim needs a skill for a promotion, for example; I can let their needs go down into the red knowing they'll reload in the bin.

If there are children in the family, like Catherine and Ritchie here, they will have missed the school bus, and I find it's useful to click on them and select "Walk to school".  That way they get their first day's homework, and it's important for children to stay on top of their homework, or the social worker might come and take them away.

The Challenge I'm working on means it's useful for me to have new households created regularly.  I get those when teenagers age to adult and move out, but the second method I use is to roll a random number from 1 to 7 for every couple every time they hit Monday 9am (as long as they've had all the kids they're going to have.)  If they're unlucky enough to roll a 7, they're targeted for divorce.  The next Sim week I play them, I work on ruining the relationship between them.  There are negative interactions, like "Fight...Argue" that I found I never used in the game before I started doing this.  There are tons of ways to ruin relationships.  Sometimes I'll make one of them host a party (on the phone, click "Throw Party..." and choose from the available types, which depend on the time of day and season) and invite other people they have lightning bolts with.  Sometimes a Sim will autonomously flirt with another Sim, and if their partner is around to see it, they'll get jealous.  The next time Monday at 9am rolls around, I roll a random 1 or 2 to see who moves out.  Usually I have rolled a 1/2 for each child as well to see if they stay or go, but I think I will start rolling a random number for the number of children who go, and they decide who goes by how close a relationship they have with each of their parents.

Splitting up kids seems cruel in the real world, but doesn't affect Sims, fortunately.  The children will occasionally bring their siblings home from school to play with, and they maintain their family tree relationship.  I split them up for the practical reason that you can only have eight Sims in a household.  My households tend to be big (lots of kids!) so if either partner wants to re-marry and possibly have more kids with their new spouse, there needs to be some space for those Sims.