Cheapskate Sims: building on a bootstrap budget

Hi all,

Long time no post!

After idly browsing for building tutorials to TS2 (yep, I still play it!), I found this older post from MTS2 all about basements:

http://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=113189

Part of the forum post refers to how much cheaper it is to build with foundation than using walls:

Plasticbox wrote:A one-story house with a basement will always be much more economic to build than a two-story house of the same size. This is because one piece of wall costs §70 in-game, whereas one piece of foundation costs §3. Useful to keep in mind if you're on a budget, e.g. starter houses.

This was a bit of a revelation to me.  Years ago, I’d fooled around with boolprop to create some houses where the foundation was at wall height. Probably on a whim, I should imagine: it’s hard to remember exactly why. There are a couple of houses on here somewhere as examples.

EDIT: Found two of them:
https://simthings.editboard.com/t228-2b-now-available
https://simthings.editboard.com/t119-morebool-house-with-decking-now-available#529

However, it got me thinking: what about some Sims social housing? Could I build and let / sell some very cheap homes for Sims who are down on their luck? How cheaply could I build and furnish them so that the Sims could get by without too many cheats?

For the first time in years, here’s a sort of open-ended mini challenge for anyone who's out there and interested: build and furnish cheap but functional homes for a Sim in need. Post any pics and a download link if possible. State any CC or EPs needed.

Hi cyber nice to see you here.Guess how surprised I was when I found an email to say you’d been posting again.I thought you would of closed this place down by now but its good to see you back I guess.I thought wed had a budget building competition before though?

ghostinthemachine wrote:Hi cyber nice to see you here.Guess how surprised I was when I found an email to say you’d been posting again.I thought you would of closed this place down by now but its good to see you back I guess.I thought wed had a budget building competition before though?

We did. It was here. It referred to having a budget of only 25000 simoleans. This challenge is looking for the cheapest house you can build in whatever cunning ways you can.

Voici Bootstrap: built largely using foundation and a spot of boolprop.

Front view:


Rear view:


Bird's eye / floor plan view:


House built in Life Stories (Free Play Mode) for Mac. Something about this house reminds me of TS1.