5.10 Homestead

It didn’t take much deciding. If Sky and Leah were going to raise this child together, Leah would move in with Sky and not the other way round. Leah was from a large family herself. In addition to her parents Arthrit and Mazuki and her younger sister Miyuki, she had a teenage brother Raen and kid brother just starting elementary school. Her parents had started their family young and weren’t even sure they were done yet. The Samples, on the other hand, were all adult. Baby-on-the-way would never want for care. In fact, if anything, there was a danger the poor kid would suffocate under too much affection.

But as winter descended on Avalon with a vengeance, it became clear that the newer, larger household just couldn’t stay where they were. Charles and Veronica were already sleeping on a bedroll in the basement. Sky’s room fit a single bed with no room for expansion. And let’s just forget about a nursery.
No one wanted to bring the idea up to Veronica that they abandon the home she had designed and worked on herself. In the end, Veronica had to call the issue. “I have a lot more years of creation ahead of me,” she said. “You just see what I do with the next place.” So they started looking for a place to live that was a bit more scalable.
“We have quite a lot of money, really,” Sky suggested. “Why don’t we get a much bigger, nicer place? Not that this place isn’t nice, Mom.”
“I’d like someplace a little more rural,” Hunter said. “I need to be able to raise more produce if I’m going to expand this business.”
“Just so long as there’s a good dark basement for my research,” Forest said.
With those parameters, they cast about the island until they happened in Windemere Cottage, an agricultural estate in a less-developed area that had laid vacant for some years.
Sky was still barely showing by the time they were packing up to leave.
If Veronica felt badly about leaving her biggest creation behind, she never said anything. She did stand on the step of their new home for a while to look out at the tip of the top tower that you could see in the distance. But even then, she didn’t seem sad. More… admiring, perhaps. 
They had found a buyer for the place. Some couple named Sean and Cynthia Flynn.
“This is the master bedroom?” Leah gasped when Sky showed her the space. “It’s so elegant and cozy. And so much velvet!”
“And the bed is so soft!”
Sky beamed. “I’m so glad you like it!”
“Shall we give it a whirl?”
In light of the fact that they’d have to move their bedroom back indoors, Veronica did extra work on her bedroom.
Charles was very appreciative.
The boys set up their bedrooms in the large, comfortable basement.
Hunter began to set up his winter greenhouse in the barn.
To his surprise, Leah followed him there.
“Could you use any help?” she asked brightly. 
Hunter scuffed his foot. “Well, I can’t pay you,” he said sheepishly. “I’m barely breaking even right now.”
Leah shrugged. “I don’t need money,” she said. “I just love to work with plants.”
“Well, sure then!”
They worked together in near silence for hours. Hunter couldn’t remember when he last felt so comfortable with someone.
Sky hadn’t done too badly on her choice of baby mama.
Since there was a baby on the way, Leah bowed to Sky’s hopeful pressure and quit her job at the police academy. It was a grueling job with long hours that didn’t pay very much, and it seemed more important to have the time to spend with the baby when it arrived.

Since there was no child just yet, she found herself with a lot of spare time. When she wasn’t helping Hunter in the garden, she decorated the nursery.
“Wow,” Sky said. “It’s so pink.”
Leah clapped her handes and squealed. “I knew you’d like it!”
“But what if it’s not a girl?”
“Sky!” Leah said. “I’m surprised at you. It’s terribly sexist to think that a boy can’t appreciate pink. Pink is such a nice color.”
“Yeah,” Forest piped up. “What’s wrong with pink? It’s a great color for anyone.” That pretty much ended the discussion. Who was going to argue with Forest about manliness?

Hunter didn’t say anything. He just looked.
But he was grateful that when he stumbled over the pink mermaid doll, Enigma was there to catch his fall.
There was even something for feline family.
And canine.
And avian.
The pond had fish in it, to Charles’s delight.
All he had to do was cut a hole in the ice.

It seemed like just the right place for the Samples.
While Veronica was full of more pregnancy advice and horror stories than Sky could handle, Charles took it upon himself to take care of her. He was always near to make sure she was warm, fed, and comfortable.
Their new home was wood heated, so this often meant he trailed his daughter around and stoked the fire wherever she was.
The prospect of a grandchild was clearly on his mind a lot. On one hand, how could he not be delighted? On the other, it was a solid reminder that they were growing older. He sometimes had trouble believing he was old enough to have a child, much less a grandchild.
It turned out that the place was not quite as perfect as it first appeared. Some of it was in disrepair, and not always in obvious ways.
They discovered too late that the living room fireplace was not vented properly.
Leah was terrified when she saw the flames. She shrieked and cried.
The Samples were largely annoyed.
Charles and Forest dealt with the immediate problem.
Though the aftermath would take a lot more time for a lot less reward. 

Nobody was hurt, though, and the Samples knew better than to take that for granted.
Veronica immediately got out her tools. “All right, then,” she said. “You’re going to be harmless as a kitten when my grandbaby gets here!”
Leah threw herself into Sky’s arms, choking on tears. “I was terrified for you and the baby! I’m so glad you’re all right!”
“It’s all right, love,” Sky said. “It’s all right. We took care of it. Don’t cry.”
“I don’t want to be jerk,” Hunter said. “But could you two please go to your room?”
———-
Leah is an Artistic, Hopeless Romantic, Green Thumb, Schmoozer who Loves the Outdoors. She is quite seriously the Sample dream-in-law. I’m a bit perplexed as to why Story Progression assigned her to law enforcement, though. 
This is mostly slice of life transitional stuff to show off the new lot. I loved this place and wish it could have worked out better. But as you’ll see, not so much. Primarily, the problem was that the landscaping was so elaborate that there was almost no place you could do anything outdoors. No flat places. Too bad.
The nursery came with the lot, but Leah’s favorite color turns out to the spiceberry, which is essentially pink. I guess spiceberry would be the “bashful” in “blush and bashful.” (You foreigners can look that up :). )
Tangentially, I don’t think I ever mentioned it, but you might have noticed anyway. Forest’s favorite color is pink. I find this very entertaining and always make sure he’s wearing the color someplace.
Oh, yeah, and the Mai family is in fact large and still growing. I created the family from four anime sims I downloaded from ModtheSims, who I assembled into parents and two teenagers. The child Raen is actually the genetic product of his parents. (And he turned out very nice — I’ve seen him around town.) Then I forgot and left both parents as YA. They’re madly in love and still cranking out kids.

0 thoughts on “5.10 Homestead

  1. "Pink is my signature color."

    The new lot is beautiful! Then again, everything in Avalon is gorgeous so I shouldn't be surprised!

    Leah is perfect for the family. I love that she and Hunter get to have some time together, too. He needs friends of the two legged variety.

  2. Hehe, I just watched that movie within the last month, and I made my 9 year old son watch it with me. Ok, he was in the room playing his 3DS, but he did look up and ask me why I was moaning and crying, at which point he got a little sad face because she had died. Then he unpaused his game and continued Lego Batman. πŸ™‚

    Your decorating skills are very good, I love the new place. That fire didn't stand a chance in a houseful of brave sims.

    And that owl, does that come with Supernatural? It is beautiful!

  3. There's nuthin like Steel Magnolias. And it's one of those rare situations where the movie outshines in the stage play IMHO. I was excited to see a performance of it a few years ago, and I was kind of disappointed. Expanding the story outside of the hair salon actually made it better.

    I'm not sure that a 9yo needs that kind of pain in his life just yet, though :).

    At any rate, pink is TOTALLY Leah's signature color.

    Please don't give me credit for the decorating. I can't build homes worth crap. All I do is spend obscene amounts of time looking at other people's work and pick out what I like best. This time I really wanted a place with a barn to house Hunter's hopefully-future unicorn.

    The lot is Windermere Cottage at MtS: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=492949

    However, as I said, the gorgeous landscaping turned out to really damage the playability of the lot. We don't stay here terribly long, thought I was really sad to leave. I guess the lesson is that for a lot to be playable, a serious fraction of the landscaping has to be flat. Otherwise, you can't use objects, plant plants, or even make snow angels outside on the grounds.

    Aral is one of the rare large birds from pets, actually. Veronica tamed at the top of a mountain in China.

  4. There is no situation where you can't throw in a Steel Magnolia's quote. My personal favorite is "You know I love you more'n my luggage!" I've always wanted to see it on stage, but I'm a little sad that it's not as good! I'll still go see it if I have the opportunity, of course, but at least I'll be prepared for the differences.

    I've never tried any of the overly landscaped lots, so it's good to know what to look out for. My problem has always been getting into houses that are really cute but really bad for interior camera angles! Trixie's home may have been a big, square box but it was super easy to remodel and take pictures!

  5. Two things I absolutely LOVED about this chapter:

    1. The new house
    2. The picture of Hunter after he tripped πŸ˜€ πŸ˜€ πŸ˜€ Made me laugh out really loud. I love him! And I need him in my game…something I will get right on tomorrow after work.

    It's still so amazing how those people, who are all so different from each other and want different things in the world, work out perfectly as a family and small community. I love the Samples πŸ™‚

  6. The house is absolutely gorgeous! Two bad that it doesn't work out for you … that's the risk you take when you download elaborate and beautiful sims homes. They aren't always play tested πŸ™

    LOL at Hunter. He really does make the most fascinating expressions. It also looks like he's found a kindred spirit in his new sister. I hope the pets weren't too upset at the destruction of their toys? My RL dogs would be devastated!!!

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