The Dollhouse In The Attic

Version 2 - antennas are more responsive to movement and look like they have a life of their own, but they clip a lot and have a very limited range of compatible haircuts. Theoretically available for all ages, but completely broken on toddlers.

RECOLOR - these don't move, just a simple recolor of the original mesh (Namekian Style Skins and Antennas for Everybody, by Diekatze) to match the alien skin tone in game. Available for all ages and genders, and compatible with all haircuts. Mesh included on my file.

DISCLAIMER

The antennas are broken on a lot of haircuts (they clip, stretch or point in strange directions), and I still don't know exactly why.

Version 1 seems to work with some animated haircuts and all static haircuts (as far as I know).

Version 2 doesn't work with most haircuts and is completely broken on toddlers. See example below:

I'm trying to fix it, but it requires a degree of technical knowledge that I do not possess (frustratingly so). If anyone knows how, I'd be very happy to learn!

Anyway, enjoy! 👽✨

DOWNLOAD VERSION 1

DOWNLOAD VERSION 2

DOWNLOAD RECOLOR

Espresso Machine

First, the espresso machine. Object intersection is enabled, so you can put it on top of any counter, including islands, and it will function correctly as I also pulled the routing slots out a little.

The espresso machine and coffee grinder can be recoloured separately. All 7 colours from TS4 Get Together are included. You will need to drop the included CEP your program files, under zCEP-EXTRA. For Ultimate Collection users, this is: Program Files\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Double Deluxe\Base\TSData\Res\Catalog\zCEP-EXTRA

I reworked the model and textures from TS4, combining the mesh with parts from TS2, to create a fresh look that is still animated correctly.

Patisserie Counter

This is a decorative pastry counter that forms part of the Simple Counter Solution set. The simple counter and BB's niche are required, as both are texture repositories for this item.

It has 5 slots. The right-most one on the top is an end table slot and can be used as such by Sims looking for somewhere to put something down. The rest are decoration slots. Despite taking up two tiles' worth of space, it only has a one-tile footprint to save on GUIDs. It's designed to have the espresso machine on top, so that will stop any walk-through issues.

Download: SFS (Espresso Machine & Patisserie Counter) | MTS

Required: LC's 4T2 Shadow, Simple Counter Solution, BB's Niche

Known Conflicts

This replacement conflicts with jonasn's Espresso Machine and Barista Improvements because both modify 'Function - Init'. If you use this mod, please download my patch and have the patch load after both of our files.

^ did my best to try and recreate one of Trillyke's skirts. The heart belt buckle is from a pair of shorts for children. The pond skirt is literally just a tights swap.

Issues

Maxis gimped the lot skirt's functionality when compared to the neighbourhood terrain and lot terrain. The most obvious example of this is the lot skirt looking like absolute ass, while the neighbourhood terrain has detailed cliffs etc. - both the neighbourhood terrain and lot terrain support multiple paint layers and alpha maps, whereas the lot skirt is just one, boring texture.

Unfortunately, these limitations cause some semi-annoying problems when forcing hood effects to show up in lot view.

Certain effects have bugged positioning

When you download the mod, you'll notice that along with the usual plugin, there's a config file included too. This config file is important, as it allows you to blacklist neighbourhood effects to prevent them showing up in lot view.

Why might you want to blacklist effects? Well, several effects appear to require something called an 'effect map' to be positioned correctly in the world (don't ask, I don't know what an effect map is either).

The neighbourhood terrain and lot terrain both have an effect map, but importantly, the lot skirt does not. This means that the effects that rely on an effect map for their positioning (mainly those that are placed on water) will appear way up in the sky when you load in to a lot:

If you want to know why they get placed in the sky, it's related to a peculiar bug(?) I discovered while trying to figure out why decal effects (e.g. farm fields and wild flowers) weren't appearing in lot view, even though I could clearly see the game creating and processing them in the debugger.

Basically, things like decals and shadows need to be assigned to an overlay manager which... manages overlays. For whatever reason, when you load a lot from the neighbourhood, rather than assigning these to the lot terrain or lot skirt overlay managers like the game logically should, it instead assigns them to the neighbourhood terrain overlay manager. The same thing happens with the effect maps - the neighbourhood effect map is used, not the lot terrain one.

The neighbourhood terrain coordinates aren't actually 1:1 with the lot skirt. The game generates the lot skirt below the neighbourhood terrain during the loading screen, and translates the position of each object downwards. Couple this with the neighbourhood effect map being used, and you get boats sailing around in the sky.

It isn't until you travel to a community lot or switch to another playable household while in lot view that the game starts using the relevant lot effect map and overlay managers. For example, if you load the Goth household from the Pleasantview neighbourhood screen, then click on the Pleasant's house to switch to them, boats will suddenly start sailing around in their garden as the lot terrain effect map is now in use:

I have no idea whether this quirk has any noticeable effect on gameplay, outside of when trying to get neighbourhood effects to appear in lot view. I've already patched the decals so they correctly get assigned to the lot skirt overlay manager when loading from the neighbourhood, but I'd be interested to know if there are any instances of lot effects not appearing until switching lots due to the incorrect effect map usage!

The config file is preconfigured to blacklist any problematic vanilla effects, so you don't need to worry about adding these yourself - it's mainly there in case you run into any custom hood effects with bugged positioning that you'd want to prevent appearing in lot view.

Decals appear on top of roads

Decal effects will draw over roads in lot view, instead of drawing underneath them like in hood view, as they should do. I can't say for certain why this happens, but I'm pretty sure it's due to differences between the neighbourhood road materials and the lot skirt ones.

If we patch the code that creates the lot skirt roads to simply use the name of the neighbourhood roads instead, we can see that although the roads no longer match the surrounding terrain and have huge holes in them, the decals do correctly draw below them. Weird, right?

Either way, you should probably move any farm fields and wild flowers away from the roads to avoid this happening.

Decals that overlap the current lot's bounds get cut off

This is due to the lot skirt and lot terrain being two separate entities, each with their own overlay managers. Decals can only be assigned to one of these managers, so are unable to be drawn by both.

The lot skirt also does some maths to mask out the lot bounds, which prevents it from drawing its overlays over the lot terrain. You can patch out this mask and allow decals to overlap the lot, but it causes all of the decals and shadows on the lot to flicker like crazy, as both the lot skirt and lot terrain are fighting to draw their overlays on top of the other (aka z-fighting).

Actually it's an older build, which I tried to salvage cause I like the interior so much. Even now looking at the screenshots I feel like I could decorate it more to add to that historic atmosphere. That being said, since I wanted to keep the interior, the shell is still rather nonsensical xD no fr cause like

wtf is that supposed to be xDDD. Also the way the café is connected to the main building, yea I went a bit wild there xD. I love this lot just like I'm confused about it as well. Welp, I'm done picking on it so it's time to upload I guess ¯_(ツ)_/¯ xD

Floor plans

Btw feel free to delete the ceiling planks, they look cool for a pic but gameplay-wise I found them kind of annoying.

Also, there's this thing in the men's restroom...

It smells so bad there because they've got a whole barrel of garum/fish sauce 😌

first up i made two pride-themed recolors of the 4t2 harness top from lovestruck, because i love that mesh so much and i've wanted to recolor it since i first saw it (hopefully i can make more sometime 🤞)

one design is an edit of a keith haring piece i found, and the other is a simlish recreation i made of that one priDEMONth graphic (i've included the pngs in the zip if anyone wants to use them for anything). i also added some leather and fabric textures for detail. the tops are available for both AF and AM, on meshes by @lucilla-sims (here) and @kahdesta (here, thank you so much for the conversion btw, i never got around to saying it! 🖤)

🌈 [ SWATCH ] 🌈 🌈 [ DOWNLOAD PRIDE HARNESSES ] 🌈

second and most exciting (for me at least, lol), i made my first accessory box!

it looks like the little nail polish bottle in the first image, is found in plumbing/misc, placeable on surfaces, and it has 15 pride-themed nail colors, available for CU-EU. i originally just wanted to turn @moocha-muses's original pride nails (which i still owe my greatest inspiration to!) into an accessory box, but then i saw how pretty the textures on ava's nails were (handpainted!!!!!) and it made me want to blend them together, and these are what i ended up with.

the mesh for the nails is by shadylady482, and the mesh for the bottle is by hamartia, very helpfully remapped by the lovely @shastakiss🙏🖤 the little cursive logo on the bottle is from these. the biggest credit though goes to picknmix's dbpf scripter program and accessory box tutorial, without which i doubt i'd ever have had the confidence or the ability to make something like this.

i had to learn so many new things to make this, and i couldn't have done it without all the shared knowledge and tutorials the community has put together over the years. i'd be here forever if i tried to list them all, but i wanted to acknowledge them anyway. thanks ts2 community for over 20 years of helping each other make stuff 🖤

🌈 [ SWATCH (NAILS) ] 🌈 🌈 [ SWATCH (BOTTLE) ] 🌈 🌈 [ DOWNLOAD PRIDE NAILS ACCESSORY BOX ] 🌈

Why I made this

Every time I sat down to make a default replacement, the SimPE workflow felt like more friction than the actual creative part. I wanted something that got out of the way and just let me swap the thing I wanted to swap. This tool is my attempt at that, built for myself first, shared because I figured I'm probably not the only one who feels this way.

⚠️ Read this first: it's alpha

I can't emphasize this enough: this is both a personal project and an alpha program. Please expect things to not work.

I'd happily use this for personal projects, but I'd hold off on creating default replacements you intend to share with the community. Not because the files it produces are bad, but because they may not be optimized or follow every best-practice yet. That said, each update gets better and better.

So: if you want to help improve the tool, share feedback, report bugs, and you don't mind that it's not perfect, this is absolutely for you. 💜 If you want this to be as flawless as your manual SimPE method and you can't stand the thought of hitting a single issue... it's probably best to wait, or just use SimPE for now.

What it does (and doesn't, yet)

Right now it handles hair and clothing. Most of my time and testing has gone into hair, so that's the solid part. Clothing is very much a work in progress. Expect the rough edges to be rougher on the clothing side.

How to download and use it

I try not to gate-keep anything behind a Discord (I personally hate joining a whole server for one single thing). But because this is alpha, I'm constantly pushing out new versions, and the Discord is genuinely the best way to make sure you're on the latest one no matter when you're reading this post.

It's also just easier for everyone: Tumblr is rude as hell and already shadow-banned me once for sending links in DMs, so having a place to chat and report problems directly makes life better for all of us.

👉 Join the Discord here: Up-to-date Download in Discord

A note on what I'm actually asking for

I am not a professional software engineer. I'm a Sims lover who also likes learning new things, that's it. Your help genuinely means everything here. For those of you who are far smarter than I am with default replacements, please send any and all info my way: what works, what breaks, what a "proper" file should look like. I really want to make this a solid, easy tool for default replacements, and that starts with all of us.

↓ Required CC ↓

⋆ Simple Laundry Mod ⋆ SixamCC's Simsung & Fresh Spin Washers & Dryers

Having the Cowplant on a community lot is totally save. 😒😶‍🌫️

The code will only allow to eat Sims on residentual or secret society lots.

On an owned community lot, when the cake will finally show, any Sim will try to grab the cake, followed by a good sniff down from the cow plant. Done. Repeat, because the cake is suuuper attractive to Sims.

This Mod adds 2️⃣ new functions:

➡️A Debug menu that allows to bring up the cake, even on an unowned community lot. This menu is available by shift-clicking the cow plant.

➡️When the plant is in "cake mode", a new interaction is available that let you select a Sim to be "Sentenced to Death" by Cowplant.

It takes a moment to transition from "plant" to "cake" mode.

🐮DOWNLOAD🐮

Will only work with the maxis Cowplant.

To place a cowplant on an unowned community lot you need e.g. Buyable Career Rewards for Lot Builders.

Works great with:

@missirissims Cowplant Survival mod bundle. Especially the "Save victim" interaction.

HCDU+ will show a conflict in the TTAB resource for "Cowplant Autonomy".

What is it?

The Sims 2 Essentials Setup Tool is a single Windows installer (.exe file). Instead of downloading, unzipping, and hand-placing dozens of separate fixes, you run one program, choose what you want from a checklist, and it puts everything in the right place for you.

There are three quick presets so you don't have to think too hard:

Recommended — the sensible default set.

Complete — everything.

Custom — start from a blank slate and pick only what you want.

What's included

Everything here is curated to work together and this isn't a random pile of downloads. I checked every package against the others for conflicts (comparing the actual game resources each one touches), dropped or swapped anything that clashed, and set the load order in the few cases where two mods needed to coexist. So you can tick things freely without worrying that two fixes will quietly fight each other.

Over 140 hand-picked fixes and mods, grouped into:

Anti-corruption & core — the safety-critical stuff that keeps your neighborhoods healthy.

Bug fixes — dozens of fixes for Maxis bugs, from memory issues to gameplay glitches.

Helpful gameplay mods — quality-of-life tweaks that just make the game nicer to play.

Essential tools & systems:

CEP (Color Enable Package) — downloaded straight from MTS at install, see the note below

The Scriptorium

Radiance Lighting System 2.5

GunMod's Camera Mod 3.1

Rugs off-grid

TS2 Extender 0.8.1 (fixes only, optional extras off by default)

Objects.package corruption protection

Missing content restore (you supply your own Ultimate Collection or disc files — EA content is NOT bundled):

Restore IKEA Home Stuff (works on both Steam and EA/Epic — it sets up whichever your game needs)

Restore Missing Music

Missing Holiday Items

Neighborhood setup: clean/empty stealth 'hoods, or fully disable them, plus the MATY no-townie-regen mods.

Startup cheats: 45° object rotation and quarter-tile placement.

Third-party tools: SimPE, Mootilda's HoodChecker / LotAdjuster / Sims2Pack Clean Installer, and Body Shop for the Legacy Collection.

Backups & undo

This is the part I care about most: before the tool changes or replaces any file, it backs up your original first (to C:\ProgramData\The Sims 2 Essentials Setup Tool\backups). To undo anything, just run the tool again and choose Undo — you get a checklist and can roll back everything or only certain pieces. It does not add itself to "Add or remove programs"; it stays fully self-contained.

Requirements

Windows (I tested and created this on Windows 11)

The Sims 2 Legacy Collection (2025) or Ultimate Collection

For the "Missing" content (IKEA / Music / Holiday), your own UC or disc files

How to use it

First, a friendly nudge: back up your Sims 2 "Documents" folder. The tool shouldn't touch your saves, neighborhoods, or downloads — and it automatically backs up anything it does change — but it's always better safe than sorry. Just copy your Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2… folder somewhere safe before you start. (Besides… when was the last time you backed up your saves? 😉)

Download the .exe. It's unsigned (normal for community tools), so if Windows SmartScreen pops up, click More info → Run anyway.

Right-click the .exe and choose "Run as administrator" — it needs admin rights because it writes into your game folder.

Pick your edition, confirm your Documents folder, tick what you want, and click through.

That's it. To undo later, run it again and choose Undo.

A note on CEP

CEP isn't bundled in the installer — Numenor asks that it only be hosted on Mod The Sims. So if you tick it, the tool downloads it directly from MTS at install time. None of Numenor's files are redistributed here. That does mean CEP is the one thing you can't install while offline — but everything else in the tool works completely fine with no internet connection.

Credits & terms

Genuinely, all of the credit goes to the creators — Numenor, LazyDuchess, GunMod & the Radiance team, HugeLunatic, Mootilda, cyjon, Pescado & MATY, TwoJeffs, Nopke, simler90, LordDarcy, MidgeTheTree, hiloyt, CroconawSims, and so many more. The full list with links is in the included guide.

While I've reviewed everyone's terms of use in detail to make sure I wasn't breaking any rules, I'm only human and I could have missed (or misinterpreted) something. If one of your mods or tools is included in this installer and you'd like me to remove it, please shoot me a message and I'm happy to do so.

The tool itself is free and open-source — you're more than welcome to review every file and exactly what it does on GitHub. It's not affiliated with EA or with any of the creators above.

Missing something? Suggestions welcome

Think I've left out a crucial bug fix or a genuinely helpful mod? Send it my way. If the creator's terms of use allow it, I'm happy to look into adding it.

A quick heads-up on my philosophy, though: I originally built this for myself, and I like my game as close to vanilla as possible. So mods that change gameplay in a big way, or add features that were never in the base game to begin with, generally aren't ones I'll bundle. This isn't meant to be an "everything" list, but I'm always glad to consider suggestions, so don't be shy about sharing what you'd love to see!

Tunaisafish's Enthusiasm Overhaul (which among many other things, also stops the hobby enthusiasm from decaying when playing in other households);

Simler90's Matchmaker Fix (she will behave properly when showing up at community lots);

AncientHighway's Love Potion Restock Fix (the game does not incorrectly restock it as a nice potion);

Gummilutt's M&G Physiology Fix (no longer maxes out the Body skill when working out after learning the skill);

BoilingOil's Skill While Tinkering (NOT included in alfixes, but mentioned/linked in Charity's thread).

Tunaisafish's Get Parents Fix (NOT even mentioned in Charity's thread, but this an essential corruption fix to a problem that got even worse in Apartment Life. alfixes DOES address the bug, but I didn't need to extract it because Tuna already did a much better job, from scratch).

Even then, the thread failed to address (at least early on) the missing 3 documented features, only included in the .txt file for the mod. Those are:

17. Orphaned 6s and 12s no longer error returning from school.

18. Apartment door locks now work!

19. Urnstones in apartments no longer disappear or teleport to the curb.

Thankfully, these were pretty easy to identify, so I managed to extract those and other features (except the 17th, since Tuna's GPF already does that). Here's the link: https://simfileshare.net/folder/143255/