awkward sims

So, I had an idea for a fun challenge when I put a few fixer-upper type lots in my game, and this is what I came up with! The Sims 4 Renovation Challenge. The point of this challenge is to transform a janky fixer-upper house into a beautiful home of your Sim’s dreams! The catch is that you have to build a lot of skill points and earn a lot of simoleans in order to complete all the work needed to make that diamond-in-the-rough home of yours sparkle.

Rules:

Place a fixer-upper house on any lot in any world. (The fixer-upper house can be as small or as large as you would like it to be and can have as many or as few bedrooms/bathrooms as you would like it to have; there are no restrictions on this.) Move your “Renovator Sim” into the lot, then set their simoleans down to zero.

Lock all exterior doors on the lot; your Renovator is not allowed to enter the property until certain requirements are met (see below). Old decrepit fixer-upper homes can be very dangerous, and your Renovator must learn a few things before poking around inside their new house.

Bills are not to be paid until the requirements are met for all exterior doors to be unlocked.

Your Renovator MAY NOT purchase a shower or tub, sink, toilet, or any electronic equipment while living on the property while the doors are still locked. (This is mainly due to the fact that your Renovator isn’t paying bills until the exterior doors are unlocked, therefore these items will eventually cease to function once power and water are turned off for late payments.)

Traveling to another lot requires EITHER Level 5 Fitness OR $10 transportation fee (round-trip).

Traveling to another world requires EITHER Level 8 Fitness OR $25 transportation fee (round-trip).

Your Renovator may date, create/join clubs, adopt pets, and make friends as desired.

Your Renovator MAY NOT have a job; once the exterior doors are unlocked only then is your Renovator allowed to join the Freelancer Career if they so desire. Once the kitchen, bathroom (at least one), and bedroom (at least one) are completely renovated and decorated then your Renovator may get any job if they so desire.

Due to hazardous living conditions, your Renovator MAY NOT have a live-in spouse/partner/roommate until the following rooms are completely renovated and decorated:

Kitchen

Bathroom (at least one)

Bedroom (at least one)

Living Room

Due to hazardous living conditions, your Renovator cannot have or adopt live-in children until the following rooms are completely renovated and decorated:

Kitchen

Bathroom (at least one)

All Bedrooms

Living Room

Dining Room

Exterior

Doors may be unlocked when Level 6 Handiness is achieved.

No renovating and/or decorating may be started until Level 10 Handiness AND Level 6 Painting is achieved.

General cleaning (i.e. picking up garbage, deleting cobwebs, mopping up puddles, etc.) may be done immediately upon your Renovator achieving the requirements to unlock all exterior doors.

There is a $500 dumpster rental fee once your Renovator begins general cleaning of the home.

Building Permits

Building permits must be purchased before renovating and/or decorating. They do not need to be purchased all at the same time; your Renovator may renovate their home in stages or room-by-room.

$5000 General Renovation Permit for a partially or fully furnished house OR $1000 General Renovation Permit for a non-furnished house. [Added for clarification: A house containing all or most of the essentials for living (i.e. stove, fridge, toilet, shower/tub, bed) is considered partially/fully furnished. A house containing NONE of the essentials for living is considered non-furnished.]

$1500 Exterior Renovation Permit (includes roof, siding, porches, landscaping, gardens, chimneys, and all free-standing buildings).

OPTIONAL GOAL: Throw a gold weenie roast after renovating

$800 Kitchen Renovation Permit

OPTIONAL GOAL: Have 2 friends over for a home-cooked meal after renovating

$600 per Bedroom Renovation Permit (ex: 2 bedrooms = $1200 permit)

OPTIONAL GOAL: Go on a gold date after renovating

$500 per Bathroom Renovation Permit (ex: 2 bathrooms = $1000 permit)

OPTIONAL GOAL: Visit a local spa for the day to gain inspiration before renovating bathrooms

$500 Living Room Renovation Permit

OPTIONAL GOAL: Have 3 friends over for a movie night, complete with pizza and popcorn after renovating

$400 Dining Room Renovation Permit

OPTIONAL GOAL: Throw a gold dinner party after renovating

$2000 Basement Renovation Permit (permit enables renovations to all rooms in the basement, including adding or removing rooms)

OPTIONAL GOAL: Win 3 games of Don’t Wake The Llama against your friends after renovating

$400 per Miscellaneous Rooms Renovation Permit (i.e. office, foyer, hallways, etc.)

OPTIONAL GOAL: Write and publish a motivational book (Level 3 Writing + Confident buff) aimed at inspiring fellow do-it-yourselfers to keep going strong with their own renovations.

Renovation Skill Restrictions

Your Renovator cannot begin renovations on any part of the house until the respective building permit has been purchased AND the respective skill has been learned:

Exterior Renovation (Level 5 Gardening)

Kitchen Renovation (Level 5 Cooking)

Bedroom Renovation (Level 5 Charisma)

Bathroom Renovation (Level 5 Fitness)

Living Room Renovation (Level 5 Comedy)

Dining Room Renovation (Level 5 Gourmet Cooking)

Basement Renovation (Level 5 Logic)

During my own play-through of the challenge, I used the amazing Forgotten Farmhouse lot built by the incredibly talented @jenba for my fixer-upper house. There are plenty of other awesome lots on the gallery that could be used for this challenge as well (search under the hashtag #fixerupper).

I would absolutely LOVE to see pictures and read updates from anyone who decides to play this challenge as I had so much fun creating it. Please do tag me in your posts so that I can easily see them and be sure to ask any questions you may have as well as share any ideas that you think would be helpful to add to the challenge to make it more fun/challenging/interesting. I would love to hear it all!

Linked below is a checklist of sorts that my husband graciously created for me and you all to use during the challenge as a way to easily keep track of all the different requirements and goals. You don’t have to use this checklist unless you want to! In order to edit the checklist spreadsheet, you must first save a copy. Open the speadsheet, then go to File > Make Copy. This will save a copy in your own google sheets/google drive so that you can make changes to it and refer back to it later.

SPREADSHEET : Sims 4 Renovation Challenge by simbeeps

A big thank you to @w-sims for looking over the challenge and giving me some very valuable input!