#audre

Today we’re back at the PI Strip on 10 Pleasant Boulevard to take a look at the last retail shop that I fully renovated in @one-plumbob’s custom world, Pleasant Isle. As I mentioned in the first post for this lot, one-plumbob had 10 Pleasant Boulevard set up as the world’s elixir shop. The areas currently reserved for the unfinished housewares store, and the Audre African Arts Gallery were just shells. The only area that was furnished was the section of the building featured in this post.

This building I now call Sun and Sea Pharmacy, because the sign I used had those images on it, lol. While the structure was a multi story community space, I either cut access to the basement, or completely deleted it. I can’t remember with certainty which I did.

The front of the building pretty much remains the same; two entrances with yellow benches sat out between them. The changes I did make were mostly cosmetic. I moved the neon sign that was once above the gallery entrance onto the pharmacy’s outer front windows. I added some welcome mats in front of each entrance, although I totally forgot to recolor them. I also decorated the window panes with custom medical posters that I want to say came from @aroundthesims, but may be from another creator. 

If anyone wants to verify/correct me on this, just comment and I’ll update the post.

The original lot used a nice wood pattern inside that I decided to add to all the shelving. I also used it for the register/prescription drug section of the pharmacy. That being, the columns, the half walls, counters, etc.

I think I might have lightened the white of the windows, switching it from wood to a custom miscellaneous white. I also changed the color of the paint above the wall panel, but the floor is the same as the original.

Unlike some of my other games, where I have a sim dedicated to making potions, Audre isn’t meant to be played in rounds that allow me to make sure all my sims are contributing to world upkeep. Additionally, while @anitmb’s merchant mod sales potions fine, I think it can’t clone them, so I wouldn’t be able to load a sim’s inventory from potions made in another game and resale them using the clone option.

So there are no potions. Instead, the pharmacy carries all the custom soaps, bubble bath, and bath bombs (which I think are rubber ducks) by Sandy, @mspoodle1, and @phoebejaysims​ (I might be missing someone here, lol).

Sun And Sea also carries the shower in a can and mosquito spray bottles that came with World Adventures, and probably one or two custom recolors of those items most likely made by one of the already mentioned creators.

Of course, using the merchant mod means being able to sale the custom personal care and house cleaning items on display. So there will be plenty of other items on sale here.

Several months back I introduced a friend to TS3 by loading up this save and showing off my renos. They’ve heard me talk about the sims, and watched a few minutes of Let’s Plays, but this was there first time really getting a look around in one of my games. This friend lives in the area that Pleasant Isle takes it’s inspiration from. They complemented both Sunflower Fresh Market (the most popular reno from this series), and Sun and Sea Pharmacy. 

I guess these shops look the most like the places they visit on the daily.

Today we return to PI Strip, a renamed public community lot located at 10 Pleasant Boulevard in @one-plumbob​’s world Pleasant Island, which is called Audre in my save. 

Last week, I shared images of the entrance and first floor of Audre’s African Art Gallery, and today we venture up the spiral stairs to view the two room second floor, where the art is showcased.

So a little story about the stairs before going up. 

Those are a custom item I got somewhere off the net, while desperately seeking build variety. I’ve never used them before because the style is rather limited. They look very 80s Barbie doll wedding, and don’t at all fit the modern style of this gallery. Still, I really wanted to use this, and plopped them down before I did anything else in this shop, before, in fact, I even knew what the place would be.

As I was renovating I thought, maybe the owner of the gallery recently purchased or rented the space, and it hasn’t really had much attention since the building was originally built. Maybe the owner of the gallery is just starting out or relocating to the town and can’t yet afford full renovation. Even better, the gallery is publicly funded and most of the funds go to just keeping the place open.

Whatever I go with, I’m keeping the stairs because I’m stubborn, lol.

Anywho, on the second floor I used some half walls (which might also be custom) to make a little stairwell, through which you can already see the pictures hung up on the walls. 

As a quick aside, AAAG specializes in photos and paintings. Unless I decide to use sculpting in this game to actually sculpt, which I highly doubt, what’s sold here probably wont change. 

If you take another look at the picture of the exterior, the second floor has a bunch of windows which limit wall space, and could cause damage to the featured paintings. To remedy this, I placed two and three tile walls, one tile in front of, or partway in front of, the windows, and then I tried to block the spaces off using plants. I’m hoping this will prevent sims from trying to route around the walls instead of using the open more navigable space.

I know we all know how TS3 is (and TS4 definitely has this game beat in that regard). If it’s hard to get there every sim in town wants to be there. Still, I am hopping they walk up, not do the toe tap and complain because I’ve got a mod to prevent that, see they can’t get there, and go around.

I may find that this was the biggest mistake ever, as I’ve also placed one tile walls in the next room to hang more art.  

I’m pretty sure I mentioned in last weeks post, that I didn’t have room for a lot of seating in the sales room (yup that’s what I’m calling it now), so I’ve placed two couches around the stairwell, along with a little coffee table. That way I can make and place coffee up here, and make it look like the gallery owner is chatting up potential artists or sponsors.

From the entrance way to the second room, you can see the one tile walls I mentioned before. There’s a bit more space in this room, as it’s the space above the in progress housewares store. I’m hoping that means this won’t become the portal to lag hell, but I won’t really know until I can get multiple sims in here at once.

I guess that if all else fails, I can at least place invisible fences where the walls are blocking the windows, and maybe do the one tiles if that still doesn’t help.

I should say, I have downloaded lots of black art (I also tend to download Indigenous and or non-black POC art that doesn’t give me racist fetish vibes), and “the lighting is dark enough that this person in this image could be black” (lol) art. All custom, of course, as diverse representation is scant in the game.

Because I have so much, I was able to fill out my gallery with a number of different images in different sizes and styles, and use a lot of cc I’ve yet to be able to incorporate into my residential homes.

I forgot to note, (or... if I’m repeating myself, forgive me), that the gallery is dark despite the lights, and it clearly being day outside, because I have a mod that fixes auto light mode so that the lights are only on in rooms where sims are, and not on during the day in rooms with windows.

All those walls make for wonderful places to hang up pictures, but they make it even darker inside unless I manually cut on the lights, and I forgot to when I took these.

Well that’s it for this shop.

At 10 Pleasant Boulevard, just next door to Edgar Square, is a two structure, three shop community lot, with it’s detached building originally designated as the Elixer Shop in @one-plumbob​’s custom world. 

It is here where I Iast worked, completing 2 establishments, and designating the third* for retail use. In the original Pleasant Isle, this lot was called PI Pharmacy, and only the detached building was sim accessible. In Audre, the entire public strip is called PI Row, and after removing the room markers, I set out to renovate the Pharmacy building, and fill the empty places with community spots.

Currently, PI Row is the home of “The Audre African Arts Gallery” and “Sun & Sea Pharmacy”. In the next couple of weeks (as I’ve begun tinkering again) it will also house “Hosting”, my home goods store.

Today, I thought I’d share the game shots I took of The Audre African Arts Gallery. This shop is located in the attached part of the lot, more precisely, in the burnt orange building at the center of the build.

Since this shop is a two story reno, I will be sharing just the first floor, located beyond that yellow door, in this post.

The second floor, which actually stretches over into the top of the attached shop in progress, I’ll share next week.

The first floor of AAAG is rather small, as the neighboring home goods store cuts into it, and I primarily wanted the area for purchasing.

Although I’ve got no clue what the sim who will own this gallery is like at the moment, I imagined the first floor space as a multifunctional area where the owner would speak casually with potential sponsors and artists, and employees (it’s a small space but I always have this image of at least two people buzzing around this area at all times) would tend to their duties and lounge about during slow and down times.

I originally wanted to try and fit a desk behind the register counter for the boss, and have bar stools and an island set up near the coffee station. I even wanted to stash some chairs or a couch beside that white door in the second image. The space is just a tad too small, however, and I’m way too concerned about sims potentially getting stuck over by the staircase.

Now, I see the boss greeting artists and sponsors and immediately ushering them up the stairs. I put the couch, just up there, and kind of hope that with just the one chair by the coffee station, sims will make there way up the spiral stairs in the corner on their own.

So, these are the only two game shots of this section. As for what’s behind the white door beside the entrance, that might be a tiny bathroom that I literally set up just to make sure the inside of the home goods store next door looked balanced enough for me.

Additional Notes:

We’re back at a 11 Pleasant Boulevard to check out more community lot shots, as I go through renovating @one-plumbob​’s custom world Pleasant Isle. Today we tour Edgar Square’s last shop, located in that blue building at the far left of the strip.

As I’m not really happy with how this part of the lot turned out (I’m not sure what I don’t like, the design, the concept, or what), and may end up replacing it, I haven’t settled on a name.

Since it sells the pastry and bread morsels I’ve collected over the years, and I’ve set up a coffee station, The Donut Hole or Sweets Coffee Spot, come to mind as possibilities, however as I am more excited about those name choices than the reno itself, that kind of suggests to me it won’t make final cut, lol.

Here’s a shot of this place from just inside the door:

I feel like my enthusiasm for this reno was low from the moment I started tinkering. It actually wasn’t the next business I worked on after Boulevard Hardware. Instead, this section of the lot sat empty with a locked door, and a cc for sale sign in the window, while I worked on a completely different lot. 

Here is the main shop area from a different angle:

You might be wondering, “if you weren’t really feeling this, why did you make it?”

Well, I needed a place for self sim and love interest to meet each other, just in case it didn’t happen organically. I thought, a coffee shop or deli would serve as an excuse for love interest to be around and just incidentally bump into a cute stranger or acquaintance as they come out of the hardware store.. I like the idea of noticing an attraction this way as oppose to love interest stopping by their siblings shop, crushing on the apprentice, and becoming a stalker, lol.

Here’s a shot from behind the display cases:

Going back to the actual design itself, you may have noticed that there are two drastically different color schemes in those last two pictures above. Initially, I had the shop set up to match the minty, seafoamy or whatever color blue, sign above the vintage baking pictures, as I discovered after setting my heart on it, that the sign is not recolorable (boohoo). Later realized two additional things. First, the other donut deco (the boxes on the counter by the register in the third picture and up on the display) I had was not recolorable. And Second, that the color of the sign when used on more than just a few surfaces was just too much for my eyes in this neighborhood.

So, I recolored the rest of the room, and sectioned off the coffee area, leaving the original color of the shop like a display. I thought, a theme of an ever changing Audre suits my world, and that when I played, this shop like Sunflower Fresh Market could also showcase some of it’s past.

Here’s the last picture of this shop, shot from behind the register: