mystery house

When you look at it in your library, does it have a name? How many bedrooms and baths does it have? Did the home take up most of the 40x40 lot?

Sorry I'm late, I just came in to check on this post!  The house has four bedrooms and three bathrooms; I don't think it took up a huge amount of the lot, as there was a nice bit of yard in front and on the left side.   If it helps, I can post photos of the house's interior.  I had made a few minor changes before I lost the original download, but only cosmetic ones.  The lot didn't have a name in my library.

I searched on the Sims 3 Exchange for this house and couldn't find anything with a diagonal entrance. I posted your picture of the house to Reddit in hopes that someone would know where it came from. I'm not sure if you can post links to Reddit, but you can search for me (texansky-T2) and look at my profile to find the post.

MAWriterGirl​ 

I'm still watching my Reddit post, but haven't had anyone recognize it yet. One asked if you knew where it came from, while another did a Google image search.

I wonder if maybe it might be hiding in your computer under the Library folder, perhaps in a previous, older copy of The Sims 3 folder. You can use s3pe to open these ebf*.package files and view their contents. If you know approximately when you got the lot, you can start with the ebf files dated around that time, narrowing your search.

Line items to look for:
ICON entries show pictures of the home, which are useful in locating the right file

_XML provides some text information about the lot in the window on the right that is helpful
packagedate is the date it was shared and uploaded to the exchange - if you know approximately when you got the lot, you can find files with dates after the packagedate and start there
packagetitle gives the name of the lot
packagedesc shows a description provided with the lot when it was saved

If you scroll to the bottom of the _XML window, after the reskey/keylist section, you will find more info under metatags:
name and description are the same as on the top
dimX and dimZ show the size of the lot - this could be very helpful to check whether it's the original lot
lotName is what the lot was called when it was saved - this may be blank if a lot name wasn't provided

Example of one of my Alryne Valley lots, Cookies 'n Cream - 1 BR 1 BA:

As you can see above, it is a 30x20 lot. The lot type is 0, which is residential. One of my community lots is lot type 1.

I have never downloaded lots from other sources, so I am unsure if those contain the _XML and ICON lines. I would assume they would be similar. Some lots you add to your library may not have the _XML code. I had a junkyard I had uploaded to the exchange, but the ebf file in my library didn't have the _XML code. I had to download it from the exchange to see the _XML information, so it must have been created during the upload process.

If you find a file that has SNAP instead of ICON listings, those are Sim files.

texansky​ thanks for the Reddit post and your suggestion!  I've never downloaded s3pe, so I'll probably end up bumbling around with it before I can figure out what I'm doing.

I should note that I downloaded the house on a different computer from the one I now use; that computer died about a year ago, but when I got a new one, they gave me the memory card from the old one as well as copying all the info from it onto the new computer.  I don't know whether this would affect my being able to possibly find the original download.   The only thing I'm sure of is that I downloaded the house sometime in 2023, and I've downloaded quite a few houses, so it'll take a good bit of detective work if I'm able to get files from that far back.

Would it help at all if I posted photos from the other sides of the house and the interior?