@bekkasan : oh mey, poor girl! 2 months of hard work! You need some days off!
(and I don´t say that because of the stories you then can write!)
Yes, you use soo many bright colors, even in Midnight Hollow you are able to brighten that town up a lot! That´s a big talent of yours!
Unfortunately I like black as a clothes color so nearly all my Sims wear black as the primary color with some accents in their favourite colors. So there is no room for some more brightness in my game... :D I wear mainly black clothes myself, so have my Sims, too.
Yes, the inactives can drive(?) the house boats on their own. Every time I play in Isla Paradiso they drive their boats into the middle of now-where and complain that they can´t get on board again after leaving the boats... It´s a bit annoying.