heidismiles wrote:
Just an idea for those who are a little OCD about building:
Once you have some money coming in, you can create your floor plan (at least the first story) by using the Foundation tool. It only costs $4 per square. Create your Foundation in strips and/or single posts ... you can save money by not filling in the entire thing! Plan out some of your rooms as you do this. Then, you can add walls and floors as you can afford to do so. Remember to "undo" your mistakes as much as possible - deleting the foundation only gets you back $3 per square.
After a couple of days gem-hunting, I was able to create an elaborate, full-sized floor plan for my first story this way.
(Another idea for a FREE floor plan: do a rough sketch using terrain paint tools!)
I pretty much do the same thing but have graph paper that I sketch my floor plan out on so I know what I want to build as the money comes in. Until I have enough money to build at least the first floor I keep the Sims in a trailer like home in the back. That way I am only wasting money on a few walls until I get enough of the main house built to move into that.