@KatAnubis, well, as long as you maintain your Mods, (and I know a long-time player like yourself does), then that is wonderful!๐ฅณ
My family was only a mom, dad, and child.๐ Whenever a new pack is released, I always love to make a new family with all the new clothing and hair. So I made this family and another one that is bigger with more children and a toddler.
But I often have many of my Sims create their families in-game... I have one that I started with a single Sim when Get to work came out. He is a scientist I named Ned Maxis, who married Eva Capricosa (or however you spell her name) from Get Together. But before he married her he was abducted by Aliens and had a little Alien daughter, Maxine, (who is now a adult). Then Eva and Ned had a daughter of their own, and then Ned got abducted again and gave birth to another daughter! Meanwhile, Ned had a task at work to clone himself (I think, but I just might have been curious and tried it on my own ๐ค๐ ). That clone was an Evil Clone (with red eyes!)๐ฟ Then I had him clone again and he got a regular clone who is good with normal eyes ๐. Finally, Ned and Eva had a little boy! So, Ned and Eva have 4 kids (two who are Alien) and live with 2 clones of Ned , one of which is Evil! ๐คจ๐ It was a small house designed just for Ned originally, but I expanded it by building a massive basement!
I have another large family that started with a female Vampire and a male Alien, and now they have many children. But I do also like to make large families in CAS. I guess I just alternate how I l play based on my mood for that day! ๐
I also have some single Sims that I often use to test new features of a pack. I find it easier to concentrate for such exploration if I don't have too many Sims in one house. Often for these types of households I usually don't have them work a regular job (I usually have them paint and garden or things like that), or else I use money cheats (and pretend it is an inheritance!). This frees me up to explore more new aspects or to test things for people who have problems in the game.
I don't have any Legacy Families right now, but I did in TS2 and TS3. I don't blame you for not wanting to take a chance on your Legacy families!!! That is another reason why I play either Maxis-Made families or new ones I create when a new pack is first used! It is too risky to use either a well established family or lot (especially with a large developed garden) with a new pack or patch!
I'm glad you retraited your Freegan since I think they would be miserable in a mansion! ๐๐ Sulani is so beautiful, so I'm sure they will be happy there! โค๏ธ๐ฅณ