Remove all your mods and CC, then delete the localthumbcache.package file and start a new game. See if there are now houses in your game.
You probably cannot recover your old saved houses now you've deleted all the backup saves. You'll need to add them into your new game from your library (if you saved the houses and households) or download from the gallery if you know what houses/sims you had and from where. You can also go and save all your households in the old save to your library before moving onto a new game.
The time restart issue seems to be from WW mod.
The fame issue is a basegame bug introduced with the latest update.
