Can't seem to load my old saves

Yesterday my game crashed while I was working in CAS of an existing household. Every time I tried to get back in, it went to the loading screen and then crashed back out again. I've:

• removed the thumbcache
• turned off mods
• repaired the game twice

That didn't work. 
Next, I found a thread that said to temporarily place the Sims 4 folder on your Desktop, load it up, see if you can get through CAS without crashes. It worked for me, but when I went to place the Sims 4 folder back into the Electronic Arts folder, my saves aren't visible in the game. I know my saves are there, I can see them sitting in the folder. Another thing to note is that a "new" folder showed up in the Electronic Arts folder: 'EA Desktop'. I can't delete this folder, nor can I place this folder anywhere else. 
I'm saying 'new' because it just showed up, but according to the date it's 7 days old. 

Can someone PLEASE help me?