[SOLVED] Can't see inside/play household

EDIT: It's been solved (?) the problem seemed to be that Build Mode kept defaulting to 'second floor' so i couldn't play the first floor (despite there not being anything in the second floor). sent my sim to another lot and came back, and it's been fixed.

TS4 was fine for a while, but suddenly - in the middle of a game - my camera zoomed out and i can't see inside my household anymore. I still see my sim's moods and actions, but i can't control any of it because i can't interact with the items inside the house. when i try to zoom in, the only thing i am able to see are the walls. i can only see the inside of my house in Build Mode, but when i choose Live Mode it's as if i'm kicked out of the house.

my house only has one floor, so i am sure that i didn't toggle any of the upper floors while playing (choosing to go down one floor doesn't do anything; neither does pressing 'page down' buttons)

here is how it looks like in live mode:

(i paused the game because... my sim's mood was getting worse)

here's how it looks in Build Mode:

if it helps, i am running on Windows 10. i have no mods or anything like that, no cheats either. thank you.