Riverview Updated - new families

Many of the houses in the updated Riverview world are large and above the starter home price. Story Progression seems to be very fond of moving in single adults to these big houses. Therefore I'm trying something different. I'm using a randomizer to create the households, still randomizing their traits, and then using the freerealestate cheat to move them in and their budget to furnish the houses.

I'm randomizing the number of household members, life stage and gender using the Wheel of Names app, and the dice icon in CAS for the traits (as usual). That being said, here's the first family.

Household #1

The Golden Years household featuring the Bartley siblings, all elders, and the children they are raising.

The Bartley siblings, (Kari, Shonda, and Weston), have all found themselves alone in their senior years. Always being a close-knit family, they have chosen to pool their resources, buy a large house, and live together.

Kari Bartley is what many of her generation would term an "old maid." She never married, yet lived a very full life. Her only regret is that she never had children of her own. During her child-bearing years, she focused on her music career and became very successful, being artistic and a virtuoso. She is also a child at heart, which helps explain her desire to have children in her life, and she's a loser and neurotic, which might help explain why she didn't find a suitable mate. As she is now in her "golden years" and looking forward to retirement, she wants to share her skills and experiences to benefit the younger generations. As she's too old to adopt, she has opted to foster children in need.

Kristen Lanford is one of those children in need. She and her little sister Dawn found themselves wards of the state when their father fell victim of a Mafia hit, and their mother was sent to prison for money-laundering for the mob. Kristen is family oriented, and her main goal was to fight to keep her sister and herself together. She is also a light sleeper, probably due to sketchy upbring she had in the past, and can be a bit of a diva.

Her toddler sister Dawn is shaping up to be a brave and perceptive child.

Jose Cheek is another of Kari's foster children. Little is known about this toddler's background except his parents are refugees from a war-torn country, and he was put in foster care while the parents are detained due to bureaucratic red tape, trying to enter the country. Jose is a light sleeper and has the sailor trait.

Shonda Womack had always put her career above her family and looks back on this time with regret. She is now divorced, and her wayward daughter, who had two children out of wedlock, has run off with a ne'er-do-well who didn't want the hassle of raising another man's children. What was Shonda to do when her daughter showed up on her doorstep with her two boys, each with suitcase in hand, but to agree to keep them for her? Shonda is charismatic, a born saleswoman, brave, childish, and flirty. I see her as a CEO of a company.

Malik Womack is an evil little boy, a heavy sleeper, and has the sailor trait. Maybe he will bond with Jose over the sailor trait when Jose gets older, unless Jose's parents come for him before then . . . . Malik is fond of grilled cheese sandwiches, French music, and the color blue.

Dean Womack is athletic, a technophobe, and virtuoso. I see him spending a lot of time outside, maybe playing soccer at the little park across the street. I can also see Kari giving him music lessons if I get the Children Can mod installed.

Weston Bartley is a widower who is particularly fond of dogs. He has the star quality trait, is a party animal, unlucky, and a vegetarian. I don't know what his occupation is at this time. I'll wait to see what he wants to do. Whatever he decides, I see him as someone who attends a lot of social functions and probably entertains a lot, though he might not always throw the best parties due to his unlucky tendencies. He seems to have taken a particular interest in little Jose and is always the first one to tend to Jose's needs. Weston has a dog named Brooks who is a good hunter, hyper, and non-destructive.

I think each of the siblings will get a job; I'll use Master Controller to give them a level to their career that reflects their ages and experience, and then have them retire. I've already used Master Controller to give them some skills that make sense with their traits and backstories.

They all live together in the Whistler house.

The kids are starting to make friends with the kids in the neighborhood - especially evil Malik, for some reason.

"Hi, I'm Malik. We just moved in across the street."

Malik and his brother Dean are pretty close. Dean seems to be the one most interested in doing well in school. Malik is more into making mischief.

I don't know how long old Weston plans to stick around. Rumors around town suggest he's found a lady-friend.

Household #2 - Thacker

The mysterious, brooding stranger, Jedidiah Thacker has arrived in town along with his two cats.

Jebidiah is brooding, inappropriate, absentminded, a cat person, and a great kisser. His lifetime wish is to befriend 15 cats. He has two living with him at the moment, . . .

Nona, a white cat, and Sondra, a gray cat.

These cats get along well with each other, and Jebediah autonomously gives them attention, so they are pretty low maintenance. I suspect he will get more cats as time goes by and become known as the "Cat Man" by the locals.

He moved into this house,(the Cloverdale), which is pretty big for him. He has managed to furnish his bedroom and kitchen with the funds he had, and get some items for his cat, but the rest he is still working on, using dumpster finds and finding things, especially flowers, to supplement his income.

He wanted to join law enforcement, so I sent him to do that. However, Love Day, came along on what would be his first day at work so going work was delayed. He needed some logic skills and he wanted to learn how to paint and gains some athletic skills, so over the days he was waiting to start work, he visited the Prism Art Studio, the library, and the gym. (He doesn't have enough money to take classes.)

At the art studio, Jeb met Cory Lu who apparently shaved off his iconic mustache after becoming an elder. He and Cory became fast friends. Cory's wife Bree didn't warm up to Jeb. (Cory's in the background.)

Jeb figured he had nothing to lose, so before I knew what was happening . . . .

Bree was not impressed. Cory didn't seem the least bit upset with Jeb, so that's good I guess.

At the library, Jeb brushed up on logic by reading a book, then practiced what he learned by sitting down with Eric Stockton for a game or two of chess.

Then it was off to the Spring Festival. Since he hasn't met many women and the one he kissed wasn't happy about it, I sent him to the kissing booth. Usually I just see sims give a polite peck on the lips like this guy is getting.

But I was thinking since he was inappropriate he might try to kiss her like a horse eating an ice cream cone, like this guy did in one of my other games.

I was ready to capture the moment. HOWEVER, this is how it went down.

Then I remembered he also had the great kisser trait. I guess I need to use the kissing booth more often to see if there are any other "hidden" interactions.

I'm going to play him for one sim week, then furnish his house the best I can, then add the next household.

A few days later, while he was checking out some dumpsters. This alien lady suddenly showed up in her space vehicle. She wasn't looking to abduct anyone, I guess she was just looking for spare parts.

Since the TV on the lot was broken, she told him a ghost story, and they parted ways.

I often find myself giving makeovers to random townies and paparazzi when they show up in outlandish outfits, but for some reason, this woman managed to make it work.

It seems like Becky Wonzy is on the prowl. She has snared poor Jeb with her feminine wiles. I had nothing to do with it. I was looking for someone more age appropriate. But the heart wants what the heart wants, I guess.