Do you remember Emily Lee? She was a playable student that came to our game with the "Campus" expansion pack. In my game, she married and became a successful city planner. Unfortunately, she died in a fire, and for a long time now there have not been any Lees living in New Max.
This has changed with Camryn Lee, a former townie, moving in with the Gavigan-Swain family. You can read about that here, if you like.
It's always exciting to start a brand new household with a brand new Sim, isn't it!
This modest dwelling sits on the outskirts of New Maximiliania, bordering on the ocean on one side and high mountains on the other.
Camryn Lee has moved in here.
She starts off with a healthy 22,000 Simoleons; her own starting money as well as a small inheritance from Tank Grunt.
Now Camryn can work on her lifetime want of having 20 best friends; so far, Gerlinde is her only best friends, although she has a number of townie friends.
Her job is that of an inventor, and I suppose I'll let her go to work for now, just to make sure she'll have a regular income.
The small house contains only some very basic furniture and is not very creatively decorated. That will change over time.
For now, Camryn sets up her fish tank (it was in her backpack when she moved in) and makes sure the fish can settle in well in their new home.
The welcome committee consists of Gallagher Newson, Stephen Riley...
...and Calendula Capp. Just as Camryn and her guests finish their meal of hamburgers, the phone rings. It is Gerlinde Gavigan (who, together with Sirius Swain, was responsible for having Camryn become a permanent resident of New Max), inviting her to meet downtown.
The chosen venue is quickly reached.
A mixed group of resident New Maximilianians and townies get off the taxi. Camryn buys herself new clothes (her default outfit is a little weird, I think), talks to a few Sims and then heads home. It is already late, and moving in was exhausting.
Camryn is a responsible pet owner and makes sure to clean the tank and feed her fish every morning, such as on this Tuesday.
She has the day off and decides to use it for decorating and furnishing her still rather empty new home.
The bedroom is first. As the hairband that holds Camryn's ponytail together is green, I treat her as if green were her favourite colour - which will also show in her clothes from now on.
A dining table and chairs are placed next to the double window in the open-space living room. As Camryn wants 20 best friends, she will entertain many guests. The colour scheme in this room is based on the set of blue vases I found in her backpack when she moved to New Max.
The kitchen is much better equipped now than before. The bathroom (too small for a good picture) is in green tones, similar to the bedroom. The tiny room between the kitchen and the bathroom remains empty for now; it could become a guest room or study, should Camryn feel the need for one.
It is the last day of summer, and Camryn changes into one of the outfits she bought yesterday. Just as she has been out to pay the bills, Maria Monty walks by and is greeted. She stays until it is time for Camryn to go to bed.
Wednesday is a working day, which leaves Camryn with little time for cultivating friendships. She is determined to make another best friend very soon.
After work, she invites Maria Monty over again. The two ladies got along well yesterday. "A TV set was one of the very few things I found in here when I moved in," Camryn explains over plates of spaghetti.
To keep her existing friendships going, she makes several phone calls before saying good-bye to Maria and going to bed.
Thursday is Camryn's second day off work this week. Once again, just as she has paid the bills, a neighbour walks by and is greeted. This time, it is Kennedy Smith - a former townie like herself.
And just like she used her first day off to put everything in order inside her house, she now uses her second day to look after her small front garden.
The day turns out to be exceptionally good for Camryn: She makes her best friends # 3, 4, 5 and 6 in townie friends Brittany Wendland, Lyndsay Louie, Meadow Pederson and Allyn McArthur.
All these were already her friends (not best friends) when she moved in, and it would be stupid not to take advantage of her existing friendships, even though none of them is eligible for moving to New Max.
On Friday morning, Camryn uses the hour or so between getting up and the carpool's arrival to ring some of her existing friends.
Her work day is long - by the time she comes home, it is dark, and she is glad to relax over today's crossword. One of her recurring wishes (hardly surprising for a popularity Sim) is to throw a party, but I doubt she will get round to that this week, as she'll be working all through the weekend.
Hooray for the telephone! It is essential for Camryn's lifetime want, and on Saturday morning, she makes townie friend Christy Stratton her Best Friend # 7 before she heads off to work.
She is not at all tired when she comes home, and so I give in and let her invite her townie friends over for a housewarming party. She even slips into a pretty dress, but only four of the seven she has asked do appear. Never mind - maybe the others were busy.
Camryn orders pizza - she does not want to spend much time in the kitchen while her precious friends are around.
The party lasts until the early hours of Sunday morning. Soon after Camryn makes Tazama Kalson her best friend # 8, everyone leaves; it is a working day for Camryn, after all, and she needs to catch a few hours of sleep before the carpool arrives.
At 7:00 pm, she arrives back home with colleague Kent Dennis in tow. Someone has knocked her trash can over. I wonder why - Camryn has no love interests and never even had an affair, so it can't have been out of jealousy.
Still in her lab coat, she makes Cameron Capp her best friend # 9. That's almost half her LTW complete during her first week!
When she says good-bye to her colleague, it is with a hug and kiss. Camryn has no romantic interest in him, but we all know the good-bye-kiss to colleagues as a phenomenon with our Sims, don't we.
This is where Camryn's first week as a "proper" New Maximilianian ends. It was nice to play her, and a quick week, too - she was at work most days, so the game was on fast forward a lot.
How long before she'll have 20 best friends? Is one of her many friends going to be more to her eventually? And will the other townie with the surname Lee, the lady with the male voice we met at the Landgraab mansion, join her at some stage?
For Week 2 with this household, click here.
We are here because of the surname of one of the residents here:
Liberty Lee. Here she is, reading in her room. She is not alone in the house.
There are also Travis Scott...
...and Summer Holiday.
While I am getting re-acquainted with the Sims in this house, I let them do what they like. For Liberty and Summer, this means taking a picture together with Liberty's mobile phone.
Later on that Monday, Travis returns from work with a promotion to Ace Engineer. All three BBF household members are still on the careers given them by EA, and I am trying to fulfill as many milestones for them as possible.
It is Tuesday already, and the girls are in the kitchen, cooking and mopping the floor respectively. Liberty is always the one I have do repairs, upgrades and (mostly) cleaning, as she seems to enjoy it. The handiness tasks all work towards her milestones. With Summer, it is almost all of the cooking; she works in the culinary career and can make gourmet meals.
When it comes to gardening, nothing has changed since the last time I played here; the flower and vegetable beds are empty except for a bluebell bush and a patch of mushrooms. The BBFs take turns in looking after their plants.
Dina Caliente does not look particularly happy here, does she? Summer, always the aspiring "Friend of the World", invites her in. The two ladies have been good friends for a while.
And indeed Summer manages to cheer Dina up, which results in Dina becoming Summer's first Best Friend.
She meets and greets J. Huntington III, another playable Sim as far as I remember. I think the two of them make a good match, but so far, nothing more than conversation has been happening between them.
Work starts late for Liberty on Wednesday, and she spends part of the morning talking to Olivia Spencer-Kim-Lewis and Pierce Delgato, both playable kids from the neighbourhood. Shouldn't they be at school?
Liberty wants to increase her logic skill. I buy a chess set for the living room and have her play a match against Summer, who is still in her PJs after having worked late last night.
On Thursday morning, Summer practises her charisma in front of her bedroom mirror.
Meanwhile, Liberty repairs the bathroom sink. There is enough money in the household's bank account to pay for the repair service, but Liberty takes pride in doing such things herself.
Dina comes visiting on her own accord. Somehow, though, nobody has much time for her today, and so she leaves after a while.
Travis is the first one up on Friday morning.
It is a beautiful day, and Summer grills veggie burgers out on the back porch.
For Travis, it is the second promotion of this week: He is now Project Manager.
A passers-by catches my eye: Her name is Summer Frost. Frost as in Ellen Frost - remember her as a playable Student from TS2? Travis greets her and invites her in. Looking at her outfit, I suppose she works as a delivery person of some sorts.
When Travis gets up on Saturday morning, he is full of anticipation.
And indeed, Summer Frost - whom he only met yesterday, as far as I know - accepts his invitation to move in! (There is Katrina Caliente in the background.) Now we have two Summers in the house :-)
That is something I like about TS4; moving in can happen much earlier on in a friendship than in TS2.
Bella Goth (red dress) and Chanel Grey (with her back to the camera) have also been walking by and asked to join Travis and Summer for a meal. Summer Frost does not know anybody outside the BBF household yet, so it is nice for her to meet a few more people.
J. Huntington is once again Summer Holiday's guest when she returns from work. He looks as if he is wondering why she has not even removed her black kitchen gloves yet.
The last day of the week is here; Sunday morning, and we find Liberty reading in her bedroom just like she was on Mondy morning.
A glance at all four household members gathering in the kitchen where Summer Holiday has just made breakfast for everyone.
She returns from work later that day with a promotion to Mixologist - hopefully that means the black gloves are gone for good!
It was fun to play this household, although there never seemed to be much time for them outside work; as you have seen, I never even sent them to a community lot. But I added another Sim to my list of playables here; Summer Frost will eventually move out to her own place. So far, she has no job and only got started on her aspiration (it's all about comedy for her).
As nice as it is that Sims can move in so quickly in TS4, it does not correspond with their sleeping habits: Even good friends won't share a double bed. Right now, the BBF house is still set up with three bedrooms: Two double beds for the ladies, and a single one for Travis. I was expecting the friends Summer Holiday and Liberty Lee to share a bed with each other or with Travis, but they won't have it. Therefore, at the moment there is no place for Summer Frost to sleep.
