Well, look! A new neighbourhood! This is Barrie Cove, built on the Three Lakes terrain, although I altered it a hell of a lot.

This is going to be a prosperity ‘hood, although each of the families will take on a challenge. Like Lark’s Challenge Island. I’m aware that I’m unoriginal, but it’s fun.

The first rotation is only a day long, so you can see all of the families in one update! Hooray!

The first family we’ll meet in Barrie Cove is the Pendragons, who are going to make their fortune by running businesses. Also, I decided this family is going to be a Matriarchy, so only girls inherit.

Something about looking at a dice roll for three boys made me choose that. I must be mad.

And they live in this beautiful turquoise box. I like it, except it needs extensive work inside, as it’s quite empty.

Head of the family is Sophie Pendragon, fortune sim with a personality of 7/5/5/5/3 and her husband, Marcus. Marcus is also a fortune sim, but he has a personality of 6/6/4/7/2

Right now they’re digging, like all starter families do. Businesses don’t buy themselves.

“We dug for like twenty minutes, why aren’t we rich yet?”

“I have no idea, but it’s really depressing me.”

It wasn’t long before the neighbours stopped by to introduce themselves – all three members of the O’Neill family. No sign of the other family, Rowell.

Anyway, the O’Neills live next door.

“Thanks for the ride, mister! Have a groovy day!”

This is Christian, one of the twins. He has a personality of 0/9/0/9/7 which is quite dramatic. That was how it showed up in CAS and I decided to roll with it.

Anyway, I have big plans for this little hippie.

Meanwhile, Marcus has decided to argue with his neighbour, Rosemary O’Neill. I’d be grateful if he could avoid making any enemies, I really don’t want roaches.

I’m sure his lack of nice points is going to conflict with that interest.

“Is your mother usually this argumentative?”

“Nope, must just be your husband!”

“Oh…”

Eventually Sophie was able to convince her husband to stop arguing and come to the bedroom. This is a matriarchy missing a girl, afterall!

This left the O’Neills with the task of entertaining the twins. And they were surprisingly good at it, turns out both boys appreciate kicky bag.

That’s Lucas on the left there. I may have plans for his twin, but I have no idea what I’m going to do with Lucas yet. Anyway, he has a personality of 6/4/5/10/0

And then you have your obligatory cuteness, little Jacob.

I like that he looks a lot different from his brothers. Or maybe he only looks different because he didn’t get Marcus’s nose.

Anyway, Jacob has a personality of 8/6/2/7/2 – which makes all three of the boys incredibly playful.

And when you only have one bathroom that can be a bit of an issue.

That’s all from the Pendragons, let’s go officially met the O’Neill family.

The O’Neill family is made up of Claire O’Neill, and her adoptive parents, Rosemary & Rachel Rebecca. How the heck I managed to put the wrong name on their introductory picture is beyond me.

Anyway, Claire will be founding a Matchmaker legacy, the rules of which I can’t find right now. But basically, the spouse is the first date the Matchmaker drops for you. I’m pretty sure in the rules it said you could only have one child, so the oldest O’Neill child will inherit, and any extras will be left to run wild, like little bad apples.

The O’Neills live in this very basic wooden box. I really like it, but that’s just me. Maybe it’ll look pretty once they have flowers out front or whatever.

Like the Pendragon house, it needs quite a bit of work inside.

And what better way to pay for furniture than to dig for it!

This is because I decided that you’re not having a job unless it’s your LTW in the O’Neill family. Boy, I do love making life harder for myself!

Anyway, Claire is a Family sim, with a personality of 7/4/6/5/3, and is actually a spare from generation three of my first ever legacy. She had a different personality, aspiration, and all the rest back then, though.

Rosemary and Rebecca managed to get out of a morning full of digging by being cute in the living room.

Rosemary has a personality of 6/6/1/7/5 and has the Popularity aspiration, while Rebecca is Knowledge with a personality of 2/8/2/6/7

The main reason why I had Claire digging was so she could pay the Gypsy Matchmaker as much as possible.

She was able to afford a full $5000 date, so here’s hoping we get some decent chemistry!

“I can see him, love! Your true love!”

“What’s he doing inside this ball?”

A vacation townie? With a busted template?

“Marry the first drop, no exceptions.”

Fiiiiine. Steven Fratster it is.

Well, I closed the game, fixed this poor guy’s busted face so his kids will at least look like him a little, and then booted the game back up to find him arguing with Claire.

A $5000 date does not guarantee happiness, but there’s no going back now.

ACR then kicked in, and the next thing they did was head to bed. Guess a $5000 date does guarantee a little bit of happiness.

Claire and Steven were as thick as thieves after that (I wonder where that expression come from?) and so I left them together with the date timer running to check in on the others…

Damien Rowell, the other family in the ‘hood (if you can call one guy a family), had let himself in with those 10 outgoing points of his, and was trying to befriend Rebecca.

Who was having none of it, quite frankly.

Later that evening, Claire was able to move Steven in, which was super helpful, as courting vacation townies can be mighty difficult if you do it over a length of time.

Steven brought $14,000, which was greatly appreciated. He’s also a Family sim, with a personality, 6/3/6/4/6, and once I’d tweaked his turn-ons a little, he has three bolts with Claire.

Meanwhile, night had fallen and Damien had still not gone home.

“Will you move your butt out of the way of the television?!”

Rosemary may seem annoyed by his presence, but he actually left the lot as her friend.

Outside, because stars and night time air are so romantic, Claire is popping a very important question…

“I know we only met 12 hours ago, but there’s an instant connection between us, Steven! Spend the rest of your life with me?”

Quickest relationship ever.

And did you really expect Damien to say anything other than yes?

The seasons ticked over into Autumn as they were hugging on the porch, so I left them to it, and headed over to Damien Rowell’s lot…

Well, you’ve already met him, but here is Damien Rowell, a Romancin’ Leo of 4/10/4/4/3 from the trailer park down the road.

That’s right, I said trailer park. Damien’s founding a Trailer Park Challenge, because I’ve never really played one and they look like a lot of fun!

Unlike the other households, I sent Damien out into the world (after blowing all of his funds on a trailer, of course) to meet a wife.

Mostly so she’d move in and he could have a bed.

But instead, he just annoyed this guy. Good one, Damien.

“Ew, that lady is gross!”

And rather than going elsewhere on the lot and finding other women to talk to, Damien spent about half an hour complaining she was gross.

“This lady is not gross!”

He said that and then threw her negative bolts. So that’s interesting, I wonder what’s causing that.

Still, a date’s a date, and if she leaves him roses, maybe Damien can sleep in a bed tonight.

Or you know, use the mood boost from the date to keep looking for a wife.

And with the date timer still running on the previous girl he was with, Damien found a lady he had two bolts for, and hurried after her instead.

Probably not boyfriend-material if you ask me, but whatever.

Damien ended up taking the new girl on a date after the timer ran out on the other one, but that didn’t mean awkwardness was avoided.

“Oh, er, hi…lady from earlier.”

And because Damien really liked Ichelle Lewis, his latest date, he asked her back to his trailer, where due to the magic of Sims 2, it’s still 11 in the morning.

“His beauty is possessing me!”

Remember that when you’re living in poverty with more kids than you can afford.

Damien and Ichelle were completely oblivious to the world as the welcome wagon showed up.

I think they did eventually get invited in, but hung out on the lawn anyway. Inside the trailer is a horribly empty, poorly decorated place.

Still, Ichelle can help with that, right?

“What do you MEAN you have $13,000? I’m a founder, why couldn’t you be poor!”

So I looked at the rules again, and found out how to spend most of that cash…

A doublewide trailer, which took freaking ages to build because of the stupid butterflies!

And as if that wasn’t enough, Damien and Ichelle then got a truck AND a junker car!

All on the first day!

Well, that’s it for this rotation (if you can even call it a rotation).

See you soon for the Autumn rotation!