This post is a little less story and a little more cleanup. The area we’re editing was created via strong-arming, due to the fact the breezeway they have isn’t actually possible in the Sims 4 via ordinary means. To install it in the first place you have to convince the game that the breezeway and the house aren’t ‘actually’ connected, which takes knowing some tricks. Once done, it will then make your game more difficult by throwing a tantrum every time you remind it that area of the build is there. To make this new apartment space, we’re going to have to draw attention to the area, so it’s going to be upset.
I’m going to be a little lenient on their tearing down and reinstalling stairs. Our family was going to get a contractor to do it anyway, for safety’s sake. But, EA has finally fixed some of the issues with stairs, and it feels wrong to give our family grief when it wouldn’t have been an issue in the first place if EA wasn’t such a dumpster fireReminder that The Sims 4 came out a decade ago.. The bugs often meant that the most logical locations would be flagged as blocked or inaccessible, which was a huge issue.
Story-wise, our family gets a lucky break and the contractor who quotes them is excited to find structural beams along the wall right where the new stairs would go. He’ll be able to mount the stairs along the wall, which will make it much more structurally sound, and easier work.

The before. The old stairs wrap down into the new apartment space, not functional. It was only built this way because there was no other choice when it was built, hopefully we’ll have more options now.

A lot has happened between two pictures, but stairs are exceptionally glitchy and we’re dealing with ‘conflicting block clusters’ (Sims speak for ‘idk just can’t’) , so we’re going to just have to break it down.
Our family has gone back and forth with the contractor coming up with plans, and pack away for a long weekend while the work is getting done.
The goal is to make two different doors into the apartments to give them privacy. They’ve repurposed the wall left behind in the BookNook and turned it into a storage closet, and put a whole wall up between the new apartment and the stairs.
I’m aware this should be an expensive mess, and that the wall between the two spaces has changed in a way it really shouldn’t have been able to without grief, but we’re going to let the family slide since it wouldn’t be necessary if the space wasn’t deeply broken.
Hopefully, with this little tussle with the space, it will be actually functional for next week and we’ll be able to focus on building a teeny-tiny apartment.
Footnotes:
[1] Reminder that The Sims 4 came out a decade ago.
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