Christmas on Walton's Mountain

Work continues on my series of Christmas Movie Classic houses.  I took a little liberty and left the big screen classics to re-examine a small-screen film that is almost forgotten.  In 1972 CBS showed The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, based on the novel by Earl Hamner, Jr.  That little movie spawned a much-loved TV series that ran for the next 10 years.  

From the film to the TV series, some adjustments were made to the cast, the film location and the house set.  However, the characters from Hamners book were given a new venue to develop and grow, becoming like family members to the millions of regular viewers.  

Because the house from the series is more recognizable than the the set of the movie, I used it as the basis for my Walton's Mountain lot.  You will notice a few upgrades since the Depression days.  The barn is equipped with a science lab, workbench and gem cutter.  The basement has been fully finished and furnished with a large games room, fitness facility, painting easels and a grand piano for Jason.  There is also a seating area that would be perfect for that new-fangled gadget - the TV!  Best of all there will be no more trips to the outhouse (although there is one on the lot).  Instead there are 4 bathrooms in the house, 2 with multiple toilet stalls.  Believe me, with 7 kids, Gramma and Grampa plus John and Livy Walton all living there - the more bathrooms the better!

If you get a chance this season, revisit The Homecoming: A Christmas Story.  It's a Christmas Movie Classic.

It's a Wonderful Life at the Old Granville House

As my kids grew up we developed an accidental Christmas Eve tradition:  as we finished up the last preparations for celebrating Christmas Day with our extended family, we would light a fire in the fireplace, sip some hot, spiced apple cider and turn on the TV to watch IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE.  It doesn't matter that we have watched it so many times before - we enjoy it just as much each year.  Mostly it is the slowing down, gathering together in the glow of the tree lights and sharing the warmth of the story of George Bailey.

We aren't quiet while watching, though.  If we were in a theatre we would definitely get "shushed".  My husband and daughter have great minds for trivia and so throughout the movie they are filling us in on the names of the actors, what other movies they appeared in and other "pertinent" statistics.  My son is a mimic and has a habit of memorizing the entire dialogue of his favourite movies.  His imitation of Jimmy Stewart trying to deal with his customer's who want to withdraw all their money from the Bailey Savings and Loan cracks me up every time:  "The money's not here. Your money's in Joe's house.... And in the Kennedy house, and Mrs. Macklin's house, and a hundred others."

Meanwhile I am trying to get a good look at The House.  320 Sycamore.  The Old Granville House.  Like Mary, I saw the potential even in the first grainy, black and white, filmed in the dark glimpses we get of it as George is walking Mary home from the dance.

George Bailey: OK then, I'll throw a rock at the old Granville house.

Mary: Oh no, don't. I love that old house.

George Bailey: No, you see you make a wish and then try to break some glass and you've got to be a pretty good shot nowadays too.

Mary: Oh no George don't. It's full of romance that old place. I'd like to live in it.

George Bailey: In that place?

Mary: Uh huh.

George Bailey: I wouldn't live in it as a ghost.

But of course George does end up living there.  When he uses his honeymoon cash to keep the Savings and Loan afloat, Mary surprises him by setting up a love nest in the abandonded, old Victorian.  I never did figure out if she bought it or they were just squatters!  When Ernie and Bert bring George home to her she has a chicken roasting on the fire, the table laid for two, the bed made and travel posters over the broken windows to give the illusion of exotic locations.  As usual, George is flummoxed.

 Mary:  Remember the night we broke the windows in this old house? This is what I wished for.

George:  Darling, you're wonderful.

Behind the main story, is the house makeover that Mary engineers while her family grows.  With all of George's talk and dreams about building great things, it is Mary that is building something - a cozy, comfortable home and a loving, happy family.  

It is worth noting that today it is totally acceptable, even desireable to renovate a derelict old house with "good bones".  But in Post-War America this was anything but popular.  Everyone - including George - wanted "New and Improved" everything including houses.  This was the time when the cookie-cutter suburbs exploded and every young couple aspired to a cute little Cape Cod or Ranch house with 2 cars in the driveway and 3.4 children in the yard.  Mary's choice was quite unfashionable and George was quite aware that not only was his house in bad shape, it just wasn't cool.  

Mary didn't mind though.  She had a vision of what their family could be and of what the house could look like and eventually those things came together.

Watch for the Old Granville House to be available for download Dec. 7th and see what kind of life your Sims can make in it.

Decorating Griswold Style

Do you have a favourite Christmas Movie? More importantly - for Sims building addicts like myself - do you have a favourite Christmas movie HOUSE?  It's so much fun to slip away into that Hollywood world of imagination where everyone lives in a huge old Victorian house or a cozy stone cottage; where the tree is always a real tree and it's always tall and straight and fresh and spectacular; and where it ALWAYS snows on Christmas Eve.

This month I will be trying to recreate some recognizable Christmas Movie Classic houses for you to decorate and enjoy all the winter fun available in the Sims 3.  There is some wonderful Holiday themed Custom Content made by TSR creators.  I found great objects from BuffSumm, Canelline, deeiutza, DOT, fantasticSims, jomsims, Lulu265, Mutske, Severinka, Sim_man123, SIMcredible and Wolfspryte. And there are lots of festive outfits as well.

My first project is The Griswold House from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation starring Chevy Chase, Beverly d'Angelo, Juliette Lewis, Randy Quaid and yes, Johnny Galecki as Russ Griswold! This movie is near the top of the list of Holiday favourites for a lot of people and there is lots of information out there about the making of the movie, the cast and the house where it was set.  The house has been used in lots of films and is on a Hollywood backlot fake suburban street right next door to the house from Lethal Weapon and a few doors down from TV's Bewitched house.  The interior decor for the movie was all about flowers, ruffles, pastels and tartan. So naturally I look to Djehmli to find the perfect classic florals and coordinating patterns, plus Hatshepsut's Pretty Plaid to recreate the look.  

The uploaded lot doesn't have any Christmas decorations.  I thought I'd leave it for Simmers to have fun decorating it their way. Check out my screenshots to see how Clark and Ellen Griswold are getting the house ready this year. And watch for the Griswold House and other Christmas Movie Classics to be available soon.

Fall Colours

Oh to be in the Maritimes now that fall is here.

Some day I'm going to take a trip to the East Coast of Canada in the autumn.  Being a teacher and being married to a professor means that September brings back to school not time for vacation.  So I will continue my armchair travels for now, and let my imagination take me to Prince Edward Island.

My current project is Beaconsfield Historic House in Charlottetown.  When I saw pictures of this Victorian "Second Empire" style house I knew I had to try building it, even though Sims 3 does not give us a proper mansard roof and dormers as was available in Sims 2 Apartment Life.  However, I am giving it my best shot.  And this house is HUGE!  According to the Beaconsfield website the house was "Built in 1877 for James and Edith Peake... one of Charlottetown’s most elegant homes. Featuring the finest in materials and craftsmanship, it was also equipped with all the latest conveniences of the day." Of course, I am building it based on photos posted online by the PEI Museum and Heritage Foundation and by tourists who have enjoyed a visit there and uploaded their pics to Flickr.  So as usual the floor plan may not be 100% accurate but I am trying to capture the essence of this beautiful historic home.  My biggest challenge will be not exceeding the custom content limits for TSR uploads!

Check out the original Beaconsfield house here:  http://www.peimuseum.com/index.php3?number=1043026&lang=E

Postcard from beautiful Victoria, BC

When I was 21 (and we won't say when that was!) I travelled to British Columbia for the first time. My college roommate was getting married and I was the Maid of Honour.  I stayed with her parents in the lovely Oak Bay neighbourhood of Victoria.  Although I had been warned by my land-locked Manitoba friends that it ALWAYS rained on Vancouver Island, instead I enjoyed two weeks of blissfully sunny, hot weather and was smitten with the lush, flower-bedecked city and the fresh sea air.  I knew then that somehow, someday I would live in BC.  As it happens I married one of the groom's men who was from BC so I got my wish!

During that first visit I explored the Provincial Museum, Craigdarroch Castle and the sights of downtown.  I toured Butchart Gardens, picked blackberries and swam in the Pacific waters at Willows Beach.  But what I didn't know at that time was that, tucked among the trees just around the corner from my friend's home, there stood the oldest continuously inhabited house in BC's capital.

The Tod House was begun in 1850 by John Tod, a retired Hudson's Bay fur trader who went on to become part of the Executive Council for the new Colony of British Columbia.  He built the timber frame house in three phases over the next 20 years. After Tod's death in 1882 his daughter and her husband lived here until the 1890's and over the succeeding years the house has had several owners and tenants.  In 1975 the house was purchased by the Municipality of Oak Bay and designated as a Heritage Structure.  However, the house is not a museum but is rented out as a family home.

In a few days I am going to Victoria to help my 21 year-old daughter move into her first apartment. Like myself at that age she is smitten with island life and I can't wait to show her some of my favourite sights - including Tod House, the next lot in my Historic Canada Series.

Blown away in the Arctic wind!

I can't believe how many of you have downloaded my Robert Service Cabin on the very first day!  I am really blown away!  And so many have made kind comments too!  It seems that Service's poems are not completely forgotten and that everyone still enjoys the old-fashioned rhyming tales of misadventure in the Klondike.

I've been working on a Sim of Robert Service today and hopefully he will be available to you in the next few days.  He's an Ambitious Bookworm with a Good Sense of Humour who Loves the Cold (unlike Sam McGee!).  He's hoping to become an Illustrious Author, so he will want to get moved into his little cabin and start writing his ballads and tales.

Here are some preview pictures:

In The Land of the Midnight Sun

Summer is passing by and the change is felt most quickly in the North.  My armchair has taken me to Dawson City and the cabin of Robert Service, poet of the Klondike.  The little log house remains on a small rise as he left it in 1912, sagging slightly with age, its roof covered with moss and surrounded by towering birch trees.  The site is a popular tourist destination even though the fragile state of the old cabin means the visitor gets only a glimpse through the window and door to see the humble setting where Service composed his popular ballads and a novel that told the stories of the Sourdoughs, the gold and the cold.  I have taken this glimpse of the cabin and crafting a small home fit for an adventurous Sim. 

There are strange things done in the midnight sun

      By the men who moil for gold;

The Arctic trails have their secret tales

      That would make your blood run cold;

The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,

      But the queerest they ever did see

Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

      I cremated Sam McGee.

GO WEST, Young Sims!

My armchair tour to some of the historically significant homes that have been preserved across Canada continues westward.  I have arrived (in my imagination) on the Praries and have so far completed two simple homes.  One is quite generic - one of hundreds scattered across the plains.  It is a precurser of the pre-fab house: a small farmhouse built from plans available from the Canadian Pacific Railway's B.C. and Alberta Land Dept. In 1913 a 2 bedroom frame house with space for extra sleeping rooms in the attic could be built for about $950.  The CPR provided the plans and the materials, after they sold homesteaders a tract of land from their vast holdings.  My children's great-grandpa was one of those homesteaders and may have lived in such a house.  

The 2nd house witnessed a unique episode in Canadian history: the execution for treason of the Metis leader Louis Riel.  Time has allowed a re-examination of the events and issues surrounding the Red River and Northwest Rebellions, and Riel is widely regarded as a Canadia folk hero.  His mother's home where his body lay after the execution remains as a testament to Riel's place in history and the significance of the Metis people in the cultural makeup of Canada.

While I am exploring the Prairie Provinces I am finding so many exciting options of what to build. The pioneers who settled the west built everything from sod huts and log cabins to elegantly appointed homes.  Which one shall I visit next?

Vacation is over! Back to work!

Okay - working on the Historic Canada Series isn't exactly work.  But my trip to my hometown in SW Ontario is over and my self-appointed task of recreating some of this country's historically significant sites is again underway.

While we were away, my husband and I enjoyed a visit to the Backus-Page House Museum - one of a few remaining homes built by residents of the historic Talbot Settlement along the north shore of Lake Erie.  The founder Colonel Thomas Talbot, born into Anglo-Irish nobility, used his influence to acquire 5000 acres of land in Upper Canada in 1803.  He carefully selected families from his homeland to colonize the region ruling over them with a somewhat despotic control.  The result was the organization of twenty-nine townships stretching from Long Point to the Detroit River.

When I was growing up in St. Thomas, once the political and commercial hub of the region, little mention was made of the Colonel in our history lessons.  Perhaps he was not fondly remembered by the descendants of the early settlers.  His own home, Malahide - named after the Irish castle in which he was born - fell into disrepair and was demolished in the 1990's in spite of the growing interest of local heritage enthusiasts.  Now the Tyrconnel Heritage Society and other history and genealogical societies work to protect the remaining evidence of early settlement including the John S. Pearce House (1809), the Col. Leslie Patterson House (1814), the Stephen Backus Farm (1825), the Meredith Conn House (1828), St. Peter's Anglican Church (1827) and the nearby cemetery.

We had a wonderful afternoon exploring the Backus-Page Museum and the adjoining Park, strolling through the woods on the sandy cliffs high above the crashing waves of Lake Erie.  The museum staff was friendly and knowledgeable, and our guide did an excellent job of pointing out the features of the house.  Turns out she is a fellow Simmer and was enthusiastic about my Historic Canada Series.  I took lots of pictures so that I could try to capture the simple elegance of the home, especially the handcrafts used throughout the home - quilts, hooked rugs and paintings by a descendant of the former owners.

While exploring the area, we also enjoyed spotting the large murals installed in various locations throughout the 5 counties of SW Ontario.  The Barn Quilt Trail project depicts traditional quilt patterns whose names evoke the historical or geographical aspects of the area.  The Backus-Page barn is the site of one such installation so I have included a quilt wallhanging in my Sims recreation (with thanks to TSR submitter IOS).  

I encourage you to take a little break from the Sims, explore your area and support your local heritage society.  You never know what might inspire your next Sims creation.

Vacation time!

Getting on a plane tomorrow to spend time in my hometown 4 provinces away.  I've got some quite interesting (I hope) lots in the works...but they will have to wait until I get home again.  I've been working my way west as I recreate some of Canada's many historically significant houses.  Watch for a very well-known farmhouse to be the next of my Historic Canada Series. Hint pictured below. 

However, I might get a chance to work on some lots while I am away.  I'm taking the base game and am going to try my hand at some really basic, but beautiful starter homes: no CC and cheap.  It will be a fun challenge to keep the price low...it is so easy to spend those Simoleans.