The Warehouse Renovacy

The Warehouse renovacy In some ways, the three of them had very little in common. In other ways, they had everything in common. Amina’s choices had been stark. The death of her parents had left her as her uncle’s property – and he had a marriage in mind for her, that would clear his debts. No matter that the man involved was well known for his cruelty to his previous wives. But this wasn’t what her parents would have wanted for her. Amina had gathered up all her courage and fled. Kirsten was the bubbly, outgoing one – always singing, always ready to make friends easily. Amina didn’t know why she’d had to leave her home, why her family had rejected her. But Kirsten knew. Kirsten had her own secret, something that her honest-as-the-day-is-long family couldn’t understand at all. Amina was quiet because she was shy, but Anton was the silent type. He rarely talked about his past – or about why he was here, now, in this situation. Kirsten and Amina knew how athletic he was, and that he missed nothing, noticed everything. Like a hunter, Amina thought. And he had been kind to them, protecting them on the boat when they’d been threatened. There was an essential goodness in him somewhere – but buried deep. What they did have in common was no money, no family, no job, nowhere to live – and no hope of getting a work permit. They were going to have to live by their wits – careers and safe pensions were not going to happen for them. It was Anton who had found them somewhere to live. “I did this guy a favour once.” He didn’t mention that the favour had been saving his life, even if he couldn’t save his leg as well. “He says as long as we can pay the rent, we can have this place to live in – do it up if we want. And it’s pretty secure – you girls will be safe here.” Anton had already brought their few possessions to the old warehouse, and they sat in a little heap on the floor. Someone had obviously been living here before them – whoever it was had tried to create some furniture from discarded milk crates and a couple of old mattresses. There was a tiny kitchen – a relic of the days when the warehouse had been in use – though Amina couldn’t believe how dirty it was. Kirsten had gone upstairs, and she looked down at Amina through the hole in the floor above the kitchen. “Be careful up there,” Anton called from down below. “I’m not sure how safe those floorboards are.” Kirsten came back down with some care, but not before she had taken a last look round at the space that was to be their new home for the foreseeable future. With the big doors safely locked behind them, the three of them sat down somewhat gingerly on the makeshift furniture – but, to their relief it didn’t collapse under their weight. Surprisingly it was Amina, the shy one, who spoke first.
“So, we have shelter and water and light, and I am very grateful. But how are we going to live if we cannot work?” “I didn’t say we couldn’t work,” Anton said. “I said we can’t get work permits, can’t get into the system without an identity card. But there’s plenty you can do without a card. What can you both do?” “Nothing,” said Amina at once.
“Oh come on, Amina,” said Kirsten. “You must be able to do something. What did you do when you were at home?”
“We lived in a village. I went to the school and learned to read and write – my parents wanted that for me. They said I would marry a man who would respect me. But I didn’t learn much more than that. All I did was help them in the fields…”
Kirsten interrupted. “So you know how to grow things? I don’t.” “Yes. And I can fish…”
“Well then!” Kirsten’s naturally buoyant nature surfaced. “That’s our food taken care of.”
“But not the bills,” Anton said. “What about you, Kirsten. What can you do?”
“I can sing! Give me a guitar and I can busk – I’ve done it before, but then my guitar got stolen from me in the town before we met up. That was why I had no money.” She kept quiet about her other accomplishment. Something told her that Anton and Amina wouldn’t appreciate it. And Anton knew that he could scavenge for things to sell. They might survive. Part of him wondered why he’d ever taken the girls under his wing, but he knew why really. He hadn’t been able to save Elise, hadn’t been able to rescue her. But maybe these two could be kept safe, could have a chance at a peaceful life. And he had to stop running at some point, pause for a while at least. Here was as good as anywhere – he’d see the girls established, and then move on. He turned his head, and for a moment, he could almost see Elise walking towards him. Not the hurt and dying Elise he had finally found in the wreckage, but as he had first seen her, happy in the sunlight, turning her head and noticing him. Anton produced a very acceptable evening meal from some mysterious dried food packages he had among his belongings. With some hot food inside them as well, Amina and Kirsten began to believe that maybe they would be able to survive here, would be able to find a life that wasn’t so hand to mouth. If they all worked together, maybe they would find a way through to a brighter future.

The rules!
No money cheats at all.
They can’t have proper jobs (no work permits) and can’t register as self-employed (no identity cards).
They can dig through trash, dumpster dive, fish, grow things, paint and sell the paintings, play for tips – anything else goes.
You can’t sell the wallpaper or flooring – you have to paper over it or floor over it.
The challenge is to pay the bills and to earn enough to renovate the warehouse and turn it into a home.
Since they have no permits, they can’t marry anyone outside the household, nor move anyone else in with them. They can have any unofficial relationship they like though with people outside the household, and the girls can get pregnant if you want to make the game harder yet!
For this renovacy, the aim is to have the house restored before they are old. Use the default age settings.
You can download the family here:
http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=7536936