It doesn't take long in playing The Sims before one realises that there are very few default build mode items which match the excellent Maxis default exterior brick walls - and, puzzling in itself, very few default floors. In the series "Maxis Matches", you will find several building items retextured from some of the Maxis wall textures to bring a little harmony into your homes. This is a partly landscaped and partly furnished lot. The landscaping items come exclusively from the game and from Persimmon Grove, with many thanks as always to Koromo for ongoing kindnesses to a neglectful bunny. None of the landscaping items are included here, so you will need to do some serious shopping at Persimmon Grove before installing this lot - that is, if you haven't already done so, of course ;o) All the furnishing is from the original game, and all the architectural items you need to use this lot are found either below in the individual zips or in the BigZip at the bottom of the page. Not all of these architectural items will be found in build mode; some will be found in buy mode decorative or buy mode misc.

The Banana Brick set was based on the wall of the same name from Unleashed. I have been told that it is also one of the walls in The Sims Online.

It is very redolent of both Victorian glazed bricks and the majolica glazed bricks often used in 1930s "Metroland" style housing - especially on fireplace surrounds - but with a bright, modern feel. The building items I have made hopefully try to reflect this. If you do not have the original wall, don't worry because I have included a very similar one in the zip; I made it ever-so-slightly darker as I found it hard to match up my textures with the original for some reason.

Download the house and everything pictured on this page in one big zip - find this at the bottom of the page!   Zips with the normal winzip symbol are just the same objects in smaller packs below for those with slower connections.   If you download the big zip, you will NOT need any of the smaller zips from below unless they are marked with the NEW! symbol.

The Banana Brick House, lot 10. This zip does not contain any objects, walls or floors. You will need to download, unzip and install all the zips from below before playing this house, otherwise you will get the "missing objects" box and the house will be incomplete. With the exception of just about all the landscaping items from Persimmon Grove, there is no shopping list - all the pieces it is furnished with are found below or in the original game. Finally, the house may vary slightly from the screenshots - I built the house and then kept making new stuff.... Roofing kit The roof kit comprises of two flat glass skylights (no.1 for a second floor, no.2 for a first floor) and an upright skylight (no.3) for the first floor. These three pieces are all based on one tile rugs so they won't get in the way of you placing furniture, or your sims walking about. I have also enclosed a roof .bmp file (no.4) for the normal game roof. The second floor roof pieces and window frames all drop when you play with walls down or cutaway. When you place the roof pieces you will note that they are much higher up than the first-floor pieces and are marked HIGH roof piece in the catalogue. Your sims will happily walk about underneath all the pieces, and you can place furniture without any problems. If you are using them in another house (or an extension to this one) the regular version (no. 2) and the upright skylight (no.3) need to be placed on the second floor, on top of the transparent floor also included in the zip with kind permission from Caro at the beautiful Caro's Sim Kagen. As you can see, one of the glass roof pieces is designed to go on a second floor. Using them will take some getting used to, but I think you will agree that the overall effect is worth it several times over. To achieve this effect on any other house, you will need to build the second floor room you want the glass roof on with a one-tile gap. Place the transparent floor just outside the gap and place a Banana Brick window frame in the gap so it looks as if there is a window there. This will stop the game from generating a roof over that room & your sim won't mind that there is a hole in the wall ;o) There are two gaps because I have done two rooms here, and you will need to leave a gap for every room you don't want a roof generated on. Gable Roofing kit Finally, I have managed to get round to fixing the gable sets. They now tile correctly with each other, and the best amendment of all is that there is very little bleedthrough any more. There are only one or two stray pixels on the large piece in the closest zoom, (although there may be a little more on the medium and small zooms) but for the most part they are much better objects than any previous gable sets of mine. The gable pieces are droppable thanks to Cooptwin The Amazing And Magnificent - you won't see them when played with walls cutaway or down, and they will remain in place when you sell the house. See more of Cooptwin's work at Another #%*& Sim Site Six assorted windows and two doors   Windows of varying sizes and transparency to give either sweeping views of the surrounding landscape or total privacy where needed. Two matching hardwood doors complete the set. Five Banana Window Frames Give a new lease of life to ALL your windows with this set of five tileable architectural wall details! These pieces can be used on their own, tiled, or around other windows of your choice with the Banana Brick walls, plain contrasting Banana Brick walls or even perhaps another wall to give a complete contrast. Use them on a second floor to fill in the gap so you can make a glass roof as described above. Some of the ivy images were used with kind permission of Hanna at SimSisters (closed) - a site which although no longer updating has some extremely beautiful and well crafted items for your game. Because these window frames are separate objects and not a window in themselves, you also have the advantage of being able to use them with any of your collection of recoloured windows. Based on a droppable rug piece, your sims can walk over them, you can put other items on the same tile and HD users can place wall mountable items on the windows as well. I don't recommend placing large items on the same tile, but things like plants & small bushes are ideal. Because they are slightly wider than one tile, I don't recommend using them in an inner corner. None of the plants will ever need watering, and the pieces are all backless and droppable with thanks to Koromo at Persimmon Grove, without whom I simply would not have anything unique to add to this site. Priced at the astonishingly low bargain basement price of just one simolean, you will find them in Buy Mode / Miscellaneous / General. To place them on a second floor, you will need to place them on the transparent floor tile included in the zip of the roofing kit for which I am very grateful to Caro of Caro's Sim Kagen for permission to include it. Finally, I would not recommend putting them in a corner - because they are one tiled objects but a little wider than one tile at each end, they will bleed through the wall. Three single tile animated fireplaces I made the first one ages ago but it was too blurry for my taste and until I recently learned that fuzziness was all in the A sprites, had no idea how to fix it. Then after that all I had to do was to learn how to fix the Z buffer.... which I am the first to admit is not quite right but I think it's reasonably ok now. Just don't try to put your rug under them - but then one wouldn't put a rug underneath a built-in fireplace anyway, so that justifies that. Ha. They won't cause any dramas in your home because they are cloned from the animated wall sconce. This means you can't put a picture above them, so I have done that for you with two banana-themed pictures and a mirror (decorative only). The backs of the fireplaces are much smaller than the front so as not to interfere with gameplay. The wall candles are based on an original from Marina's Sims mediaeval theme.   There is some small amount of bleed through with the wider leaves of the plants; I could not get them much better than this, but a combination of rotating and placing items behind them on the other side of the wall will get rid of the effect. Banana Accessories Pack #1 The Banana Accessories Pack #1 contains two gallery-positioned picture sets, one featuring four banana themed art prints, the other with three and one narrow banana print ideal for either side of the fireplace. To match the decorative vases & plants used in this theme, there are three banana palm pots - one small, one medium and one group which never need watering. The banana palm image has been used with grateful thanks to Persimmon Grove. Plant display tables None of these plants will ever need watering....and none of them can be taken away from the pedestals. These aren't really tables so there is no worry about your sim placing the bills under a plant where they can't be seen! They have different views at different rotations to vary the look of them. I have placed them on the balcony to stop your sims walking through the glass roof which can be a little disconcerting to say the least =:o With many thanks to Koromo at Persimmon Grove for allowing me to imprison the ferns, banana plants & bluebells in pots. Room & Garden divider kits No, I haven't quite reached my dotage yet. Although some of these dividers look the same, they are different in how they behave and are intended for different situations. Sets 1 and 3 were retextured and reshaped from an original base at Mermaid Cove (closed). These are cloned from a sculpture, and won't keep the light out of the divided off area - or prevent your sims watching TV in the same room. They sit centrally to a tile, and are solid so the sim can't walk over them. Set 2 was retextured from the cloneable one tile rug at Sim Freaks, and all sit inside the tile at the edges. They are at their best when used for balcony edges, and the low one as a garden path edging. The sim will be able to walk through them so be careful where you place them. One thing to note - Hairfish categorised the original items for sets 1 & 3 fully for home, community, downtown and vacation island, but I haven't checked if this categorisation carried through the cloning. They will need some careful rotation and placement as there is some bleed through at some angles. And the good news on all of them is that the plants never need watering! Banana Brick Stackable Bay Window, two wall buttresses.    You can use this bay window singly or on top of each other. The little balcony is just for show. I finally got round to improving it so that when you place things on the centre of the indoor sill, they won't bleed through anymore. Hopefully. The wall buttress base object is by Marina at the absolutely lovely Marina's Sims and is backless. I have used them here to "support" the overhanging skylight. Banana Brick formal garden kit. Seven pieces comprising of one topiary, two crape myrtle trees and two sizes of planters in two different colourways - none of which will ever need watering. The trees are slightly different from each other and smaller than the default Crape Myrtle so as to look more realistic when placed in groups or together. The larger planters are droppable thanks to the awesome talent of Cooptwin The Amazing And Magnificent - you won't see them when played with walls cutaway or down. See more of Cooptwin's work at Another #%*& Sim Site

Walls & floors 30 walls & floors in sets comprising of: Two contrasting sets of murals based on antique botanical prints of banana flowers, and textured matting floors to match. One set of Banana Brick walls. As I couldn't get the reverse colour wall to match absolutely exactly, I recreated the original banana brick wall in a slightly darker shade, and made plain walls to match (don't you just hate it when the only second floor option has a border on? I know I do!) These are priced at §4 each to match the original wall price. You can mix 'n' match the three fully tileable floors however you like. They are also priced at §4 each to match the wall price. One pair of two plain contrasting stucco textured walls based on the main colours of the Banana Bricks for your interior or exterior walls, blended better than a Banana Squishee from the Kwik-E-Mart. They are priced at §1so it is easy for you to find to reprice yourself according to the way you organise your files. A seven piece tileable mural featuring an antique share certificate, and finally, six wooden floors. There isn't a lot "banana-like" about these six wooden floors, but after I made the first one, I couldn't resist making it in all these colours :o) Staircase & Fireplace A normal recoloured fireplace for those who want fireplaces to behave like fireplaces (ie. generate Santa, start fires.....). Don't worry about your sims tripping over the decorative items placed on the staircase - they are fixed solid :o) Banana Brick Build Mode Kit Connecting boundary fence with high fenceposts, two columns and connecting arch. Banana Accessories Pack #2   I have also included a replacement false window for your second floor gaps - this one with translucent glass. The Banana Accessories Pack #2 contains five banana themed single prints and two lamps - one "bananas in bowl" and the other a hardwood carving of a banana tree.

The house and all the objects above can be downloaded in this one BIGZIP The BIGZIP is just a normal zip file, I just call it that to distinguish it from the normal sized zips - this one has over 100 items in it so it may well be too large for an AOL browser or those on dial-up connections. This one zip contains the house, all the objects, the walls, the floors and the roof - everything pictured above. Unzip to a temporary storage folder, and you must move the files accordingly as below:

House10.iff to C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims\UserData\Houses (for the original "The Sims") or C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims\UserDataXX\Houses - where XX is the number of the neighborhood. For example, if you want it in Neighborhood 3, it goes to: C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims\UserData3\Houses\House10.iff Files ending in .wll to C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims\GameData\Walls Files ending in .flr to C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims\GameData\Floors Files ending in .bmp to C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims\GameData\Roofs All other files ending in .iff to C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims\Gamedata\UserObjects

If you would like to redesign or recolor objects from the Banana Brick set, please provide credit on your site and in the object description with a link back to us. Most recolours here are from base items from sites participating in the Recolourers Resource Project, but where I have had specific permission for an item to be cloned for this set, you will need to ask the same permissions from the original designer - these are as follows: Ivy images on window frames from Hanna at SimSisters (closed) All links to the original site where I have made the recolour from are given where possible. See notes on home page.