Well, I liked much more the first you show and I am not kidding! ;D
Oh just now I realise you are the builder! Congratulations. It's very cool house.

Wow, I wish I were that good at creating houses!

I did create a house based on a house I grew up in, in the Detroit suburbs, with a few variations (due to Build Mode restrictions). Sometimes I even remodel that and, say, split one large bathroom into two smaller ones. I built a version for University and one for Appaloosa Plains, as well.

It's great for large families and the back yard, you can put in a pool, or play equipment, or a garden, or whatever. I did this from memory--we moved from that house in 1983, when I was 10 years old.

It's on a 40X40 lot and here's the front of it:



Ground floor. I put the "Mission" style furniture in the kitchen/kitchenette and den (in TS2 it would have been the Mission collection)



Second floor. Sometimes I'll put a bathroom in the master bedroom, split off that large bathroom into 2, and/or attach a bathroom to that one bedroom. Depends on how many Sims are living in it and how much I want to spoil them.



Basement. The blue room, IMO, is great as a PI's office if you have a Sim in that profession. In the house it's modeled on, it was our playroom.



I think it's one of the better houses I've done, and if I want to remodel it only minor changes are needed--nothing really drastic.

Wow, wish you would upload that, The mansion. Wayne Manor.

Some houses look great but are so stuffed full of things that there's no room for sims to interact. All you get is them stamping their feet and grumping.

I don't like it when sims are stamping their feet and grumping and not doing what I tell them to do. I get that from my Boss at work, I don't need it in my games.

That house at the top of this page is both good looking and playable, tho'. At least, to me.

I have to agree that one should build a sims 3 house with pathing in mind. Some builders go fully into a "semirealistic" mode which just makes the house a nightmare to the routing system and rendered unplayable.. All my house builds that I can recall have been planned with routing in mind..

Its a game, not reality; reality doesn't have a routing system. Build for the game, not reality.

Perhaps they're more real than I care to admit.

I frequently stamp my own feet in real life because I've filled my house full of stuff.... just like overstuff Sim homes.

Not sure why anyone would disagree with Julia Engel's houses being some of the best out there. One step further and you got Ruby Red (did you just hear angels singing?) . And as for houses with too much clutter, delete is a fine feature. But, beware, these houses are HUGE files. Talkin' 10 to 20 times bigger than most due to all the cc. I was in shock when I saw the 300+, thought my eyes were doin' the "been looking at dl's for hours" blurries. These are the kinds of houses you dl when you realize you're not going to be able to place all those beautiful object sets you dl'd in a haze one night. Curse EA! Why have blueprints if you can't make your own? At first, I was cursing the creators for not including them with their sets. *Sigh* Maybe someday I'll have it in me to try and place the entire Gosik's New Vintage kitchen set...

On a smaller note, hatshepsut, Ayyuff, Guardgian, Alverdine**, FergusMind**, stonee206**, ung999**, Lhonna**, Pralinesims, and Onyxium. They all have done outstanding work.

I felt the need to put my 2cents in, after looking here myself and finding this post utterly useless. I'm late to the party and JUST now came across Ruby and Julia, after 9 months, or so, of feverishly dl'ing (more then I've played the game). Now, they got me jonesing for some more and I've been very frustrated by the lack of helpful post to point my in another direction. Hope this helps someone. And shame on some of you "old timers" for not being more helpful, and, the greater offense, not giving shout outs to some of THIS sites greats**.

Some of the most beautiful lots I've seen were built by:
Crowkeeper;
cutsocks;
Fergus' Mind:
and
Thranduil Oropherion.

My favorite items are Al Hama Palacio built by Volvenom http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=523263, It is spectacular, very beautiful, and one that I love es Halloween Funeral House de Aya 20 http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=489672