It seems that the Caliente family are guaranteed to have a burglar show up, but only if Dina is on the lot. I've tried a couple of times and the burglar alarm doesn't stop the burglar from showing up like it normally does.

But - burglar alarms don't prevent burglars from showing up. They go off and alert the police, so that there's a chance you'll get your stuff back.

And the first burglary at the Caliente house is scripted; but the scripts don't go forward if certain elements aren't in place.

Well, I think that she spent all the money for stuff... But she was too lazy to get a job, so she couldnt pay the bills and the repoman took her stuff. So she moved in her sister's house because she still doesn't want to get a job...

It always seemed to me like the Caliente house in Pleasantview was Nina's home, and that Dina had moved in. So maybe she (had to?) move in with her sister after having sold up her marital home. This would account for why her and Nina aren't that close when you first play them (Surely they would be better friends if they'd lived together longer?)

The house also seems to be more suited for Nina, like just the colouring and style.

Dina and Michael used to live the dream, when they ran a business together (Michael making the decisions, Dina as the chief administrator - they might even have had a few other employees, but we're not talking anything huge). They had the flash wedding, the flash car, the flash house... ...and then their actions inadvertently collapsed the business in a dramatic way. Possibly even a socially embarrassing one. I could see Dina falling for some innocent-looking scam or other contributing to the initial downfall of Michael's business, not helped by Michael knowing the theory of everything and the business practicalities of not very much (the theory got them the success, but emphatically not the understanding needed to sustain it). That would also explain why Dina hasn't simply used the experience of Michael's business to create a business of her own - if your first business failed and you don't understand why, it would surely knock your confidence of successfully running another, especially if you don't have the more senior half of your business team (maybe not a very good senior half of the team, but still...) Perhaps Michael was overtaxed from the stress of trying to save the business (Dina doesn't seem terribly calm in a crisis and wouldn't have been much help rescuing the business as a result) as well as the pain of ostracism from failure, and they moved to Pleasantview for Michael's health.

The money they saved in downsizing was spent on being an unemployed couple - Michael being too ill to work and Dina combining looking after him with looking for someone to fulfil her desires for romance and security. People who see her initially think she mostly wants the romance, and she plays up to that role believing this will help her (hence she is known as a "gold digger"), Her Wants tendencies makes me think what she really wants, after everything, is to have a secure place in the world and someone to love in the world who she can rely on being there... ..and her naivete is what makes Dina think Mortimer is The One (financially he could provide for her, but how could he provide to her emotional needs when he's still pining for Bella anyway?). Anyhow, Dina is a dreamer and very much presents as one, so not only did she not put as much effort into finding a job as she might have done, but she tended to make a bad impression on employers when she did go to interviews. Some employers in the Sims world may seem to employ anyone with a pulse, but Pleasantview has Standards. She is genuine though, and I believe her efforts as a carer, plus the move, kept Michael alive for some years. But even Dina can't do anything about picking the wrong hand when the Grim Reaper came.

Dina doesn't strike me as the sort of Sim who could stand being alone for more than 10 minutes at a time, so I figure that she would have asked Nina to move in after Michael died so that she didn't have to face living in a fairly big house all by herself (I'd also imagined them having come from a small home initially - maybe a penthouse flat). Nina agreed out of sisterly affection and because after their dad died, she was alone and not liking it either. Trouble is, Nina's just as much of a dreamer as Dina (albeit also more intelligent - she's likely put the money from her parent's house in a high-interest non-access savings account or a bonded investment of some kind, hence why she couldn't use the money to just buy Dina a dream apartment in a town where dreamers are appreciated). She dreams of doing medicine but every time she goes for a medicine interview, she gives wishy-washy answers and ends up not impressing enough to be hired by Pleasantview Employers with Standards. Both Calientes also seem a bit scatterbrained, accounting for the vulnerability to being burgled. Oh, and she also said something really insulting to Gordon King at a party, with no idea who he really is, and that is why Gordon or one of his lackeys wants to burgle someone who is nowhere near as wealthy as many other people in Pleasantview.

The inheritance had to pay for all the debts made by Dina?

These are all really interesting! Love the different interpretations each of y'all bring to the table.

Michael is really angry at Dina when he comes out of his urn, he screams "Dina!" and displays an icon with a red cross I fail to remember or understand. But that always made me think that she killed him to spend his money and that's why they're poor.

Great question!

I have never seen their household as a poor one, they seem to have nice stuff. I just see them as golddiggers who don't know how to handle their money.

I always saw them as a bit hard up..yeah their condo is really nice, but it's also kind of small for two people (can you even fit a double bed in the second bedroom?) and if I remember correctly they have cheaper counters, cheap kitchen table and cheap chairs? And both are unemployed. I suppose splashing out on hot tubs, bars and exercise machines without having an income really hits your budget..

Strangely, I never thought of her as poor. Living on a budget, perhaps, accentuated by an occasional binge purchase. (I put those ladies to work ASAP if I play them.) But I think of Brandi Broke as poor. Dina's and Nina's house may not be fancy, but they've managed, with or without Michael, to eke out a sustainable-enough lifestyle. (I never think of Michael much, actually, except to make sure his urn is kept on a nice, high, shelf out of reach, just in case). I think of that section of Pleasantview as middle-class.

I don't think Dina is willing to settle for that lifestyle, though. She wants to do more than just get by, and Mortimer seems to want to shower her with attention. Such attention might be pretty darn tempting.

You know what I realized, I'll wait for Skell to explain it at some point in the story because that's near ultimate canon for me nowadays.