Waddesdon Manor Project

So what would you do if you had more money than a small country and you wanted to build a house for yourself to let everyone know that fact? You'd build something like Waddesdon Manor. If you've never heard of the place, like me until a few weeks ago, all you really need to know is that it is a country estate located in the village of Waddesdon of Buckinghamshire, England. It was built between the years 1874 and 1889 for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, and is currently part of the National Trust.

The style of the house is called chateauesque and homes in this style are based on those built in the Loire Valley of France between the 15th and 17th centuries. A notable example of this type of design in the US is the Biltmore estate located in Asheville, NC.  One aspect of the style that drew me to recreate this house in the Sims game, and which created the most challenge and frustration was the complex roofline. From domes to conical towers and bell-cast chateau towers, this house has it all.

You can see the real life version above and my attempt at a recreation below it. Apart from the roof, most of the grunt work was spent adding detailing to mimic the intricacy of the real facade. I've learned that if you are striving for realism in a build with the Sims, a lot of detail work is important especially with this type of style. The two images below highlight some of that detail work. The first example shows what I did to recreate the parapeted dormers found on the real version. They have this three spire thing going on with them, which I tried to mirror with the fencing and the addition of a fence light. If you look at the picture on the right, you can also see how I positioned a few statues from the World Adventures EP on the roof to add more decoration. I admit it's a bit much, but more is more with this place. This is no minimalism here Mies.

The remaining images show the back facade as well as the parterre and my own addition to the plans of the manor, a glass roofed pool house. With additions still being made to the art collection of the house you'd think the Rothschild family would have added in a pool by now...c'mon. Currently the architecture and landscaping of the lot are complete. It's on a 64x64 so getting this far was a gargantuan task in itself. The interiors are next, and I'm planning on at least 10 bed rooms and almost as many baths. Here's hoping I get it done before Sims 4 comes out and I'm not being completely facetious.

For my next blog post, I'll go over how I went about recreating the roofing of the estate so if you ever plan on tackling a build in this style make sure to take a look.