It's set in the prairie / west, turn of the century.

I don't think I've ever seen much CC for that type of game before. How would one combat the usage of cars and phones?

I use hexameter and Dragon Slave's horse drawn vehicles. Since I play turn of the century, there are a few old timey phones that fit into the time period, but I also send the Sims to community lots quite a bit and make use of MogHughson's postal system.

My game is . . . softer, more realistic colors, I guess. I use a ton of Almighty Hat's defaults in my modern game. No crayola colored shovels and mops in my world. I also use her World Lit by Fire mod. Not a big fan of artificially bright colors. I use the twelve pooklet hair colors, which helps me distinguish between my sims.

As far as sim clothes and houses, well, I really dislike tattoos and piercings, so I don't have those (all my sims wear clip on earrings, clearly). But other than that, my sims pretty much let me know what they'll wear and where they'll live, and why. So I very often end up with sims dressed in ways I don't particularly like, but that fit their personalities. If that makes any sense.

Maxis matchy Harry Potter