We'll start all over again....

This challenge is fairly similar to Build-A-World/Apocalypse challenges, but with a twist on playstyle, how to earn facilities, and on how you build. It's my first written challenge, so please feel free to point out any blinding mistakes! There are sometimes two ways to unlock things i.e. to unlock the Doctor career, you can either achieve Herbalism or Logic at Lvl 8, but I thought it was a hard enough challenge as it is!

Backstory

October 2014 - Earth's First contact with aliens was made when an amateur star-gazer met some visiting aliens and convinced them to make contact with the government. The government panicked, and despite all assurances from the star-gazer, other scientists who met the aliens, and the representatives of the alien race themselves - that they were friendly, meant no harm, and only wanted to co-exist in peace and harmony, the government reacted with fear and panic.
The resulting war was over in a matter of missiles. After the military fired the first shot at the representative's space craft, the aliens acted quickly, and disintegrated the entire military facility which launched the missile. After threatening to fire further missiles, the aliens disintegrated all buildings and technology, leaving the humans unharmed but essentially back in the medieval ages in terms of technology. The government dissolved, and everyone quickly realised they would have to start their lives anew, from scratch. The aliens apologised for acting like Gods and taking away the world's facilities, but it was the only peaceful way to resolve the situation.

Your starting sim family decided to rebuild in an area of natural beauty, with fine views, and a good basic road infrastructure. Their aim is to ultimately find other sims to help move into the area, and rebuild all the facilities as soon as they can. It has taken two years of travelling and foraging on the road to find just the right spot to build, but now they have arrived, they have an even harder task; to build a home, to find objects that will help them survive and build the skills they will need to create a community.

Rules

The starting family

This can be any number of sims from 1-8 you choose, or roll from a random generator if you wish. I've chosen to start with my simself family, so there are five of us; two parents, and three children. Just bear in mind that the more sims you have, the more chances you may have of achieving the skills you need, but they will of course, be more difficult to manage.

If your sim family has children in it, as school is an automatic reaction, and difficult to prevent without a mod, let them go - they're going to a makeshift school in a shelter somewhere for the time being. This means that they can do homework as well.

The set-up

1) I recommend downloading the 'empty worlds' save, but essentially, you need to bulldoze ALL lots. The only ones you might want to keep are the three special lots in Windenberg that bulldozing really won't make much of a difference - the Ruins, the Bluffs and the Von Haunt estate.

2) Go to Options and set to a Long sim life - this will take a while, and some commitment!

3) Make your Starter family but don't place them on a lot yet.

4) Optional - Go into Household management and delete all the households except your starting family - this will just prevent from having the same familiar sims knocking around being homeless, and will create new, strange sims for your family to meet.

5) Choose a starting lot for your family. Place a tent for each 2 sims, a camp fire, a grill, and a cooler. (So my family has three tents.) And that's it. No toilet, no shower, no nothing. You may purchase a bookshelf to buy one book per sim, and then delete the bookshelf. (I chose a gardening, a fishing and a handiness book, but there's no reason why you couldn't choose Lord of the Swings - and a charisma book might come in handy too!) Leave them with their starter money as a way of having built up resources over the last two years, but don't add any money.

Building your home

Regardless of how many sims you have in your family - it takes time to find the resources, prepare them, and then build. Each day you may build one aspect of a room OR furnish it. So, as an example, you might build the floor of the toilet on Sunday, the walls on Monday (leaving a gap if you want to access that area for the day), the doors and windows on Tuesday, roof it on Wednesday, and furnish it on Thursday. As an example, I've picked a time of day to build, so that I know and remember when I've built - we always build at 9.00am in the morning. Priorities are probably going to mean that you'll probably build a bathroom first, then kitchen, and then other living areas, but it's up to you as to what order you want to do in.
Please bear in mind that each step needs to be completed before you undertake the next one - so foundations need to be covered in flooring, walls need to have some kind of wall covering on both sides etc. There is no electricity, so until you have unlocked this, all appliances and facilites should reflect this - candle or gas lights only, no microwaves or stereos.

Here are the snags -
1) Once you have built a wall, you may knock it down, but you cannot move it. (So, no making a 2 x 3 room and increasing it exponentially to make a cabin house.) The aim of this is to get you to build more as you would in real life, and think carefully about wall and floor placement.
2) No 'pick up and move house'. If you want to move the house, you have to knock it down and rebuild it in another place. Same with turning rooms - no turning a room around.

3) Windows and doors can be moved, but the wall where the window or door previously sat has to be demolished and another section built. So, if I want to move a door from the West to the South side, the section of wall on the West side has to be knocked down after I move the door, and rebuilt - if you took out a door in real life, you'd have to rebuild the wall, right?

Building recommendations
When your sim family first starts building, they will have no electricity, no access to a DIY store etc, so flooring and walls are recommended to be in wood, brick, metal, stone etc. until you unlock the DIY store.

ACHIEVEMENTS TO UNLOCK FACILITIES

To move another family into your community, you must be good friends or better with one of the household members. Essentially, this signifies that you've befriended them enough and convinced them to take a lot and settle nearby. Once you have more than one family in your community it is recommended that you switch household either every 3, 5 or 7 days, to ensure consistency between household skilling up.

For sims to start their own cafe, restaurant or shop, they must do this with their own earned money, so most of these will be community lots or very small businesses.

Level - Skill - Unlocks
All Levels Fishing/Collecting/Gardening - The sim may sell (aka bartering) the fish/fossils/rocks/time capsules/ you catch/dig/grow in return for resources.
1 - Painting/Photography - The sim may sell paintings as barter in return for resources, (but note that easels are not purchasable until a Sim reaches Handiness level 4.)
2 - Handiness - The community can now have plumbed objects, like sinks, toilets, baths, and showers, but not hot tubs.
4 - Gardening - A park can be built, but can only contain items earned (i.e. ponds, electrical/plumbing objects etc.)
4 - Handiness - The community can have bookshelves, easels, kitchen cupboards, counters, cabinets, children's art tables, chess-boards and wedding arches. A library, lounge, and generic lots can be built, but can only contain items earned (i.e. ponds, electrical/plumbing objects etc.)
5 - Handiness - The skilled sim can build bars for the home lot or the community.
6 - Baking - The community can have a bakery or cafe, which can either be community-owned, or owned by the skilled sim. Baking clubs can be started.
6 - Charisma - A discussion, book or film club can be started - the film club only if there is electricity.
6 - Comedy - As long as electricity is running for the community, the community lounge can have a microphone. Comedy clubs can be started. The Entertainer career is now available.
6 - Fishing - The community can create a fish pond in a park. Fishing clubs can be started.
6 - Fitness - The community now has access to gym equipment and can have a gym and/or a swimming pool. Athletic clubs can be started.
6 - Gardening - The community can have a market and therefore the ability to buy and use a fridge. If you haven't unlocked electricity, then the only fridge available is one that looks like it doesn't run on electricity.
6 - Gourmet cooking - The community can now have other kinds of smarter restaurants, like seafood, Italian, and Oriental restaurants.
6 - Guitar/Piano/Violin - The community can now have a lounge, with as many unlocked objects as you have earned. The skilled sim may start an instrument club. The Entertainer career is now available
6 - Handiness - The skilled sim hooks up the home to a small generator and may use electrical and plumbed objects on the home lot only. This includes lighting, hot tubs, microphones, etc.
6 - Homestyle Cooking - The community can build a diner, which can be owned by the sim with this level skill or higher. Culinary career is available.
6 - Mixology - The community can now have a bar, which can be owned by the sim with this level skill or higher. Mixologist branch of culinary career is available. Social clubs can be started.
6 - Painting/Photography - The community can now have an art gallery, and sims with this skill can now use the woodwork table to sculpt art, which can be kept or sold. Painting clubs can be started. Opening an art shop is available to the skilled sim.
6 - Wellness - A spa can be opened, with as many unlocked objects as you have earned - note that hot tubs need electricity, but saunas, swimming pools, massage and manicure items do not.
7 - Handiness - The community now has access to telescopes and musical instruments, as these can be made again. Paint, wallpaper, tiles and carpet are available.
8 - Charisma - The government is restarted and Secret Agent, Business, Entertainer, Writer, Detective careers available.
8 - Fitness - Athlete career is available.
8 - Gardening - The community can create a park - with as many unlocked objects as you have earned.
8 - Guitar/Piano/Violin - Entertainer career is available.
8 - Handiness - The Sim with this skill hooks up the community to a large generator and there is electricity for everyone. Additionally, any sim may now call for a repairman. The community can now have electrical lighting, hot tubs, tv's, stereos, etc, but not computers.
8 - Herbalism - Doctor and scientist careers are now available.
8 - Logic - Scientist, Doctor, Astronaut, open. A rocket can be bought and skilled up on. The hospital can now be used for childbirth deliveries, and medicine can be bought.
8 - Mischief - Criminal career is now available.
8 - Painting - Painter career is now available.
8 - Programming - Tech Guru career is available. Computers and game consoles are available.
8 - Video gaming - Video gaming is available to the community, and gaming consoles can be bought.
5 & 6 - Dancing and DJ - The community can now have a nightclub, containing those objects that have been earned (i.e. if a Sim has not reached Handiness Level 10, then it will have no electricity with which to have a DJ booth.

For clarification, electrical items are: TVs, stereos, most cookers and fridges, small appliances, dishwashers, hot tubs, computers and game consoles, hospital equipment, most lights, microphones, DJ booths.

Non-electrical items that can be used in the mean time - the black cooker and fridge, the phonograph stereo, candle-lit table, floor and ceiling lights, dance floors.

Specific items that are unlocked with skills - bookshelves, musical instruments, gym equipment, chess tables, telescopes, wedding arches, .

Plumbed objects are: sinks, toilets, baths, swimming pools, wishing wells, fountains.

Mods you might want to look for - one that allows writing in notebooks, (which I can't provide a link for, as I haven't found one myself yet, but I have heard on forums that there is one somewhere!)

It seems really complicated, but in essence it's quite simple - I hope! Any feedback or stories will be greatly appreciated!