Jumbled Installation Instructions - Problems I'm having

The best thread I've read so far is from 2011.

Someone got on and expressed that the numerous guides for installing on Mac had him confused as none of them worked.

So here is my story.

First a quick bit about me...

Never used a Mac before. My girlfriend really loves The Sims 3 and I'm trying to get it installed for her. I was in the military for four years and have professionally acted as a systems administrator and database developer. I have about 15 years of in depth experience with PCs. This Mac thing though, can't lie, is kicking my ass. I've had this all up and running on my PC before as there is an extensive amount of support for PC. At that point I don't even think I had to register.

Alright so here is my adventure so far.

-The Mac is a 15" Retina Macbook Pro w/OS X 10.8.2 and plenty of ram/processor stats.
-Downloaded three different versions of the base game (Reloaded and G4TW version included)
-Downloaded all of the G4TW expansions/stuff packs up to Diesel.
-All expansions and base game were extracted from RAR format on my PC, thrown onto an external, and now all reside as ISOs on the Mac. Because of installing so many times now, I've left them all mounted to save time during installation waves.
-Downloaded the manual patch.
-Downloaded the Ultimate Fix

Unique Attempt #1
-The first time I installed I used reloaded for the base game.
-I fumbled around and figured out I had to install Late Night first.
-Then installed some other randoms.
-Had some random updates in there.
-Got generations installed.
-Tried to willy nilly (precisely following location listed in the Mac guide provided with the ultimate fix) throw some patches in and see if it worked.
-It didn't. Can't remember why not or what error message I got. At this point had already spent the majority of 3 days downloading and unpacking and mounting files and was so livid I just uninstalled everything.

Unique Attempt #2
-I got smart this time. I installed the expansions in the order that they were released. Except for Late night.
-Everything installed up to Town Life without a hitch. I realized then that I was in above my head and found bestgoo.
-Got the manual patch and used it. SUCCESS! I was able to install everything. Got to the end, and once again installed everything the way the Mac Guide said to. /fail.

Unique Attempt #3
-I decided to stop wasting too much time trying to install all of them at the same time to just find out I have to uninstall everything when i redo it.
-Installed base game (G4TW)
-Installed Late Night
-Installed Manual patch (Because it doesn't let me install anything else without an online update which takes 7 years)
-Installed Generations
-Installed #Crack files ONLY from ultimate fix (as I've read those are really the only relevant files).
-Ran into Unknown Error.
-Figure out how to get rid of that by clearing preferences
-Actually only really figured it out after finding out how to make my damn home>library folder show up through a terminal command.

Long story short, now, I've had a number of installs in between these. Combinations of Live updates and manual patch updates and expansion installs and blah blah blah. I still do not have the sims running. My girlfriend leaves back to NYC tomorrow so I'm trying to get this done tonight. We've spent way too much time on it and I'm just trying to get it done.

I've followed the following guides, all the way through, at least once. And then the ones listed in the actual distributions of the game.
https://games4theworld.forumotion.com/t2755-easy-method-of-installing-sims-3-base-gameexpansions-mac-guide
https://games4theworld.forumotion.com/t1171-must-read-how-to-install-the-sims-3-correctly
https://games4theworld.forumotion.com/t3118-the-sims-3-suggestion-how-i-did-it

In addition to anyone's advice that would be absolutely wonderful, I think establishing a couple of concrete facts first would greatly help me! The following:
How many times will I apply a crack?
How many different cracks will I apply?
How many different directories will I apply these cracks to?
How many times will I update?
Is there a certain order I must install the expansions in?

Thank you all very very very much for your time in considering this matter. I really want to make my girlfriend happy

//EDIT

NEW DECOMPLICATED INSTALLATION GUIDE - WORKING - MAC

-Install Base Game (Ensure it is not the G4TW version)
-Use Manual Patch Update.
-Install other desired expansions.
-Install the .exe and .dll from the #Crack Folder to the game/bin directory of the base game.
-Play

I'll write a more in depth guide (still super simplified) If an admin would wish it.

The
most confusing thing about the entire process was everyone's opinions
on when to update and what different range of patches to install. The
only things I installed the round I got it to work was diesel and the
base game. The answers to my original questions are as follows.

How many times will I apply a crack? 1
How many different cracks will I apply? 1
How many different directories will I apply these cracks to? 1
How many times will I update? 1
Is there a certain order I must install the expansions in? No

//EDIT

Update:
service initialization failed (0x024e424f)
All expansions installed.

Prior instructions worked with just diesel installed.


//EDIT

2nd Update:
Applied manual patch again.
Applied crack again.
Working

Summary: Updated twice with the latest manual patch.
- First update right after installing the base game.
- Second time after cracking and recieving error (0x024e424f)
- After the second update i reapplied.

In
this particular situation that changes the number of times I needed to
update to 2 and the number of times I needed to patch to 2 as well.

Admin edit: Please "Edit" your message, rather than double-posting. Thank you!

- ADMIN