Of course! This isn’t a silly question at all – it actually confused the hell out of me for the longest time until I forced myself to sit down and do it. 🙂 The important thing to remember is that if you install empty templates, it will only affect new neighborhoods you create – any existing neighborhoods will have all the premades/townies intact. 🙂 So if you already have your Pleasantview and Strangetown hoods underway, you don’t need to worry about them when you install the empty templates. Only the neighborhoods you start after that will be townie-free. 🙂 

Whenever I have to reinstall my game, I first delete the premade hoods, install @meetmetotheriver‘s clean templates, put together my uberhood, then I install the empty templates to form my completely custom neighborhood. 🙂 This is the tutorial I use for creating an empty hood (even though it says it’s outdated – it works for me!). * Keep in mind that if you have the Ultimate Collection the folder locations will be a bit different. *

As always, before making changes to your game, MAKE A BACKUP! It’s good to get into the habit of making regular backups. I try to make one at least once a week (depending on how often I’ve been playing or messing around with my neighborhoods). 

I hope this helps! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. 🙂