It took me much longer--167 months--but I think that might be because you were right to not use the advanced buildings. I kept trying to buy them, but they seem to cost more in resources used than they really provide, and I ended up having to destroy them again and rebuild them much later. (A level-two farm produces something like twice as much food as a first-level farm, but uses up way more than twice as much water, plus it uses energy, IIRC.) Still, all in all it was fun.