Making the most of all Hearthfire homes

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Hart

Sassmaster
As the title says, I've more of less made a little list of how anyone could make use for all of the additions in all of the homes. It's gonna take a lot of time, and a whole holy hell of a lot of iron. The list goes as such:

Heljarchen Hall (It's so snowy here.)
This particular hall is nice for it's scenery aesthetics in my opinion. Lakeview manor is cool for now snowy stuff, but it's also prone to a lot of attacks from various parties.

Personally, it's a good family home if you've adopted girls and you don't mind the snow. Boys complain a lot. The wings that I would add into the Heljarchen Hall are the Kitchen, Bedrooms, and Storage. All for fairly obvious reasons, right? I was debating on the greenhouse, but that is used elsewhere.

Lakeview Manor
Aside from the creepy necromancer table a few feet away from your house, this plot is very pretty and green. Thus, why it's being labeled as the "Alchemy House". As you might have guessed, it's going to have the Alchemy Lab, as well as the Greenhouse, and the Library for storing all your pretty tomes and rare books in. Not much else can be said about the house at the moment.

Winstad Manor
Well. Besides being in a spooky marsh, it's the perfect place to keep your armor and rare, enchanted weapons. Since it's out in the middle of no man's land, it's a great place for you to hide your shiny sharp goodies. I mean really, who's going to go wandering into a swamp to search for something that may or may not be there? Wait. Right, the Dragonborn. Here you would have your Enchanting Tower, your Armory, and your Trophy Room.

And in addition to Winstad Manor, it would be wise to add a cellar to the house and have and Armorer's Workbench, a Blacksmith's Forge, a Tanning Rack, multiple Weapon Racks, and some addition mannequins.

And that's all for my list today. If you have suggestions, or just want to tell me about your house, then go right on ahead. I want to hear about them.
 

Hart

Sassmaster
No need for alchemy/enchanting additions, as the main hall has one of each.

I understand that the main hall has these additions. However, if you wanted to have just a strictly "family" home, then I don't think you'd want your adopted kids playing with the Alchemy, am I right?

This is merely a personal opinion of mine if you wanted to make use of all of the available homes.
 

JoeReese

Well-Known Member
I like the enchanting/alchemy basement mod idea too, mainly because the basement isn't anywhere near as crazy as the rest of the house. Since the basement only takes one form, it's relatively easy to mod, so I can stick a doorway in, add in the room I want and just not navmesh it, so the kiddies stay out. :D
 
Hm. I actually thought Winstad Manor would make a good alchemy house. The surrounding swamp is chock full of ingredients to pick, and you get the fishery add on which I believe adds fish you can use for alchemy as well. So I had planned on building the Alchemy Tower here, as well as a kitchen and greenhouse to take full advantage of the houses surroundings. I've since changed those plans but I may still do that on another character.
Heljarchen, with its proximity to a Nordic barrow and Draugr, as well as it's location in The Pale which also holds the College of Winterhold, I thought would make a great mage house. The proximity of the barrow and Draugr makes it great for filling Soul Gems, too. So here I plan on building the Enchanting Tower, a library, and an armory to hold all of the stuff I'd enchant.
As for Lakeview, it does make a great family home. My original build for this house was as a family home - so I had the bedrooms, an alchemy tower (in case someone got hurt you'd need quick access to an alchemy table, right?) and an armory so everyone could defend the homestead and my characters family while she was out adventuring. Now that I know you don't need the towers to have both an Arcane Enchanter and Alchemy Table, I would probably build the bedrooms, storage and kitchen onto it. Seems family friendly to me. Then I'd just build the above separate.
After running into various Hearthfire glitches however, which messed up my characters spouse permanently as well as made me lose a bunch of non-replaceable quest items on this save, I don't think any Hearthfire house is good for that. If I start a new family, it'll be in one of the default houses. Any items I display will probably be easily replaceable. Though me losing those items was due to user error so I may still use the armory again for rare items eventually. After the burn wears off. lol
Anyway that's my two cents. :)


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sticky runes

Well-Known Member
I thought it might be worth pointing out what sort of quests the character does to achieve those houses.

For Winstad, you get rid of the vampire threat in Morthal so that makes it a suitable home for a vampire slayer/undead hunter. Valdimar the housecarl also comes with turn undead spells, and his skill as a spell sword makes him a fitting ally for many arcane themed quests, and if you choose to make a mage your steward, then you have a house full of sorcerers.
If you're an undead hunter, you might want to use an armory and manikins to display your many blessed items or Dawnguard exclusives, and make it feel like an extra branch of the Dawnguard (you can probably choose a Dawnguard member to be your steward)

Lakeview Manor is gained by killing a random gang of bandits for the jarl of Falkreath, so it's good for a bandit killer or bounty hunter type role play. Or just a hunter in general, in which case you might want a trophy room to display some of your victories.
Your housecarl is a duel-wielding Redguard lady, so that might factor into your role-play, and how you carry out quests such as In My Time of Need.

And Heljarken is gained by ridding Dawnstar of the nightmares. Waking Nightmare is also an alchemy-heavy quest as it involves mixing a rare potion to overcome the dreamstride, so this means you might want a greenhouse for growing your own ingredients and an alchemy tower just to expand your scope as an alchemist.
You also team up with a Priest of Mara on this quest (so that might help influence your character's family situation - if you get married and settle into more of a quiet life with kitchen and extra bedrooms for the kids and tone down on the adventuring) or you could be the bad guy who kills Erandur to claim the Skull of Corruption, so Heljarken could be the home of a wicked sorcerer, with library and enchanting lab, or a Daedric Artifact collector, so you might want an armory to display your Daedric collection.
Your housecarl is a classic Nord warrior who might make a useful ally for the Stormcloaks if you play out that side of the war. Unless you consider Gregor more of a Brina Merilis supporter.
 

Kohlar the Unkilled

Time for some ale
I wasn't sure if anyone actually used the "storage room." It seems a bit redundant. What do you store there that wouldn't already be stored in some other location within the house?

I make full use of my enchanting tower. In preparation for when I legendary enchanting, I use the first strongbox to store all my filled soul gems, ( I give all my empty gems to Jordis so she can fill them for me), and the second strongbox to store the amalgamation of jewelry that's waiting for enchantment. The cabinet is used for fortify enchanting potions and gear, the chest for any heavier items like weapons and armor that will be enchanted later.

In this playthrough, I'm actually using the armory for smithing purposes for the first time ever. All smithing materials are stored in the chest, weapons and armor (all various Dragon and Ancient Nord varieties), are placed on mannequins and racks.

My library is a work in progress. I intend to collect all editions of every volume. Every book pretty much, for the times that I don't feel like adventuring I'll actually sit and read them while having some ale. :beermug:
 
I wasn't sure if anyone actually used the "storage room." It seems a bit redundant. What do you store there that wouldn't already be stored in some other location within the house?

I make full use of my enchanting tower. In preparation for when I legendary enchanting, I use the first strongbox to store all my filled soul gems, ( I give all my empty gems to Jordis so she can fill them for me), and the second strongbox to store the amalgamation of jewelry that's waiting for enchantment. The cabinet is used for fortify enchanting potions and gear, the chest for any heavier items like weapons and armor that will be enchanted later.

In this playthrough, I'm actually using the armory for smithing purposes for the first time ever. All smithing materials are stored in the chest, weapons and armor (all various Dragon and Ancient Nord varieties), are placed on mannequins and racks.

My library is a work in progress. I intend to collect all editions of every volume. Every book pretty much, for the times that I don't feel like adventuring I'll actually sit and read them while having some ale. :beermug:

I would really only build the storage room to be a completionist and have one of each room in the three houses. Also, I'm pretty sure you get a balcony with the storage room, and I'm a fan of houses with balconies. :) So.


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Althought This topic is highly subjective, I can ofter you some little reasoning hinting which home can be better for what.

Lakeview manor (Family house)
Why?
- Children NPCS comments regarding Lakeview Manor are mostly positive in comparison to the other two land plots.
- Due to a bug the apiary takes longer to respawn its contents, so it isn't a reliable source of alchemy ingredients. There is a better option if you're looking for an alchemy-oriented house.
-The novite conjurer isn't that dangerous. the poor sod is just minding his own business.
Adittional consideration: Even thought you don't want to get the pesky brats involved with alchemy, I highly recommend adding the alchemy tower. Out of the three arguably useless north wings, It provides a better view of lake Ilinalta.

Windstad manor (My fantasy-themed Meth lab)
Why?
- The land plot is situaded on the swampy delta of karth and Hjaal rivers, ripe with alchemy ingreadients.
- A selling point is being able hunt some chaurus wandering around without having to worry about dealing with Falmer.
- the Fish Hatchery is by far the best house-exclusive . Coupled with a kitchen and a greenhouse, your income of ingredients will become pretty high.
Adittional note: - Good for enchanters as well: three respawnable black soul 'vessels' near ustengarv.

Heljarchen Hall (Herofag good guy's Throphy house)
Why?
- Ooooh, almighty dragonborn. please take this land plot and watch over us!
- Situated close to the middle of the province, meaning fast-travelling from the province edges of skyrim would forward 9 to 15 hours of the in-game clock. For people like me who have to tend Thrall corpses with a certain constancy because of 10-day respawns, the location is something to take into consideration.
- Feeling adventurous? You can easily acess to Blackreach and a multitude of giant camps from there.
- A grindstone. Loreius' grindstone isn't funcitional, so you can do the favor of stealing picking his wheat, processing and storing the final product in your house.
 
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This is a quick question but. I had all the DLC included when I got Skyrim in the steam sale and I haven't picked up on any of the content until recently buying the morthal one and making my house. after building it and spending a considerable amount of I decided that I don't want this anymore and want to get rid of because I feel lonely and sad there. Is there any way to get rid of the house
 

JoeReese

Well-Known Member
No, just basically abandon it and move to one of the other ones. I usually RP it as "giving it to the housecarl, for a job well done." If you want them to have company, find them a steward you think they'll like and leave it to them and their new family.
 

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