The House that Dovahkiin Built

In the cold and harsh winter that fiercely takes hold of most land in Skyrim, its not a bad idea to seek real estate answers early.  This is a quick home-building run down to get you started if you’re new to the Hearthfire DLC, one of the separate additions to the game.  If you’re like me and didn’t get a chance to experience the add-ons till the Special Edition released, then this might be for you.

At some point after establishing yourself as Dragonborn and going through some of the main story quests, a courier will stumble across your presence with a letter from the Jarl of Falkreath.  It should say something towards giving you a heads up that the Jarl has land for sale.  If you make it down his way, for completing a small job, you’ll be granted with a piece of your own Skyrim in the area.  For a cake quest of eliminating some bandits, the Jarl hooks you up with a better deal than what you had to put up with while getting property in Whiterun.  Although, you’ll pay for it handsomely by dishing out 5000 coins for the deed plus the thousands more you’ll spend building the damn thing.  You’ll have to go over the details with the Jarl’s steward to get started.

Location

Lakeview Manor becomes your new home, you just have to find it first.  Northwest of the town of Falkreath and between two small mountain formations, you’ll come across a stack of wood logs.  Not too far from that lumber drop will be work benches and a draft table.

Getting started

Start at the drafting table and you should have enough material to begin the basic entry hall of your soon to be awesome mansion.  Once that’s completed, check out the draft table again to pick out what addition you want to invest into next.  There’s no question you could spend hours upon hours building your Skyrim crib and you’ll need a lot of material to do it.

Material

Here’s what needs provisioning:

• Ingots-Primarily, Iron ingots will be used but corundum is needed to build the door and chest locks and can hold up production without it.  Quicksilver, gold, and moonstone will be used for your alchemy and arcane enchanting tables.  You’ll no doubt need to buy all the iron you can buy from blacksmiths and fine goods stores.  Mine what you can and remember that ore will always be cheaper. Smelting it comes easy if you fancy building the facility outside your house or inside the basement.
• Lumber-Not to be confused with the chopped wood units you can produce at a designated tree stump.  I made that mistake and hacking away with forty-two units later, I realized, nobody builds with firewood, jackass.  The units needed can be obtained by visiting one of the many sawmills scattered throughout Skyrim.  I regularly bought lumber from heartwood mill since I already had fast travel available.  You get 20 logs for 200 coins which could get you the bare bones started on most projects to Lakeview Manor, but not so much to furnish anything inside.  So you’ll need to keep buying logs when you have the coin to finish your Dragonborn Mansion.
• Clay-Never ever waste you’re money buying this unit.  You can mine a clay depository literally right outside your front door.  Later down the road, you can even sell what you have extra to vendors provided you have a higher speech levels.
• Quarried Stone-This is another unit you are fortunate to mine at your own disposal and is available right at the build site.  You can pick away at the mountain right next to the house.  Look for a pick-axe leaning against a rock formation and you should see a prompt to mine quarried stone.
• Hay and Glass-These items are required for some furniture items and outdoor additions to your property.  Both items can be bought at most general goods stores and are inexpensive.

If you focus on stocking up on iron and wood logs, then you can power through most of the upgrades to your house.  Your housecarl may be nice enough to be a steward for your home, and if this happens, this will give you quick options to buy some materials from home.

You’ll be allowed to furnish the inside of the manor with coin vice on your own if you prefer, and other outdoor amenities can be provided directly from your steward.  Before you know it, you’ve lost hours into building a sweet lake house that even the impending dragon apocalypse can be put on hold for.  Enjoy playing carpenter and prepare yourself to invest a lot of time to finish this beast of a house.