Hello all you hearthfire fans.

I loved this aspect of the game but always got caught lacking funds or materials to complete my home quickly. I never got how many sawn logs I'd need or how much glass and iron. I decided to log everything with my latest build for Heljarchen hall. I put a spread sheet together and here's the result. It could be handy, especially for those playing the game first time. I don't consider this a spoiler but if others do, please move it.

Requirements based on all wings, alchemy tower, enchanters tower and kitchen. Other choices will affect the exact result but in general the figures will still be a good guide.*

Glass...15

Goat horns...24

Gold ingots...2

Moonstone...2

Quicksilver...2

Sawn logs...312

Grand soul gem (grand)...2

Steel ingots...33^*2

Straw...6

Leather...3

Iron ingots...240

Corundum ingots...28

Items are assessed on fully furnishing the house but do not include wall decorations or shrines, which I thought were personal preference and may be added later.

Weight carried around in raw materials...600 : Be prepared to have to juggle between storing items and walking at a snail-pace when overloaded.

Cost:

Plot 5000 gold, fixed.

Materials will cost between 13,000 gold and 35,000 gold depending on what your speech skill and perks are, or if you wear enchanted items to improve them. Typically, early on, expect to pay close to 40,000 if you are buying everything. I've never got a steward to do this so I don't know that cost...but I suspect it will be higher (others may correct me on this).

Ways to reduce your outlay.

If it can be found, earned or looted don't buy it! Use the guide to give you an idea of what you'll need and collect these items in advance or learn where to get them if you have no safe place to store them. pay particular attention to hunting goats or buying goat horns from a general store...They're always a b***er to get at the last minute and you don't want a dingy mansion.

Also, the sawn log cost can be around 8000 gold. Cut a few bits of firewood for a mill owner and they will let you cut sawn logs on their mill for free, cutting the build cost by around 20%. Also, if you are prepared to sit with a cup of tea or a pint of beer and chop firewood for a while, you get a decent amount of gold to cover the cost of your other raw materials.

The only things that I've never seen wild or in dungeons are glass and straw. These only cost me 200 gold, so they can be paid for by cutting only a handful of bits of firewood.

If you want to mine ore and sell it to the mine owners to get brownie points with the local Jarl, just mine one node for this purpose...leave the rest to plunder later!

I'm playing an Orc this time around and given their ethos for hard work I thought I'd do it with honest manual labour and a few fights. I've built the hall to my satisfaction and am no worse off than when I paid for the plot.

I hope some of you find this useful...I enjoyed doing it. Feel free to ask any questions. the spreadsheet is flexible enough to answer most things.

* I do not quote clay or quarried stone because they are freely available at each site. I do include them in the weight of raw material to be shifted. I used 57 clay and 180 stone, for those who want to know the figures for what has to be collected, minus the amount in the chest you get with the plot (only enough to build the entrance porch)

^*2 for 33 steel, you could mine or buy 33 iron ore and 33 corundum ore and smelt to get 33 steel ingots.

P.S. as a final note, I built this time before I'd started the main questline, ie before taking the dragonstone to Whiterun. This way you don't have to worry about dragon attacks while lugging 600 weight of firewood to the mill owner. All you have to do is polish off the odd bandit that tries to interfere with your construction work.

This will help a lot of people, thanks!

My first playthrough of HF was crazy, couldn't get the houses done fast enough, and was always scrambling to find all that she needed for them. Now though, IF she builds one, she likes to take her time (since they are never the primary house anymore) because it feels more right that it takes time to build. I wish Beth had made it take longer. If she runs out of something now, she puts everything else away and comes back later.

That' a very nice thing to know... I tend to build only the "small" house, then the rest in spurt's has my character has the items. A wing at a time...

I've saved that to file. Right now, I have one toon for each HF house. They're done - but it would have been nice to have had this prior! Good stuff, laddy, thanks!

Only 24 goat horns? Seems like I'm forever running out of the things and there's no light in the cellar. Also never remember to bring steel ingots when I go build stuff. The other stuff I usually have in abundance.

Thanks for appreciating my efforts people!

Krymzon, the 24 goat horns are not going to be the same if you add a bedroom wing or an armoury that use more. Building the towers uses fewer because the enchanting tower makes use of braziers for some of its lighting and small chandeliers are used more than wall sconces.

Maybe I should have added a summary of shrines. I like to have at least one to run to if I get bitten by a vampire and don't have any 'cure disease' potions.

I was going to do a run through with only one property this time but now I think I should build one of each wing and see just how big the differences are. The cost was always what surprised me going by the base costs until I saw how huge the effect of speech perks was on what you are charged.

Here's a shrines summary. All shrines cure all diseases.

Akatosh : Magika regenerates 10% faster. Amulet of Akatosh, iron ingot, flawless amethyst, corundum ingot.

Arkay : Increases health by 10 points. Amulet of Arkay, orichalcum ingot, silver ingot, iron ingot.

Dibella : Increases speech skill by 15 points. Amulet of Dibella, iron ingot, orichalcum ingot, quicksilver ingot.

Julianos : Increases magika by 10 points. Amulet of Julianos, 2 ebony ingots.

Kynareth : Increases stamina by 10 points. 2 refined moonstone, flawless sapphire.

Mara : Restoration spells cost 10% less. Silver ingot, 2 refined malachite.

Stendarr : Shields block 10% more. Quicksilver ingot, steel ingot, 2 silver ingots

Talos : Reduces time between shouts by 20%. Steel ingot, dragonbone, dragon scale

Zenithar : Prices are 10% better. Steel ingot, 2 gold ingots

I'd better get building.

I think the only thing I paid for was the land and the sawn logs and some glass I think, everything else I stole, mined, or killed myself I remember raiding Golden Rock mine for corundum, and there are plenty of goats around so get shooting!

Still havn't finished the shrines though...

You need to buy glass*, and straw. Everything else can be found/mined/cut for free but it will take longer that way.

Murphy's law requires that goats will stop dropping horns as soon as you start building. Especially the ones you kill. You'll end up buying some.

I recommend making the smelter and tanning rack early on, so you can make your own ingots and leather strips. My Hearthfires mods typically provide enough material for that. You'll need a pickaxe to do your own mining, but the woodcutter's axe only helps you at the point where you want to sell firewood to a lumber merchant. It doesn't help build the homes. There are other ways to get free lumber, such as a delivery job for the vendor at Anga's Mill.

The hard thing to get at low level is the Grand Soul Gem you need for the Enchanting table. The best bet for finding one seems to be Dwarven Centurions, in various quest dungeons. The merchants sell them, but only when you don't have enough gold.

* - if you have my http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/69061 mod, you can melt down empty bottles. I considered making straw collectible in some way, but never did so. One method considered was having the mill at Heljarchen Hall make wheat into flour and straw, instead of just flour. But doing that properly meant doing something for other flour mills, and it spiraled out of control.