I can never really decide what house to live in. I like how there's more size in HF, but I hate how everything is made out of a bunch of broken and chipped wood ( I prefer the stony look of Solitude, or even the upgraded wood in Windhelm), but then I dislike how small some houses like Proudspire Manor are. Which group of houses do you guys prefer overall?

I like my small little cabin near Whiterun. Breezehome and Honeyside are my favorite ones, though

Hearthfire homes, as they're more spacious and accommodating than any of the Vanilla homes. If it came down to visual appeal, then I'd most likely agree with you in saying that I prefer the modest elegance of Proudspire.

I like the HF homes. Large and full of space for more activities.

No.

Hearthfire houses respawn all that junk you chuck away when you want to decorate your house with nice things. Also the music is different in the hearthfire houses i think, i prefer the music in the vanilla houses.

The Hearthfire houses are also incredibly bland and generic imo. Why we couldn't have more variety is perplexing, but than again it was cheap as chips so i guess the content/price ratio is justified.

kind of a mix, the Vanilla homes are unique, city specific. HF houses are the same style and initial base layout. I wish they had more oomph when they were making that DLC. the premise is awesome and execution intact (all three properties can be built in different final layouts) but because they are all the same style...eehhhh

its up in the air for me.

While I like the vanilla homes, I built my Hearthfire homes. Sure, they were set in stone with how they looked and what they contained with no deviation, but I built them.

I think building a Hearthfire house is tons of fun. However, the original homes in the cities are more conveniently located and generally, nicer. The compromise for me is to have the 'single room' cottages for storage and gardens/fisheries etc. but 'live' in Honeyside or Proudspire or Breezehome. Ah, Breezehome, the first place I ever bought. Got a permanent soft spot for that place.

i enjoy hearth fire houses because they feel justified for a character of my stature

Nope too much work trying to build those house, honestly my character craps gold so why can't I just pay someone to outfit it for me like the ones in the cities.

I liked the house outside of Falkreath. It provided one extra woman for my harem.

You pay your Steward to furnish each room for you in the HF houses.

Houses from mods over other homes (both Vanilla and HF) all day every day.

How much does it cost to fully furnish a house? And how long does it take for them to get everything completed? If I remember correctly it took me about 30,000 to buy the materiels to build it myself. If its not an insanely high amount of money, I think paying for it would be the way to go. It would save an awful lot of time.

I think it varies for each room, from like 1500-3000 each. Each room being Entryway, Main Hall, and each of the three wings. IIRC You have to do the Cellar yourself.

The Hearthfire homes have much better views than the ones in the city's.

Also I like the way they are in the wilderness.

Do I? No not really. Both styles (Regular homes, Hearthfire homes) have different perks and problems.

Hearthfire homes generally have a better view, are more spacious, and have customizable options. However, it can be annoying when every once in a while you walk outside and get launched into space by your rather large neighbor.

City homes have the perk of well... being in the city. Generally that's pretty convenient. They also look pretty nice. Oh, and most of them don't cost much. They have a couple problems, such as not being very customizable, and generally being smaller.

Long story short: I don't have a preference. I just pick what's right for the current character.

For some it's not about saving time, it's about RP'ing.

My favorite was Markarth, which is weird because I've not seen many others like it. I thought it was laid out nicely, as well as all being on one floor.

My favorite of all is Severin manor, or whatever, in the Dragonborn area. This is because its all one floor, nice and roomy and has a forge/anvil/all the weapon improving stuff and everything inside of it. I solved the lighting problems in it by pickpocketing guards torches, around skyrim at night, then dropping them behind stuff here and there in Severin manor. I've also decorated with things on top of barrels and here and there, to lighten things up. I'm on the XBOX 360, so this can all be kind of difficult (I don't know if they PC version ever came out with mods to make object placement easier.) I have all the bugs in a jar placed upon those haystacks, upon entering, for instance.

Hearthfire homes seem like they are too big to me, with too much running around from alchemy to enchanting and then to smith something. I only like them because I have Ysolda (my wife) at one, with a couple of adopted girls and a bard. I developed the other two manors, but only go to them to get the respawning plants and junk. All of my smithing/enchanting/alchemy stuff is mainly at Severn manor (the dragonborn house you get)

I like how the hearthfire homes come decorated, once I went through the workbenches (being too impatient to wait for the stupid stewards to furnish them...) I chose the different north, east, and west wings for each of the three; That way I saw all possibilities and can visit each for whatever (like one has the kitchen, while another house has whatever the other options were.)

I also like how the hearthfire homes seem to have fairly PERM objects; I knocked over some stuff in the basemant during the skeever occupation, upon revisiting later all of those jars/plates/pitchers whatever were back to the original positions. So these homes seem nice in that aspect, though I've heard decorating with your own stuff doesn't work as well.

Being able to pick which trophies you have, in the trophy room of hearthfire, is cool.

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The cost of buying the materials in hearthfire is moot. I'm on the XBOX 360, with no exploits used. I'm at 765 hours played

and have 1,700,000 gold or so. I actually did pay for the steward to do it too, but they take too long. I did have the

nice surprise of running out of materials, needing to get more, then finding that those items were indeed done

by the steward by the time I got back.

Money was easy once I did the perk tree that gets you to find more gems in treasure chests/urns, as well as giving

vendors more money.

Buying stuff from vendors is just a way for me to launder my thousands of precious gems. Buy them out of iron ingots, goat whatever, glass, straw etc, then sell them gems for the gold they now have from me.

i like all the housing options. each one offers a unique atmosphere which is what i like...that being said i do like the quests and building work needed to make the hearthfire houses but i would prefer in the future to have more options for customizing furniture sets and placement of furniture items etc...for example there are waaaayyyyy too many books ive collected that just wont fit in that little tiny library of the heartfire house and i would like more bookshelves around the house but maybe someone else would prefer more trophy stands etc...i would also like to be able to "store and switch" between furniture sets and trophy displays etc