I started on the one near Falkreath, but it seems more trouble than it's worth, especially considering the compromises you have to make with the various wings. And then there's the shear size....

Why not just buy one in Solitude and be done?

Because building your own home gives you freedom to plant ingredients for alchemy, plenty and plenty of storage, a library that can hold all your books, and all the alchemy, enchanting, and smithing in one place. You can make it big or medium or small, depending on a persons likes. I prefer the house in the marsh for the fishery.

Some folks enjoy the scenery given by HF. And because we at all some point get bored with the vanilla homes.

Cause it means it's mine, and no one elses. Plus, I get an armory and don't have to share the Forge with anyone.

It's a bit overwhelming, for me at least. I have this...problem...where I like to finish things completely. So to me I had to get EVERYTHING built in the house; all the desks, chairs, etc. etc. It was a pain in the ass, a bit worth it in the end

Only problem is, there's an achievement for building all 3 homes from Hearthfire, which will be hell for me

One is enough for each character IMO. And yes it seems a bit overwhelming and sometimes frustrating at first. But the end result is very rewarding and satisfying. I still remember fondly with my 3rd character that finally build a greenhouse, and going in there at night to find lunar moths flying around is pure magical. One of my best Skyrim experiences.

Roleplaying. We might be roleplaying a character who hates Solitude and never sets foot inside the city gates. We might be roleplaying a character who was born in The Pale, Falkreath Hold or Hjaalmarch and has always wanted to build a home there. There are as many roleplaying reasons why the characters we play might prefer one of the Hearthfires houses over Proudspire Manor as there are characters.

Lakeview is perfect for my current RP because it's out in the forest wildness and perfect for her. Plus the wings are fantastic.

What do you mean "shear size"?

They're big.

For customization! You can have one house just for manufacturing purposes, with enchanter's tower, library and armory. The other one can be family focused, and the last one can be for storage purposes.

What I really hate though, is not being able to just choose whatever type of room for wings. So what if I want an entire house with three library wings?

And why is all three houses have similar furnishings? I imagined my "study and research" house fully furnished with corridors of books, with enchanting and alchemy tools and ingredients left and right... Why am I forced to have a useless twin beds and a oversize dinner table? Though I admit the table does look nice when it's decorated with human bodies, like some sort of medical dissection table.

What I found useful for an evil "Halloween" house theme is to not buying the light scones, but instead, placing kettles around the house and put torches in them (leave the area and return and the torches will light up)... They give a cool lighting effect. You can even place the kettles sideways, drop a torch in it, and put a skull against the light. Spooky.

I chose the same spot because I thought it would be the best place to raise my kids. Lots of beds a huge kitchen nice yard, pretty much everything but the kitchen sink.

the thing about the hearthfire houses is features, you trade some for others depending on wings.

But you can build in a full manufacturing/crafting center (use the basemant smithy, main hall enchant + alchemy ).

A nature lover [lakeview works best for this]= greenhouse, trophy room (all animals), kitchen (cooking up them delicious animals) or armory [showcase weapons as a hunting lodge type]

A family man/woman [the pale] = bedrooms, storage, kitchen (armory would give full wrap around, but kitchen fits better)

A mage/scholar [windstand] = alchemy, library , enchanting towers (plus the main hall ones still)

Hearthfire is a DLC for roleplayers.

Except for maybe Serana?

I like the houses because my character goes through "the motions" of building it. They get to select exactly which wings to add or not. My hunter has only built the first, small house. That is all she needs, though she will build the main house for the crafting at some point.

Of course, the downside is that almost nothing is movable. You double bed will ALWAYS be on the upper right side. Your enchanter table will ALWAYS be on the upper left. Your mounted heads go where they go and no moving them.

BUT... even so, I like them

Because.

Hearthfire DLC was not properly realised or resourced by Beth Sir in my opinion.

So instead of the potential for infinite customisation, we got a half-baked cookie-cutter.

But what we do have is the potential to build something that is yours.

In some pretty stunning locations.

Falkreath is my personal favourite.