Well, I spent a while wandering from town to town on Cyrodil's eastern side, sleeping at the Mages Guild buildings just walking the roads and collecting masses of ingredients. After I amassed 10,000 gold with my alchemy skills, selling potions, I brought the house in Bruma. I'm now buying furnishings, and filling it with mundane and obscure trophies (i.e. the leather helm of the bandit leader of whichever ruin. Stuff like that.)