So i bought hearthfire recently and I want to build a house soon. With my job I can only play for a hour or 2 at a time during the week so I haven't got around to building a house yet. Just curious to know how it works and how long it takes. I want to build the best house I can if 60,000 coin can do that. Also whatever tips or advice you have that could help guide me through it and save me some time that would be awesome. Thanks in advance guys. I play on the 360.

60,000 should be enough.

If you want to upgrade it fully yourself (as opposed to getting a steward to do it; worth looking up), you're going to need a lot of stuff, which will require A LOT of travelling. You can use a follower as a pack mule if you wish.

Gather everything asap.

Get as many Iron Ingots as you can as soon as possible. Also buy about 10-20 Goat Horns, about 10 units of Glass. Also, buy 200-ish logs of lumber. A few Corundum ingots (50ish?). Some steel. A few pelts.

If you want exact numbers, http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Construction

As for decorations, I wouldn't recommend a steward. I think it took them around an in-game week or more to get one room fully furnished. (It was a bedroom, and I didn't get the master bed till the end! http://elderscrolls-5.ru/_fr/2/6743002.jpg) You're probably better off building everything yourself.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Hearthfire

The first step in building a house is buying the land. There are three plots for sale - one in Falkreath Hold (Lakeview Manor), one in Hjaalmarch (Winstad Manor) and one in The Pale (Heljarchen Hall). The plots cost 5,000 gold each, but you'll have to complete favor quests for the jarls in those holds before you're allowed to purchase them (to purchase Heljarchen Hall, your character level must be at least 22 before the jarl offers his favor quest; the others can be bought at much lower levels).

When you buy the plot and go there, you'll find a drafting table (used to plan your house and select the wings you want to build), a workbench for crafting the building materials you'll need, and a chest to store these items in. You'll also find deposits of clay and quarried stone nearby which you can mine for building materials. You'll also need sawn logs, which can be purchased in batches of 20 at one of the sawmills.

First piece of advice - start hoarding and smelting iron ore; you'll need lots of iron ingots to build a house. Once you've built the main hall you'll have an option to convert the small house into an entrance hall.

60,000 gold is plenty to build a house with all of the available wings and furnishings. Your first project is to build the small house, and you will find enough building materials on-site to complete it. Next you build the main hall, and after that you can choose to build up to three additional wings for the north, east and west sides of the main hall. You have three options for each side. Once you finish an addition you'll have workbenches inside where you can build the furnishings (these can be removed once you've finished furnishing).

Second piece of advice - save your game before constructing a wing. Once you've laid the foundation you can't change your mind and decide you want, say, the library tower on the east side instead of the kitchen you just built.

You may want to consider hiring a steward for your house. If you're planning to hire a carriage or a bard or to buy livestock, the only way to get these is to have your steward purchase them. Your steward can also buy sawn logs and other building materials for you, and can even furnish the rooms for you, though you may have to wait a while for them to finish the job, and they will eventually buy every single piece of furniture that's available for that wing.

Finally, if you're planning to adopt kids to live with you in the house, you'll need to build the main hall, the upstairs twin beds and the dresser before you get the option to adopt them.

Hoard saber cat teeth, you use them for decoration, & they are hard to come by.

For a full house with all 3 wings & furnishings, you'll need ~400 logs, ~200 iron ingots, ~20 corundum ingots, ~ 25 steel ingots, ~16 glass, ~25 goat horns, ~12 straw, You'll need other metals & gems for the enchanter, alchemy lab, & the shrines in the cellar; a filled grand soul gem for each enchanter, all of the gods' amulets, 2 deer hides, horker teeth, animal pelts (bears, wolves, saber cats, snow saber cats, goats), mudcrab chitin, 3-4 large antlers, small antlers, slaughterfish scales, & lots of leather strips.

Naturally, the building goes a lot faster when you've already accumulated your materials. You can add the décor later if you don't have all of the materials when you start.

When you build, be sure to make the nightstand for the basic house before you remodel it into the entryway, as it won't show up on your list of decorating options after the remodel.

Save before you furnish each room, as you may decide that you don't need quite so much stuff, & once built, it's impossible to remove without going back to a previous save. I rarely put in all the furnishings.

If you approach your worktable after you've built some things, & the menu hasn't updated, just close the menu, back away from the worktable, approach it again & click on it again; the menu should be updated this time.

It's a lot cheaper to buy iron ore & smelt it yourself than to buy iron ingots. Cheapest of all is to do your own mining, but that can be time consuming.

Gather and save as much iron ore and ingots as you can.

Go on a goat hunting spree in the Reach or buy as many goat horns as you can.

Check every merchant for straw or glass for sale and buy it.

Chop wood and sell to a mill owner so he will let you cut logs for your home for free. or buy them from him for about $200 a purchase which = 20 logs I think. You can't buy the logs until you own land though.

When the structure of your house is built you can build the interior at your own pace or get a steward and pay him/her to do it. Even if you pay a steward to do this, you can still furnish the items as well until each room is complete.

If you have enough items saved up you can build and furnish a home moderately within a few in game minutes to be honest.