I think it would be really cool if I could build a small house or shack out in the woods. Oh or climb a tree and hide out in the tree in a club house.... or just the ability to climb and wait in trees.

TREE HOUSE ;D

I doubt there will be a mechanic to actually build your own home in-game. It could be kind of cool, but it could also be tedious, and overall, I think it's pretty unnecessary. There's always the construction set, though!

If you want to build theres always Minecraft.

Ahh the obligatory Minecraft post lol. But he is kind of correct. Think of the custom house decorations (in Megaton) in Fallout 3. That is just a fraction of what custom house building would be and that would be a total scripting nightmare. If anyone could do it though it would be BGS.

Or Dark Cloud.

I think this is one of those things were people say "not worth the time" "play X game..."

But this is what I consider an opportunity for Bethesda to continue to push the envelope of what's possible in a open world RPG. If it could include small sections of the already existing Creation Kit (very small, preprogrammed...almost similar to the Morrowind "stronghold" quests, but available to anyone with the gold, etc) it would attract a lot of players who might normally play less action oriented games like the Sims or Minecraft (which has it's own RPG component) and who like more customization. It would also give players who are fans of the series as it is more replay value/playtime (Although, I think ES already is the highest of any series I can think of)

Obviously this would not be included in Skyrim, but there's no reason it couldn't have.

No not like Dark Cloud and i curse thy for even speaking the name

Well the great house strongholds where built for you in stages so why not? Though it would have to be in specific places where you could build.

This.

I loved the ability to build different strongholds in Morrowind. It was really fun seeing the development and knowing that you had deserved it.
It's not overly hard to script building in stages. They did it for Morrowind, and several mods for Oblivion.

It doesn't have to be complex like sims ... but they could put like 50 empty slots in wilderness, which can be built on ... and you could choose one of few available options for every slot (different house looks).Then you can choose the outside pattern of the house, and then order it to get built. You could even gather the wood yourself, so the building price gets lower. Then you can decorate the interior either using Fable's way or even more complex one like Imperial Furniture mod (which proves that you can decorate your houses even in Oblivion)

I would love to be able to build an outpost or a hunting tower though I doubt it will be in.

I doubt you will able to build a house where ever you please, but I wouldn't count it out of the realm of possibility for Bethesda to allow you to customize/redecorate your house to your liking, and I would be disappointed if you couldn't furnish your house in different styles like fallout 3.