You would be mistaken if you thought Skyrim was only about exploring dungeons and killing dragons. The Heartfire DLC expanded upon the vanilla game by adding features to purchase lands and build your manors at different corners of Skyrim.
Building your house is entirely different from purchasing a prebuilt house in cities such as the Breezehome in Whiterun or the Honeyside in Riften. Here, you will have to start from scratch by buying a plot of land and then constructing the structures for your living space.
There are namely three different player homes that you can build in Skyrim. The first one is the Lakeview Manor, which is located near Falkreath. Next, we have the Heljarchen Hall, next to The Pale.
Finally, there’s the Windstad Manor which you can build on Hjaalmarch. We’ve briefly explained the steps to build all three houses below, so keep reading!
Step 1: Get Permission
First, you can only buy the properties after getting permission from the jarl. How do you get the approval, you ask? Like any other quest, you must run a few errands for the Jarls to gain their favor.
But in our case, the permission to buy the plot of land. Every Jarl in the cities has different quest prerequisites you’ll need to complete before getting approval.
Lakeview Manor
There are a few other methods to get permission from the Jarl of Falkreath. If you haven’t progressed far into the main campaign, you can complete a few quests for the Jarl Siddgeir.
You’ll need to bring a Black-Briar mead and kill a bandit leader. After completing these quests, talk to Jarl to get permission.
Another method to acquire the permit is by becoming the thane of Falkreath. Talk to the Jarl about becoming a thane. Then, assist three citizens in Falkreath and return to the Jarl to get the permit.
A third way to get the approval is via the Season Unending questline. During this quest, you must suggest the Falkreath city to the storm cloaks.
If you’ve already completed this questline, you can also capture the city of Falkreath for the storm cloaks in the Civil War quest.
Windstad Manor
The Windstad Manor is located in Hjaalmarch. To purchase this property, you’ll need permission from the Jarl of Morthal. First, talk to Alsfur and then Jarl Idgrod Ravencrone.
She’ll give you the “Laid to Rest” questline. Complete the quest and return to the Morthal. Speak with Jarl again to get the permit to buy the land.
Heljarchen Hall
The Heljarchen Hall, the player home, is at the Pale under the jurisdiction of Dawnstar. To get started, talk with the Jarl of Dawnstar, Skald Felgeif. Then, talk with Erandur and complete the Waking Nightmares questline.
Head back to Dawnstart and speak with the Jarl again. This time, he’ll give you the Kill the Giant radiant quest. You need to be at least level 22 to get the second quest. Talk with the Jarl after completing both quests to get permission for the land.
Step 2: Purchase the Land
Now that we’ve gotten permission to buy the plot of land, all we need to do is buy the land from the stewards from the respective cities. You can buy all three lands for 5000 gold each.
Simply talk with the stewards and choose the “I’d like to purchase a house” dialogue option. After purchasing your property, head to the location marker.
Step 3: Build your House
As mentioned previously, you have to build everything from scratch. So, the location will look pretty bare. However, you will still have access to a drafting table, a basic supplies chest, a carpenter’s workbench, and a forging anvil at all three locations.
You can apply the methods explained below for all three player homes.
- Start by interacting with the drafting table.
- Build the small house layout. It won’t cost you any resources.
- Start by building the foundation for your home from the carpenter’s workbench.
- Proceed to make the wall framing.
- Next, build the walls.
- Build the roof framing and the flooring.
- Then, craft the rooftop.
- Finish building your home by making the door.
Step 4: Furnish your Home
You have now built a very basic-looking player home. But we’re not done yet. You can do much more to give your living space a cozy vibe.
Interact will the carpenter’s workbench to add additional structures such as a smelter, workbench, stable, animal pen, grindstone, mill, garden, etc. You can even expand your manor by adding main halls, additional rooms, stairways, etc.
There is also an extra carpenter’s workbench inside your home. Here, you can furnish your interior by crafting decoration items such as beds, firepits, bookshelves, display cases, etc.
You will need many resources to construct and furnish all three manors. Resources such as the Quarried stones can be difficult to obtain.
You can hire a steward for your manor to make resource gathering easier. You can buy resources, building materials, and craft decor items from your steward. To hire a steward, simply bring your follower to your estate and ask them to become a steward.
