I've always had a soft spot for the vanilla player homes, especially the ones in the major cities. There's something about them: the unique designs, the quests you need to do to get them (even tho
not all of them are interesting, I must admit), the lives that your spouses and children can live in a walled city, your faithful and unwanted family addition - I mean, your housecarl... As I always do in my
never ending modding journey, I strive to stay as close to the vanilla feeling as possible with the mods that I use, but unfortunately I never found a proper overhaul that really keeps things simple and lore-friendly. Don't get me wrong, there are some
awesome options out there, and I got inspired by them, but unfotunately they didn't seem right for what I had in mind: one added a bath or extra beds, another used new assets or altered the original layout...
Not bad options, just not was I was looking for, you know what I mean? So... I willingly decided to fall into the rabbit hole that is the Creation Kit, and I started to learn how to do things
my way. This series aims to transform all vanilla player homes into something more, but still
vanilla. Hopefully it will turn out great: I'm open to suggestions and technical advices, since that I'm still an
amateur modder.
- WHAT THIS MOD CHANGED AND ADDED
Breezehome is likely the first house a player can afford. While it is small and very simple in its features, it is nonetheless iconic and cozy enough to potentially keep it as your main home, thanks to its strategic location. I tried to reflect that while staying as light as possible with the changes:
- Minor additions to the main hall and the alchemy lab/child bedroom (I recommend this second option).
- Dining areas with more decorations and food, with Hearthfire oven and butter churn added.
- One weapon rack added on the first floor.
- Improved beds for everyone.
- More refined and dignified housecarl room.
- Enchanting table added,
no grindstone and workbench: go to Warmaiden's!
- Some minor external changes and decorations, nothing too fancy.
NOTE:
only two light bulbs added, no vanilla lighting changes, no navmeshes edited, all new objects that may get in the way are navcut (hopefully), file cleaned and flagged as ESL, so it won't take a plugin spot. Let me know if something is wrong and I'll try to fix that!
ANOTHER NOTE: if you want to make a patch for this mod, feel free to share it, but I'm too lazy to make them.
None, but there is a
BIG NOTE: the changes were done in the CK
without taking in consideration the buy-upgrades-from-steward system, since it was too much of a pain to even consider to deal with scripts. That means that if you haven't fully upgraded the house before entering it, you might find floating furniture. So it is
strongly - and I mean it,
strongly - recommended that you buy all upgrades - including child bedroom - before ever setting foot on your house for the first time. Adding this mod in an already existing save with all upgrades should be safe, but I woudn't recommend it either. Oh, and the mod was built while keeping in consideration USSEP tweaks, but doesn't require it and
shouldn't need a patch.
If you're looking for something more while still keeping things fairly simple, try the wonderful
Vanilla Player Homes Revamped, which heavily inspired this series; if you want even more, the immortal
TNF Skyrim House Remodel is your choice.
I truly wanted to thank everyone that helped me in learning the CK basics, especially
DarkFox127 for his amazing tutorials on YouTube and
Skyking2020, who kindly agreed to give me a quick and very effective tutorial on one of his live streams; also, thank you to all the wonderful people on Discord who answered my many and noobish questions: your patience is admirable! And of course, thanks to the authors of the recommended mods, for giving inspiration.