The Small House is where every Hearthfire homestead begins. Whether you bought land at Lakeview Manor, Windstad Manor or Heljarchen Hall, you build this tidy one-room cottage first, and it works the same way on all three plots. It has no prerequisite and unlocks every other addition, so think of it as the foundation of your future estate. (Hearthfire)
What you’ll find
- Five construction stages covering seven parts: foundation, wall framing, walls, floor, roof framing, roof and door.
- Total structure cost: 17 sawn logs, 14 quarried stone, 30 nails, 4 clay, 1 iron fittings, 1 lock and 2 hinges.
- An indoor Carpenter’s Workbench for the furniture. It can be removed and rebuilt at the Drafting Table.
- Starter furnishings: barrels, a dresser, an end table, a double bed, a square table with chairs, a corner shelf, a tall shelf with display case, wall shelves, a firepit, a hanging rack and wall sconces.
- Fully furnishing the cottage costs roughly 28 sawn logs, 50 nails and a handful of glass, straw, leather strips and goat horns, structure included.
From cottage to entryway
Once the Main Hall is built, the outdoor Drafting Table offers “Remodel House into Entryway”. The firepit and hanging rack disappear. The bed, table and chairs, display shelf and wall shelves turn into matching Main Hall pieces, while the barrels, dresser, end table, corner shelf and sconces stay put. The entryway then gets its own options: display cases on low tables, night tables, weapon racks, wall shelves, and mounted bear, elk, wolf and sabre cat heads. The heads cost pelts and trophies such as a bear pelt, sabre cat pelt, wolf pelt or sabre cat teeth.
Tips
Small House furnishings are fixed in place, and the remodel is the only way to undo them, so you don’t need to agonise over the layout. A steward can furnish it for 1,000 gold if hammering isn’t your thing. Bring a stack of iron ingots, because nails, hinges, fittings and the lock all come out of your ore pile. For more room, add a Storage Room, Bedrooms or an Armory after the hall.
Details checked against community wiki articles and the Skyrim game files, summarised in our own words.