Is there anyway to get rid of these houses?

I feel like some overpowered non crowned King, I own like 9 houses, I'm the harbinger of the companions, arch-mage of Winterhold, Storm-Blade of the Stormcloaks, Dragonborn and slayer of Aldiun the World-eater, Vampire hunter and slayer of Lord Harkon of the Volkihar, the best smith in Skyrim, crafter of the dragonbone weaponry, you name it. I would just like to have one house. I completely [censored] up Lakeview, lol.

And how the hell do I get rid of the workbench and the anvil and all that outside the house?

There is no way to get rid of houses once you have brought or built them, and no way to get rid of the outside workbench, drafting table, anvil or chest. if you play on the PC you could probably use a mod to get rid of them.

If you have a save game before you built the house just go back to that.

That's just the kind of game Skyrim is. Since you can do anything, you can do everything. That's one reason why my characters usually carefully choose what they do and where they live. If nothing else, multiple houses makes finding things darn near impossibble.

DRAGONBORN: "OK, where's my Chillrend? Let's try Vindrel Hall..."

He goes all the way to Markarth. No Chillrend.

DRAGONBORN: "Crap. Let's try Honeyside."

He goes all the way to Riften, searches Honeyside. No Chillrend.

DRAGONBORN: "Dammit. Let's go to Lakeview Manor."

He goes to Falkreath into his house there. No Chillrend.

DRAGONBORN: "#$%*#&%$#!!! Well, I guess I'll try the Archmahge's quarters..."

Not a pretty picture, is it?

Bit like life really the more space you gain the more you fill it with useless crap that you never use or look at until you decide to move again into a bigger house to fill with even more crap................

Too bad we can't give them back to the Jarl/city and have the homeless beggars squat in them for free. This would give Dovahkin something new to do--become the best slum lord in Skyrim. Recruit as many beggars possible into Honeyside and don't provide any basic amenities. Or any maintenance to keep it free of skeever & other vermin infestations so the squatters will sue him. This could become a new favorite pastime.

That's why any other houses I own get 'decorated' with generic arms and armor, magical or otherwise. My important stuff is always in one home only.

Major wisdom, if you have an cupboard you fill it with junk, if you have an cot you fill it with junk, same with an garage so you have to park the car outside, even true for an barn.

we need a mansion

A house will do fine. ONE house. With all my crap in it. Swords, maces, potions, sweetrolls, ALL OF IT!! No, I don't want another frickin' house, just make me thane already!

Actually my Dawnguard character wanted that vampire castle, cleaned up of all their rubbish of course, with the back sections restored so you could access it from the balcony side, and all the weapon racks in the back section armoury working. She would have been happy with that much space, and no respawning junk! Especially not bloody respawning junk all over the place.

Not only did she get bloody respawning junk, but the victor was not even entitled to the spoils, everything in the main section of the castle was owned, she had to steal what she wanted. Serana does not even live in the castle. My vampire character is not going to be interested in that shoddy glitchy Dawnguard Fort, even if he ever bothers paying them a visit to thank them for the hundreds of idiots they have sent to try and kill him.

Here's a thought... a new Destruction spell for blowing up houses. It only works on houses you built, and your spouse and kids don't live in. You cast it, and the house explodes, leaving a smoldering foundation that can't be built on. Everything inside is vaporized.

You can have the jarl's steward clear the rubble for 2500 septims. But you still lose whatever's inside.

Expect some modder's already done it...

We should be allowed to big something as large as Proudspire Manor or BIGGER. Truth be told I always liked PM for its size and grandeur. But of course Lakeview Manor is more warm & cosy plus there's a gorgeous view of the lake.

Consider it like it really is, in a non unified kingdom, you have become a power of sorts, recognized in each hold as a friend.
In real world one could be a king maker in this position.

they should have put the ability to rent out houses imo since you can buy more houses than you can really use.

Or maybe sell them. You can't sell the house your spouse and kids live in, but you can sell the rest. Vanilla houses go for the price you paid, but Hearthfire homes go for 5000 for the mini house, 20,000 for the big house, plus 5000 per wing.

Or, we could sell them and someone would move in.

if only they let us build our own strongholds instead of just a house=(

Uninstall Hearthfire, start game, save game, quit game, reinstall Hearthfire if you want, load savegave = no more house or start all over again.

There are never enough houses!

My Lakeview house is my Dawnguard house. I build the Armory and display a set of red Vampire armor, Vampire Royal Armor, Vampire Robes, and Dawngaurd heavy armor, plus the various Dawnguard goodies like the Rune Hammer, Rune Shield, Aarvak's skull, Paragons, draw knife, canticle bark, etc.

I will have another home for the DB, with DB robes, DB armor, and other stuff from that quest line.

A third home will be the Civil War home with Imperial and Stormcloak armor displayed.

Hjerm will probably be the TG home with TG armor, Nigthingale armor, and Guild Master armor, plus Nightingale weapons.

I've done this, and it works. Just make sure you gather up everything you want from your houses, or you'll lose it. You'll also lose any new HF items you're carrying. My biggest loss was all my salmon roe that took hours to collect. Oh, and Nostor's Helmet which I forgot on a shelf in one of my houses.

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

I expect the adoption system also vanishes... kids like Lucia vanish, Honorhall adoptees return there, and orphaned kids who were sent to Honorhall now just live at their old home, like Aventus.

Excellent news on that, shamed myself that I didn't think of it myself after running into missing bard issues.

Even thought I've got about a dozen different ways to set people on fire, I can't burn down the house I just built, nor hire someone to clear out a room so I can change the decor, even though I'm obscenely wealthy.

Yep, everything HF related vanishes.

OMG hahahahahahaha that was me yesterday, looking for some royal robes I had somewhere... for my trophy room...