I'm building Lakeview Manor and I'm at the point where I should build either the kitchen or the armory, since I love having mannequins I'd go for the latter but for the sake of RP a kitchen would be nice too. It's my first Hearthfire house and I'm puzzled on what to do now, may I just build the kitchen and place the mannequins in the basemant? I haven't made any furniture yet so I'm not sure what my options are.

You only get one mannequin in the cellar, your only choice is one or none if you choose not to build it. The armory has a lot more. The advantage of the kitchen wing is the oven, free milk each day if you have a cow, and free samples of some of the new food and ingredients, the main one you might not notice otherwise is the salmon roe. You can still use the cookpot in the main all if you do not want to cook anything fancy. You could always put the armory in, and the kitchen on another house and bring the food back with you.

I'm going to follow this because that's the point I'm at now and it's a tough decision. Can you put mannequins and racks in another room maybe?

If you're married or plan on being married, there's a bug involving Lakeview Manor where if you don't build the Armory wing, your spouse will just stand there staring into space whenever they go outside. If you have the Armory wing, they'll go on the porch and interact with stuff. If that bothers you at all, go with the Armory.

You can build 1 mannequin in the enchanting tower, 1 on the second floor main house, and 1 in the cellar, if you choose not to build the armory. I am not sure if there are any more you can build in the house without armory.

No, it doesn’t work that way. You can put one mannequin upstairs in the main hall, and one in the enchanting tower if you build it. Plus the one in the basemant. There are some weapons racks available in the enchanting tower if you build it, in the cellar, and in the converted entry hall. It’s not a situation of you get a certain number of racks and mannequins to place where you want, you either build them or not and they go in their spot (or not and the spot stays empty).

In my opinion the armory is the way to go for an armor display. It also has a great roof deck. That said, I built the kitchen for the family home. It looks warm and cluttered, which I like.

I recommend saving often so you can easily change your mind if you build something and then don’t like it.

I'm in the same predicament you are. Should I eat or display weapons? As much as I would love an armory, I'm basically building this house to start the whole family thing. With no kitchen my wife would follow me around all day Hah, that's terrible.

i'm thinking Bedroom - Alchemy lab - Kitchen. But what suits me may not suit another. This is a situation where trial & error works better than advice. There's only one you!

I was wondering why she was outside staring at nothing and just standing there. Damn bugs.

Superb, hundreds of thousands of male gamers worldwide sit in bewilderment as their wife shows more interest in an armory than a kitchen.

Welcome to the world, lads You can get your own sammiches from here on...

Don't know if that would be good or not... great conversations about swords and maces, but bad food.

I used the armory, a room full of weapons is badass IMHO.

Kitchen is great if you happen to be a woman though

maybe this might help your dilemma:

1. If your homestead is Heljarchen Hall then definitely go with the kitchen wing. This is the only home that has the option to build a working mill, which means you can have your own bakery!

2. How many houses do you already have in each of the towns/holds? Many of these have armory/smithy features /dummies/weapons racks etc. or smith facilities close by like in Riften. So building another would be somewhat redundant

3. Do you plan on going the family route? If so, it would be a more logical theme to have the full kitchen if you plan on having the wife and kids move in. And Meeko too. Where's the poor bugger going to beg for his supper & kitchen scraps if no kitchen exists?

IMO: If the answer to #2 is more than 1 house, then there really isn't any point of building another armory/smithy. You might as well go with the full blown kitchen for novelty's sake. And like you said, there's always the basemant to store more crap.

This is exactly the blueprint that I was thinking. I was sorely tempted to add the mage's tower for my battlemage Nord. But now that the best of his wild days are behind him and he's finally settling down, I gave into the kitchen. Had to think of the children. Besides no self respecting Nord should have a mansion and lack a proper kitchen to entertain the guests

edit: I picked the alchemy lab because I figured it would come in real handy if the home was invaded by bovine giant thiefs, marauding bandits, or rabies infested giant skeevers

Go with kitchen! I done that and im happy, at least i can cook in peace without my real wife muahaha

If you go with the bedroom/storage room/armory combo it gives you a wraparound balcony which, to me, is the best combo for Lakeview Manor due to the view of the lake.

This is very interesting and indeed helped my dilemma, I'm going to to go with the armory for Lakeview Manor and eventually build the kitchen in Helijarchen Hall, which I haven't bought yet but I definitely will because of the mill. Since I aim to build three very different houses I'm convinced it's the way to go. Thanks!

It's that porch that's the draw for the armory though. And IIRC, the porches have snacks!

My main character has an aversion to mannequins but loves the porch idea, so he'll build the armory and leave it kinda empty.

My female character would prefer the armory, since she's much more fond of smithing than cooking. In the former, completely burning things is a plus.
Although an armory is not a smithy, that's outside... so not sure if I'd rather get her the library.

Anything to help out a fellow denizen of Tamriel!

You just made me think of something else......we have 3 houses with 3 different build options per wing right? So technically, this means you could build and showcase all of the 9? design room themes in the new homes. Assuming the maximum number of 9 rooms exist that is. I haven't gotten into building anything in depth just yet. If that's the case, then the way these homes are designed could end up being quite strategic. My Nord will be aligned with the Stormcloaks. So Helijarchen Hall is probably the best home location to raise his family because of Dawnstar's initial affiliation with the Stormcloaks. Since Lake View and Windstad are located in holds initially aligned with the Imperials, then I'll design those 2 homes into my defensive strongholds and Keeps when traveling on the road. This adds to Honeyside and the TG, my 2 other southern bases in the Rift.

I'm going to build that Mage's Tower and armory in Falkenreath. Since Lake View is the furthest from the Stormcloak capitol in Windhelm, it's going to be my most strategically critical base next to the Cistern in Riften. Especially since the DB got relocated to Dawnstar. I'm also going to use the Tundra Defense mod as a defensive garrison outpost for these 2 strongholds in enemy Imperial territory.

I'm starting to see a HUGE strategic advantage in combining Hearthfire with the defense garrison feature in the Tundra Defense mod. Once I trigger the Civil War part of the MQ, this mod is really going to make playing the DLC very interesting over the next few months.

I came to the conclusion the best setup are as follow

lakeview: (early) (small lab + kitchen + kid space)
kitchen/alchemy/bedroom/
-it's the saffest place
-there is not a lot of adventuring arround there latte on

winstad (this is really a big alchemy lab) (also a bit of a thievish stronghold)
library/storage/greenhouse

heljarchen (endgame) (this s the ultimate enchanting place and gear showcase for the endgame)
armory/trophy/enchanter

those tree design allow each house one tower, one patio, and one 'roofed' wing
and allow you to get all 9 wings and the house don't look too silly

of course a pure mage might just use the 3 towers

By the way, you always get two manikin minimum
1 in the cellar
1 in the upper main hall (on the walkway)

the enchanting tower also come with a manikin and quite a few weapons racks and display cases
almost a mini armory

Personally I wish that they'd made three wings, nine rooms, mix 'n match. Maybe I WANT three kitchens. Or two libraries and a kitchen.

I also wish that there was a bit more flexibility inside as well. The cellar could use a few more lights of some kind, some of the wardrobes could be bookcases...

I'd also like a choice in the type of place-settings I get... OK, maybe that's a bit OTT, but you get the drift. Three wings, these types of rooms available. So many squares of furniture allowed, these types of furniture. Just think how much stuff I can put in place of a double bed... A coffin takes up almost no room, especially one on end.

However, what we got is what we got. Has anyone tried three towers? Do they get walkways as well?

There are no walkways with three towers, they are just the usual three towers on the one house. if you want to take a short-cut to another tower, just walk across the roof.

I admit I haven't thought of it this way, since Lakeview seems to be the safest place making it the family home is perhaps the best choice, while the other two houses could end up defense-oriented manors. And I'm definitely going to have a look at that Tundra Defense mod.