There's a glitch with the stone quarry, where the character will hit it once then stop and the quarry will then be unusable thereafter. Make sure you save before mining stone or clay to avoid this.
Also, check around your house thoroughly for baddies. I dunno about the other two, but I was rudely interupted by a conjurer who'd taken up residence nearby, while building Lakeview Manor.
The compass is a little tricky. You can't always trust it, but if you can't seem to find the option to buy the land from the Jarl, try the steward. And if the steward is dead, do the Civil War and get a new steward in place. If the steward is dead AND you've done the war, Talos help you.
If you're just starting this DLC or making a new character for it, collect every little scrap of Corundum, Iron, glass, straw, animal bits etc. Trust me, there's not enough materials between all the shopkeepers to furnish your house even half way, and the mounted creatures (wolves, bears, elk, slaughterfish, mudcrabs, horkers and goats) need to be constructed from the pieces. And for anyone having trouble general merchants sell straw, glass, and other furnishing materials.
If you haven't found out yet, you CAN make an anvil in the house and it's not a part of any of the wings, it's in the main hall, so you don't have to keep running outside to get nails and such. Same with the enchanting bench and the alchemy lab. So unless you actually want to have spires and a mage-oriented house, which is your prerogative, don't waste your resources on the towers. There's an area outside for planting anything of your choice (vegetables or ingredients) so the greenhouse isn't particularly necessary either.

Thanks for the tips!

Have you tried manually mining clay and rock? Just whack it with the pick axe like you'd swing a weapon and it should mine after 3 or 4 hits.

O.o I did not think of that. I've done it with Ore before but I didn't think to do it with stone

Anvil in my house?

What is this Wizardry you speak of!? LOL..I almost fell asleep last night with the loading screens back and forth with the iron brackets. Everything has iron brackets!

Good to know!

I mine the rock manually myself. It's confirmed faster, with 4 clay/rock every three swings.
And it's fun to envision your character just attacking that rock because he hates it so much.

Mazz -Yeah it's in the back of the main hall, next to where the trophy room/alchemy lab/storage goes.
He[censored]mains - It is faster, if you wanna sit there and keep pulling RT but I found a good way to get like 2-300 stone real easy is to set the character animation then just do something else for about ten minutes.

i wanted to make my house out of ebony... but think how long that would take

yep i did the same thing, takes longer but never ran out of rough materials, Kudos!!!

Dual wield picks is great for mining quickly.

Yep- you can also get a blacksmith forge, smelter, grindstone, workbench, and tanning rack in your basemant.

And 10 safes o.o Which is excessive