I can't be the only one bothered by how empty the walls of Proudspire Manor are, so I was wondering how difficult it would be to add weapon-plaques and mannequins to liven it up, and make it feel more like MY house.
I imagine we'll need to CK for this, are other programs required as well? I've only ever made very simple mods.

I took some pictures with my ideas for where to add things.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/830/tesv2011112110050314.jpg/#
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/834/tesv2011112110051799.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/717/tesv2011112110054166.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/718/tesv2011112110400371.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/849/tesv2011112110052760.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/403/tesv2011112110051370.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/833/tesv2011112110053614.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/820/tesv2011112110060572.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/843/tesv2011112110061424.jpg/

Satchel. Satchel satchel satchel satchel satchel. That was probably the biggest thing that turned me off of proudspire: no freakin' alchemist satchel.

Also, it would be amazing if we could alter the table's script to use ingredients in the alchemy satchel, as well as those in your inventory. Wont know until the CK's out though...

The place is lacking in sensible storage space in general, I think. One chest? Seriously? One? Do I have to keep my weapons stored in barrels and wardrobes? Meh.

This will be done, maybe not exactly as you have shown in the screenshots but major upgrades to storage and displays for definate. Ill also be doing a major revamp of the patio outside to add a forge, smelter, tanners rack etc along with making it a private area only accessible via the door.

Excellent idea, I keep forgetting that place exists, it's so useless.
Related: Did anyone else have to use the console to unlock the patio door? For some reason my key didn't work on it.

Yep same here, its probably not had the key added to its attributes tab, will obviously fix this too, you can tell they rushed it out from this problem alone (not to mention not removing the cobwebs)

Or the slight fact that there is an entire room in the basemant that everyone seems to have forgotten about.
When I bought the last upgrade for that house, I expected it to be finished. A useless storage-room that I can't even use for storage was not what I was looking for.
What is your plan for that room?

I was thinking about moving either the enchantment or alchemy lab into that room with an indoor garden and a purchasable NPC assistant who will sort all your ingredients for you, then changing the actual enchantment area into a display area (knock the wall down next to that little area where the weapon rack is and open up the entire ground floor area). Upstairs will probably be the cooking/library area (with storage options) and finally the bedroom Id like to open that up aswell as a storage/sleeping area. The great thing about the Proudspire home is that the interior doesnt really fit the exterior so it would be easy to add and/or expand the rooms without making it look like a tardis, it would also be easy to add more outdoor balconies/areas.

Im itching to work on the patio outside tho, plan is to expand the patio so its much bigger by extending it over the edge, ive seen alot of assets already that can be used to give it a nice scenic overlook of Skyrim while adding all the blacksmithy stuff.

Overall it will be cleaner, more open plan, much more storage, the alchemy lab will look like a lab same with enchantment and there will be plenty of room to show off all those neat weapons and armour, I wont be making it free tho, any extra improvements (like the patio) will be purchasable through the house steward in the Blue Palace, but the original upgrade improvements will be attached to the original price.

Good ideas, I look forward to seeing it. Will the altered shape of the patio show up right away, or when the patio-improvement is purchased? It would seem a bit jarring to buy a smithy and suddenly find your patio twice the size, no?

Ahh yes all the architecture changes will be there straight away, only the furniture and equipment will be hidden until its bought heh

Good plan.
Protip (that Beth seems to have forgotten about): Don't add storage containers to the unfurnished room, if you intend to remove them when the upgrade is bought. I had to reload a previous savefile when the two barrels in the basemant disappeared, along with 1000 units worth of loot >_<

Yeah I noticed that too, the storage containers where the Alchemy table is placed are removed completely, I bet some of the other containers in the house are set to respawn too although I havent been in the house long enough to notice. All Ill be doing with existing containers is moving them around so it will be an easy upgrade, I did the same thing with the Lucky 38 suite so I know it works well.

I'd really just love to have adequate space for books, there's approx. 300 books in the game I believe? I want enough FULL bookshelves (i.e. in Markarth house) that I can display everything.

I too am sick storing weapons in end tables and barrels.

I haven't gotten the Markarth house yet, what kind of bookcases are there? I've only seen the ones with two shelves.

Yorkforce: There are several pieces of furniture that looks like bookcases but aren't. Since it's almost impossible to place things where you want them, it might pay of to simply remove these and replace them with bookcases instead.

The Markarth house has 3, (or is it 4?) full bookshelves, meaning you can put 18 books on each of the shelves. I know what you're talking about with the two shelves, it makes little sense to me. I was able to put most of the books I had in my possession onto the Markarth shelves, but I've been finding more in my travels since.

I really really hope there is a simple mod that tells me which books I already have quickly...

Anyway, I've never used the CKit, but if it is simple enough, and the houses themselves can be opened and edited, I will definitely be drastically altering things in my Markarth home. How weird is it storing potions in a barrel, know what I mean?

Yeah. That was the one good thing about the Whiterun-house, it had a satchel on the alchemy-table to store ingredients, and a chest across the room to store potions. Perfect setup.

I hadnt noticed yet but I'm hoping those Library shelves are scripted to work from the position of the actual shelf but i have a strong feeling they will be custom scripted depending on thier location in the house, by that i mean when you load the books into them they will probably use cell coordinates, not the bookcase, I cant see it being a problem editing the script so it works on the larger bookcases aswell. Either way once I have a look at the scripts ill be able to create a proper library area that works the same way as the current shelves.
Come to think of it, I think I might be able to create a proper shelf collection library, for example, when you add a particular book to the library it will appear on the shelf in a specific location, if you add a duplicate it will just be returned with a message saying so, it would basically work the same way in how auto sorters work, they basically destroy your item and create a new item but in either a container or on a shelf for exmaple
Havent gotten the Markarth house either yet.

I have good news to proudspire manor and general house owners of course. You can place items with your console and move or rotate them in any way you wish. With the command "help 4" you get a list of all items with the name and the best part is that it displays the baseid of an object ! With placeatme you can create an indepented copy of an object in its default state. Removeallitems deletes all items contained in the selected object, could be an actor or a container. The other 3 commands allow to move objects around. Things like architecture or decorations cant be moved but everything you place can.
Important commands:
help 4
player.placeatme
select object via console: removeallitems
select object via console: getpos
select object via console: setpos
select object via console: setangle

Here i have two safe containers for you to place already picked out
"Inspectors Chest"; Baseid: d30CC, this is a chest in the college library. it contains 4 rings related to a minor quest and exists only for that purpose.
"Safe", Baseid: 800e0, Its the safe in the archmages quarter. it contains some decent random loot. i stored all my crafting stuff in it for a long time

EDIT: I am going to test if the shelves are placeable.
EDIT2: I tested it and was only partially successfull. I actually placed an invisible book shelf container that contained nothing and had no space for more books. The help list had quite a few more things like activators that were related so it seems like book shelves are actually pretty complex and indivually scripted. Maybe somebody else finds a way to place a working one.

I also think a fix on the plaques should be made as well.
Do NOT put daggers on them as they have an insatiable appetite for daggers.

What?
Does that apply to all plaques, or just the shield-ones?
I've got at least one interesting dagger on display in my house, is it at risk of disappearing?

You probably used the ID code of a shelf in a room upgrade? Initially these will be disabled in thier default state, its possible you could enable it but as you mentioned and as i thought, they probably have indiviual scripts which means when you attempt to duplicate an existing one it will start acting as the original? (was the bookshelf you duplicated full of books?)
With stuff like its best to just wait until the Creation Kit is out, it wont be long now.

To clarify every object has two different FormID called RefID and BaseID. The RefID is the name of the actual object ingame, this is the one you see when you click something in the console. The BaseID is the name of the object the editor uses and was previously impossible to retrieve without the editor.
Now when you enter the BaseID in placeatme it means you use a blueprint to create a copy of the object as it was at the start of the game. The object gets its own RefID leading with ff.

The bookshelves are probably actually 3 different ojects connected by scripts. The furniture itself, the container you open and put books into and a third object that puts the books in a row.

Yep, I remember in Fallout I tried to use the console to change a home but I generally got the impression that the main purpose of the console is for debugging and not much else, there are too many attributes involved for the console to be used effectively.

But you can, I wrote how on the first page. My proudspire currently has two additional chests for armory and enchanting and two additional safes for smithing and alchemy. Works like a charm.

Oh I wasnt saying you cant, you can but only to very limited effect when you compare the total redesign you can get from the Construction Kit, I too have made a few changes to the Proudspire house via the console, for anyone else who cant wait for the Construction Kit (like us heh) this is what I have done.

Cleared out the downstairs storage room-
-Open Console
-Select object you want to remove
-Type in 'markfordelete'

Do this on each object you want to remove, then go outside and back in and it should be gone. (note: tried this on the cobwebs but its difficult to select them without selecting the wall behind it so make sure you save before making changes)

Once the room was cleared (left only the 2 barrels in there) you can place items by typing in 'player.placeatme XXXXX 1' (XXXX being the itemID code) the item will be placed in the direction your facing and at the angle your looking in, it will probably take a few tries but you can easily select an object you placed in the console and type 'disable' to remove it (disable only works on items you placed, use 'markfordelete' for any original objects already in the house)

- Tanning Rack - 727A1 (eg. player.placeatme 727A1 1)
- Workbench - D932F
- Anvil (works same as a forge) - 1A2AD
- Grindstone - 6E9C2
- Smelter - 9C6CE

If you want to find the ItemID for other things, for exmaple like a satchel to put on the alchemy table type in 'help Satchel 4' and it will list a few satchel Item IDs, can use page up/down to scroll through them, or if you were looking for a Chest 'help Chest 4'. (note: items are placed at your feet, if you want to put a satchel ontop of the alchemy table you will have to jump up on it before you place the satchel)
And finally to ensure they dont respawn select every container you placed with the console open, and type 'setownership' you can then type 'isowner' (while its still selected and it will tell you if you own it or not).

Should keep us going until the Kit comes out.