Okay, for my first house, I made the mistake of building those exterior crafting items, the smelter, the grindstone, the tanning panel, and so on. I subsequently found out the basemant has all those smithing aids. So now I need to remove all the external smithing stuff as I no longer need them. Do they disappear after the house construction is completed? I've so far not removed the internal workbenches. Maybe when I do that, I'll get the option.

Hopefully I won't have to use the console or the CS to remove them.

Nope, they stay.....

Depending on which wings you build you could also have four tanning racks

This is exactly why the cellar should have come with different set-ups like the north/east/west wings.

With each Hearthfire home, regardless of what you've chosen for your wing expansions, you're guaranteed the option to construct at least one alchemy table, at least one enchanting table, at least one cooking pot, and for some reason-- at least two sets of smithing equipment, which is surplus to requirements.

So I'm building Lakeview Manor. I've avoided constructing any external smithing items because the cellar's construction is available after the main hall is in place. Therefore all my smithing occurs in the basemant. Alas there is a tanning rack when you put in the animal pen. And there are the smithing workbenches, anvil and chest provided as soon as the land is purchased so those stay as well. I wish they could be removed when they become unnecessary.

At Lakeview, I was unable to choose any of the towers because in this case I wanted the big bedroom, the armory and the rear storage. I concluded that views are much better at Heljarchen than at Lakeview Manor so choosing not to build the towers was easy. I don't know where the children are supposed to sleep if don't build that main bedroom. The two single beds upstairs have already been slept in by Rayya and Illia, so the kids can't have those beds.

My hardest choice was building that main bedroom which prevented us having a greenhouse. I reckon a greenhouse on one side and a kitchen on the other would be a good mix. Maybe that's what we'll do at Winstad Manor if it gets built.

I would also like to have been able to have the bedrooms and the greenhouse at the same time, but the storage area is pretty much useless IMO, given the extreme amount of storage the rest of the house has. Unfortunately there isn't much use that I can see for the alchemy tower either since you can get an alchemy station in the main hall. At least the trophy room has some unique stuff and gives you a reason to scavenger hunt.

If you adopt kids and don't build the bedroom, steward and housecarl lose their beds. They don't leave, they just don't have beds. I hate that, Beth could have made provisions for that scenario.

My preferred setup would be bedroom, kitchen and greenhouse, optional library however it should be far more bookshelves in the house, to many useless containers and shelves.

I also like the alchemy tower a lot, fun to get access to the roof. Here is my rebuilding idea, Keep the greenhouse as it is however perhaps a bit wider as now it's a bit to cramped.
Flat roof on kitchen. Two bedrooms one large and one smaller for the kids, you have two doors so I expected two rooms. and but this on the north side, don't need more storage.
Put the tower on the flat roof over the bedroom, the divider wall will support it's weight.
Would prefer an huge dwemer crossbow as roof ornament

Some characters will only build the small house which does not have a cellar, so I am glad they included the option to put smithing stations outdoors. I can see how it would be annoying to accidentally build both, though.

As for the storage room being useless, I have a character who built the main hall (even the cellar) without most of the barrels and small furnishings. The interior looks much more serene and spacious. For him the storage area behind closed doors would be very useful, since he doesn’t have much throughout the house. Too bad he built the alchemy tower instead.

Don’t forget when you’re redesigning the kitchen and greenhouse with flat roofs that the interior space will be very different without the raised ceiling.

By moving the Enchanting table into the main hall, and turning that room into a bedroom, I got beds for two kids, a steward, housecarl, wife and myself, and a guest bed. Got all the shops and labs needed. I still think those open 2nd floor decks are wasted space, and deserve a hot tub. Really, who needs all those tanning racks and washbasins?

Even if this is the case, the sheer number of containers in the storage area is ridiculous. I couldn't begin to decide how I would separate things that much and still know where everything was unless you enjoy alphabetizing or something.

One of the things I always liked about the original houses (and the reason I never use player home mods) is that I have to make a choice on each playthrough which house I want to use because each one has its draw backs and pluses, whereas a house with everything has no drawbacks feels like cheating.

You do not have to build all those containers though.

You don't have to build any of it. But there's more than enough storage available in any other room in the house. The number one reason to separate items is of course organization followed closely by memory management. For whatever reason the loading of containers can slow down the game considerably, particularly on consoles. Separating items to different containers eliminates this slow down.

If you're going to choose to not build any containers in your home, to me that's a silly reason to build a storage room to make up for it, but that's just me. I'm just giving my opinion, pointing out the obvious. If anyone chooses to build all the containers available in the storage area it's too much.

Since there's no way to preview items (yes, I know you can save beforehand, but that's far too annoying and would take hours to finish one room in the house), then there's really no way to consider what you're building until you've gone through the Hearthfire dlc enough to be familiar with it.

There is plenty of storage space in there without building barrels, chests or the safe. You still get stuck with two barrels on a table and a some sacks anyway. But it is less cluttered and if you wish there is room to customise it a bit with your own stuff. The chest and the safe by the door are handy, but you will probably build every other chest in the room before you finally find that one. You can put something on both the chest and the safe, which is another reason to build just those two, and no other chests and no barrels.

I love both inside and outside smithing equipment, its turned out to be very convenient

At first I also thought that having smithing equipment both outdoors and indoors and in the cellar was a bit redundant, but have now seen the benefits of this as not having to leave the cell to access smithing stations. For instance, I bring a bunch of loot home from an adventure and would like to dump some and upgrade other pieces, but do not need to go inside my home at that time, preferring instead to go off on another adventure straight away. It is very nice to be able to do both and not have to go into the house if I don't need to at that time. Other times when I am already indoors and want to spend a good deal of time smithing, I can either go to the cellar or if I have the Armory Wing, use that equipment and not have to leave the cell at all. The less loading screens, the better, in my humble opinion.

I put down an moveable bedroll from an mod and npc uses it. That was pretty cool, however I will build the bedroom as I don't need the greenhouse anymore.
I only wish they had two bedrooms as they has two doors.

I think putting a Smelter and a Forge in the basemant of my house is not a good idea. I don't want all that smoke and smell in the house with me. Now, my Smelter and Forge are outside, where they belong. I have the other crafting stations down in the basemant.

yeah, I mean for character privacy, a wall between yours and the kids room would be sensible!

I think they should have made it to where you build the furniture ETC... and place it where you want piece by piece an open achetichture model for interior decorating would have solved some of those problems...

~NS