I for one love hearthfire, and enjoyed building my dream house, but when I was forced to decide between a bedroom and other more usefull additions, I asked myself is the bedroom worth it? When you fully furnish you house, the upstairs bed seem to be suitable for children. So my question is this: can I disregard the bedroom addition for something more usefull and still raise a family with children?

You need the bedroom if you want children. Unless you plan to raise them elsewhere?

but the children can sleep in the upstairs bedrooms already provided without additions, right?

I'd be lying if I said yes/no. Honestly i'm not sure. I've only built one house (Lakeview Manor) to date, and that was very family-friendly, so included the bedroom. Maybe create a save, try it and find out. If you don't need it, reload and carry on as usual

I chose the greenhouse over the bedrooms. Both kids sleep in the single beds upstairs. Unfortunately, one of those was originally the steward's bed, so he wanders around without getting a wink of sleep now. (Despite the double beds upstairs and downstairs.)

Safe to assume we don't need the bedrooms then

Yep, the bedroom wing's main purpose is for roleplaying. If you don't mind your steward and/or housecarl not having places to sleep, go for one of the other two options.

I built the bedroom, and regretted it. One kid sleeps in it, the other sleeps upstairs.

Is the Bedroom Wing needed when you can build beds upstairs in the Main Hall? Is the Alchemy Tower needed when you can build an Alchemy Lab in the Main Hall? Is the Enchanter's Tower needed when you can build an Arcane Enchanter in the Main Hall? Is there any point in building any Smithing stations in the basemant when you can build them all outside? Why bother building a Tanning Rack for your Armoury when you get one for free for building an Animal Pen? Why bother with a Storage Room when you have chests, safes, barrels and all manner of storage options in the rest of the house?

Options, options, options. What you do with them is up to you - you can have it all.

I have Lakeview set up for crafting with an Enchanter's Tower, an Alchemist's Tower and an Armoury with all my Smithing gear outside (all of it is very close together).

I have Windstad set up with a Greenhouse, Kitchen and Trophy Room, together with the Fishery it makes up my "farm".

I intend to have Heljarchen with a Bedroom, Library and Storage Room, and that's where my family will live.

As far as I can tell, the only thing that can't be easily replaced is the Library, because you only get one Bookshelf otherwise, but you can get Bookshelves in every other house in the game.

yes. I do not have a bedroom wing and the family/daughters sleep in the beds up stairs.

Are the upstairs beds removed if you build the bedroom wing? I'm on PS3, so I can't test it out

No, they are not removed once you build them, and if you don't build them, the space stays vacant. All furniture has fixed locations. You do not have to have the bedroom wing to have children. For role playing purposes, I prefer to have beds for everyone including staff, so I have the bedroom for the family, and my steward and housecarl have the 2 singles in the upper main hall. The double in the main hall is for guests. The outside upper patio deck that comes with the bedroom is nice too!

Wish you could assign beds. I would have been more interested in the bedroom addition if I could make my steward or housecarl sleep in the master bed downstairs. I like the upstairs master bedroom set up better but when I did try the bedroom addition Lydia was always in the master bed upstairs.

Plus it would be much better if there was a wall separating the master bed from the kids beds. There is plenty of room for that. make it two rooms instead of one.

Oh well. I am going to skip it. I like the enchanting tower too much to go back now.

I think the greenhouse is pointless too as you can have a garden right outside that does the exact same thing without bugs flying around in your home

QUOTE: Plus it would be much better if there was a wall separating the master bed from the kids beds. There is plenty of room for that. make it two rooms instead of one.

Agreed, though that's really a cultural thing for us. In medieval times, it was commonplace for families to share not just bedrooms, but beds. Some Eastern cultures regard us as barbaric because we make our little ones sleep in seperate rooms.

Have to disagree with you there. The garden only has nine(?) plots while the Greenhouse has 18. 27 plots (that each deliver 2-4 ingredients without Green Thumb) is far, far, better than just nine. If you plant the right things you have an endless supply of ingredients to level up Alchemy and allow you to chug potions to your heart's content and that's not even taking into account the other two gardens you can have by owning all three houses.

In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if Alchemy is the new Smithing in terms of ease and speed of getting to 100, and making easy money, now.

When all is said and done, though, it still comes back to what I said earlier. You don't need anything except the Kitchen, the Hatchery, the Shrines and maybe the Library. Everything else can be achieved in the Main Hall or outside.

Quick question: What is the maximum number of beds you can put in your house without having the Bedroom addition?

Also, do your steward, housecarl, and bard all require beds?