I bought the Breeze home in Whiterun, upgraded the bedroom, kitchen and living room. Went and sold off a bunch of my junk for money and went back to Avenicci to get the loft, alchemy room (and hopefully cooking pit since it didn't upgrade with the living room, just the furnishings did) I have to search the whole building for Avenicci and when I find him, it doesn't give me the option to upgrade! he acts like i'm some stranger to Whiterun, talking about junk but I can't ask to decorate my home any further. what gives? Then whenever I put weapons on the weapon rack and leave, when I come back they're laying on the floor! also, if I put any weapons on the wall plaques, they disappear when I return and I can't get them back, either. This is my 3rd time restarting the game after countless glitches from the other times and I'm really getting sick of having to start at ground zero only to have a different set of problems. What gives?

I think there has just been so many posts about these types of glitches people just can't bring themselves to type you an answer any more this is pretty well documented in the forums, but for the house issues specifically, moving forward for future houses you buy your best bet is:

• create a save point
  
• talk to the steward of the jarl who you want to buy the house from
  
• buy the house, and all of it's upgrades all at once, (so obviously make sure you have enough gold to do so). don't go to the house in between buying it and the upgrades
  
• once all is purchased, go to the house and test all bookshelves, weapons racks and plaques, mannequins, etc..
  
• if any are glitchy, reload your save and start again with the purchase.. if everything seems to work.. continue playing.

I've just made this routine my standard operating procedure now whenver buying a house, and it seems to keep me from having glitches..

one other note.. if you have any intention of buy the house in windhelm, Hjerim, go to windhelm early in your game and make sure the Blood on the Ice quest triggers and works correctly. you'll want to search for that one, but again, it's very well documented the issues with that quest. if it does not work however, you will never be able to buy that house.

thank you! i think you also answered another of my forum questions regarding windhelm. oh the joy of starting over and over and over....

SaintedNine: I just bought Proudspire, which is my personal favorite because it's the most like my upper crust house in Oblivion (Rosethorn Hall?) & followed your advice of testing the weapon racks & mannequins & then having to reload. Thank you.

By the way, I love Karl Pilkington. It's no wonder Ricky Gervais created a show around him.