So anyway, this nice old lady living in the woods near Riverwood died of (ahem) an iron overdose, and now I have "inherited" this cabin of hers. It needed a little fixing up, so I dragged the Dresser next to my new bed outside the house (safe storage), and hoisted up the Enchanter Table in her basemant and dragged that outside, too. But it still wasn't enough... so I commissioned Alvor in Riverwood to make me a grindstone, workbench, anvil, and smelter, and had all of these items delivered to the grounds outside my new cabin.

http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t416/lothario1132/Outdoorsy.jpg

Viola! The Crafting Convenience Cottage is born! I don't even need to enter the cabin anymore, as I can look through the window to use the bed.

How I did it:
Shameless, shameless cheating... much usage of the sorcery of the PC console codes, since the CK is not out yet. Here are the relevant ones to make your own crafting cottage:

getpos x, setpos x
getpos y, setpos y
getpos z, setpos z
setangle x 0
setangle y 0
player.placeatme bad0d 1 (big enchanter table)
player.placeatme 1a2ad 1 (anvil)
player.placeatme 6e9c2 1 (grindstone)
player.placeatme d932f 1 (workbench)
player.placeatme 9c6ce 1 (smelter)

-Loth

PS This info came out several months ago (original idea = Chouji Takahashi), but has been buried in the multitude of threads since.

nope, I play on 360

Not tried it before, but will then I come home, the melter for one is to rare.

I haven't tried it and probably wont. Dropping objects all over the navmesh like that? I'd rather wait for a proper mod.

I do all my work in Solitude anyways but don't get me wrong, I'd rather I didn't have to. It's kind of a pain running back and forth to smith and enchant. Thankfully I only do it every 2-3 levels.

Yeah, this is just a patchwork kind of thing you can do for now until CK... but the navmesh is cool with this -- how many more fights are you gonna get into at Anise's Cabin? Maybe a rabbit will get stuck behind the smelter for a few seconds? HORRORS! Besides, if you don't want to go as far as I did, you could still use the codes to add a smelter to Riverwood, for instance (maybe just off of the main path, next to Alvor's Shop?), and the other crafting accessories are sometimes missing from other towns as well... having a convenient Enchanter Table laying about doesn't happen for a while, in most cases.

-Loth

This, and I doubt anyone would want to build a smelter for a few coins in the middle of nowhere...
Just saying, if the realism is that handy, then every NPC's home should have something crafty in it.
Good job, though! At least that shack has plenty of ventilation.

I'm just saying. The navmesh isn't something you cover over - you've basically told the engine that it's okay to spawn npc's in the same space as an object and/or that there is no route around them. That could include a rabit. A Bear. Any number of critters could get stuck inside it or fall through the world. You never know, and hence, not worth it.

If anything, one should do these kinds of console mods somewhere where the chances of them interacting with anything else is slim. A tiny island. An ice pack. A level section of a mountain area no NPC could ever get too etc. (and since you can't see patrol way-points, spawn points or job locations it's too risky in general)

Lol, roughing it easy, I see. And I see no violas in the picture, not even a lute!

No, you're right about the navmeshes... you can see the holes in it all over the game and errors in spawn points from the "raining mammoths" bugs where a Mammoth will inexplicably drop from the sky. I'm not discounting your observations at all. In the rare/unlikely event of something nasty getting spawned into the smelter, for example, I would just fix it with the console -- but I have to admit that my chances of needing to do this where I set up the cottage are pretty slim. There are only 2 enemy spawnpoints near the cottage, and they are quite far away, relatively speaking... there's one up the hill a bit towards Riverwood in a clearing, and the other one is downhill on the other side of the cottage where you will often encounter wolves.

If you really want to avoid even the slightest chance of problems, you could always use these codes in a player-owned house... but then you could just buy the improvement as you would normally, and that kinda defeats the whole point of shameless cheating.

-Loth

I love the Crafting Cottage Idea! Oh, I sorely miss a smelter in Riften. Wonder if I could add one outside, behind the stables!!! Nicely done!

Thanks! You know, the only thing stopping you from adding that smelter you want is your player integrity... give in... come to the dark siiiiiide...

-Loth

LMAO guess what? Riften WILL have a smelter tonight! And psh, I'm not new to using the console... hehehehe

No I haven't I play on PS3.

I'm on PS3 and can't, but that's pretty hilarious.

Excellent, thats pretty cool. I like it.

More cheat-flavored goodness, using the console code wizardry unique to players of the PC version:

http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t416/lothario1132/Riverwood.jpg

A smelter is now in Riverwood, out of the way and next to Alvor's smithy, and he was kind enough to let me leave a small wardrobe (spawn code: c2a04) and a small enchanter table (spawn code: d5501) on top of it to store my goodies. Now I can stash crafting supplies next to an established crafting station, and have ready access to the 2 vendors in the town.

-Loth