Next time you want to use Honeyside, check for one of Shawk's mods which adds a very cleanly set up basemant to it. With a smelter. I'm not sure if the mannequins still wander around though - I'm using the Ranger Ridge mod now instead of in-game houses.

I'll check that one out - thanks.

I'm currently using a mod that adds mannequins (and some other items) to Breezehome, and those mannequins still do wander around the place. They really like to levitate in place too for some reason.

Hmm. Interesting. Eldiabs (the modder who does Ranger Ridge) seems to have fixed that issue. Mine stay where they belong, and don't mutz with the stuff you dress them in either.... I use a mod to make the "normal" mannequins female.... and seems to work fine with that too.

That Ranger Ridge house looks very nice - I may just have to download that one myself.

My biggest problem with player home mods is that way too many people get carried away and end up putting in some palace stuffed to the rafters with god gear. It takes some effort to find one that just gives you a nice, usable home and not an "I win!" button.

Markarth - city of blood, Silver-Bloods, smoke, corruption, cannibalism and whatnot. Great environment and beautiful buildings 'though.
Big house with a dwemer setting.
Windhelm - city of divided races (aka. racism), Stormcloaks, snow storms, general coldness, blocky functional buildings, and so on.
Villa with a secret room, and a history.

Take your pick. For me, it depends on my character. My present scout Dragonborn is happy with Breezehome as headquarters, and the Riften one as back-up. My assassin will probably take that bandit fort with bridge over the river between Whiterun and Eastmarch, and use whatever the DB will provide him with. Oh yeah, and the house of his wife, who gets used as a cover for his spying activities.

Yep. I've gone through about 40 house mods in the last week. This one is really DAMN good. He does have one of those "palaces" in the works, but I won't be using it. Not my sort of thing at all!

The house in Markarth is the coolest house in the game. I don't know why but it has some sort of 1970s Hollywood Hills vibe to it. I just really like the way it looks. The problem is there's nowhere to sell your stuff compared to every other city in the game. It's a chore living there in that regard. For whatever reason I always end up living in Proudspire.

I also agree with what someone said earlier; Hjerim svcks because it's in Windhelm, which is a dump of a city. I do like Ulfric better than General Talius but Talius is apparently way better at handling public works projects.

The one thing about all the houses: no bathing facilities. People in Skyrim must reek.

...at least in Markarth there are waterfalls everywhere so there's a slight chance.

The house mod I use has hot springs in the "basemant" - so that's cool. Otherwise, one can just RP that people use the abundant rivers etc? It's not like water's in short supply in Skyrim....

Markarth is a chore running up and down stairs to the various vendors, but I never really had a problem selling all my Items.

windhelm is nice because smithing is easy and close to fast travel spot... house is huge.. and wait there is a glitch to get the house free upgrade free... windhelm ugly? markarth is nice i agree.. but the stairs... puts me off.. seriously.. how i wish we can buy houses in morthal or dawnstar or falkreath.. i like country side.

Yep, that's what I do. Markarth is okay - the problem is that there's not a whole lot to the city (vendors, smithing utilities, shops that sell ingredients, etc.). Whiterun and Windhelm seemed to have the best of *most* of what's out there.

Markarth has all those things - they're just spread out. I'm pretty sure it even has a smelter.

It has a smelter but can you buy anything there? If you wanted to buy raw materials, craft, and upgrade, I believe you have to do this somewhere else. Not to mention, there's only maybe a couple shops, and the market is very lacking. I do like the house though. I just wish the rest of the town had the same strengths as Whiterun, Windhelm, or even Riften.

Markarth has a fully-equipped smithy.... down the stairs from The Hag's Cure. And if you do a favor for Ghorza gra-Bagol, she'll eventually name you orc-friend....

Windhelm market is excellent - you have a full smithy (with smelter), 2 general merchants, an enchanting table, and access to an alchemists shop with alchemy table. It's the best crafting / merchant centre in the game.

But it's in Windhelm. *shudder* Fortunately, I have a nice player-house mod instead.

You can buy the standard raw mats for Smithing (and weapons and armor) from the Blacksmith Ghorza gra-Bagol, Arnleif and Sons at the entrance is a pawn shop (general store?), Hag's Cure has potions and Alchemy ingredients, Calcemo in Understone Keep sells Mage stuff, and there's a jewelry vendor and a meat vendor at the entrance. And, of course, Endon's a Fence if do the TG stuff. All are horribly inconvenient relative to one another so I conduct most business in the other cities.

Actually, Ghorza (smithy), Hag's Cure, and Calcelmo are fairly close together. Plus the other vendors near the city gates are pretty close together too. Yes, some towns are "better" for all that, but if it's that someone just really likes Markarth, it's not that bad. You can actually fast travel to the Keep, run down to the Cure and smithy, then fast travel to the gate. It's NOT that big a deal.

Of course, that's devil's advocacy. I like Markarth only marginally better than Windhelm.

Markarth, definetly. Food there is great.