I like decorating houses, but cannot afford a large one, so I tried to experience some of the ones I liked on the PTS.
I made screenshots and a small guide to inform people who might be interested in getting these homes of their limitations or potential.
For me it is more challenging to take a small house and get the most out of it, than buy a huge one where you can build forever. So that's why I tried some small houses as well.
Cyrodilic Jungle House
One of the house concepts I liked is the small Cyrodilic Jungle House which has a nice courtyard, but a very small house.
Similar houses like this have an invisible roof (the Gardner House), but this house can be upgraded with a tiny floor, where you can place the bed or whatever you like:
Cyrodilic Jungle House
Twin Arches could be a nice home, but it does not have an upper level like most Redguard houses in the game. Unfortunately there is an invisible wall that prevents the player to get on the roof make use of that space, which is sad.
Mournoth Keep
This is my current home on the live server. This is one of my favourites because it has so much space that you can use, even places that you think are not accessible
In this pictures you can see what I did to the rocky ledge in the background, and how I am standing on this rocky pillar which is also usable (I plan to place an altar there).
Domus Phrasticus
This house is one of the larger houses which are sadly to small to become a main base. The house has just two medium sized rooms, no basement, but we do have a rather large courtyard which has a fake tower with a wall. The area is very beautiful, so having the possibility to access the tower would be nice. If you are like me, then with a bit of creative use of planks and boulders, you will have a way to climb up the wall.
However, I think the devs did not think someone would climb that place, because they placed an invisible wall that crosses the rampart in half. So I made some scaffolding around the ramparts, but there is an other invisible wall, which this time is a bit logical, otherwise the player would fall into Falkreath Hold. The view is just great! So please dear devs, move the invisible wall to the edge of the rampart, so we can use it, and add a way to access it by a door!
Building some scaffolding
The invisible wall
View of Elinhir
Invisible wall
Strident Springs
This is a large house that has two towers (one is usable), but also a lovely waterfall.
The inside is quite nice, with lots of rooms. It does not have a basement.
Unfortunately this house also has several invisible walls that limit the amount of fun you can have, even though this house is one of the expensive ones.
The big tower has again some forcefields, so you cannot jump on the rampart from the tower.
The invisible wall is even closer in this case. I do not know why the devs make it like this, because it could be a nice addition to the estate. They do not have to add anything.. just move the invisible walls a bit further.
Next I tried to see how much I can play in the waterfall area. Unfortunately, not much.
You can climb up to the waterfall, but the invisible walls are quite close, and the grassy area around is not reachable.
Last I tried to see if I could reach the other tower. You can go up there, but there is an invisible wall right where I put the red line, so no much point bothering with this as well. Oh well..
I haven't got the time to test all the houses yet (just what I would buy in the future), so please come with your personal experiences if you can, to make this thread useful for people interested in other houses or extending the space of their homes