Lakeview Manor's cellar is secretly the best part of any homestead

I just realized I've been sleeping on this. Every time I build Lakeview I rush through the main house and the tower, but the cellar is legitimately the most useful space in the entire DLC. You get actual storage, a bedroom that doesn't feel cramped, and it's the one place where a steward's quarters doesn't look like you're stuffing them in a closet.

Compare that to Heljarchen where everything's on like three levels and you're constantly walking up and down stairs, or Windstad where the layout just feels... wrong no matter what you do. Lakeview's cellar solves so many of the homestead problems that people complain about and nobody ever mentions it.

Anyone else find themselves actually using the cellar as the main living space instead of the ground floor? I'm genuinely curious if I'm the only one who thinks this is the move.

I actually disagree with this one. The cellar's nice for storage, sure, but I find myself barely going down there because it just feels depressing compared to having actual windows and natural light. On my current playthrough I've got the main bedroom upstairs with a view, and yeah it's smaller, but I'd take that over living in a basement any day.

That said, you're totally right about Heljarchen being a pain. All those stairs for no reason. Windstad though - idk, maybe I'm just used to it by now but the layout doesn't bother me as much as it seems to bother other people. I think the real issue with all three is that none of them feel like they were designed with actual living in mind, they just feel like modular building blocks.

If I had to rank them, Lakeview still wins overall just because the cellar exists as an option, even if I don't use it as my main space. But I'm curious what you're doing down there - are you actually using it as your character's bedroom, or more as like a storage hub you happen to sleep in?