Lydia taking her time furnishing my house

[gnewna]

I've got Lakeview Manor, with Lydia as my Steward. Last time I had the house, I gave her cash to fix it up and, while I think it took going away and coming back a few times as she did it in stages, pretty much every time I went away and came back she'd got something else in place. She seems, in this case, to have gotten bored after adding an alchemy table, a few chests and a table in the Main Hall, and a table and shelving in the bedrooms. I've got no beds, no enchanting table, no display units in the back room... Haven't checked the cellar again this time but last time I looked she'd done nothing in there (last time I played she added a bunch of stuff, e.g. a thing for shrines to go on.) Is there anything I can do to advance this with console codes or something, or should I just try to be patient? (Sadly there's no "I gave you several thousand septims, why are you leaning on the railing looking nonchalant?" dialogue option.)

[MageThis]

Tell Lydia it is either weird monkey sex or decorating but she can't choose both. That should speed things up, I know it motivated my wife to stock up on cleaning supplies, knick knacks, and dig an ingound infinity pool.
Seriously, just be patient.... you really don't want to play with console commands unless it is absolutely neccessary.

[gnewna]

Ha! I think she's jealous because I'm off adventuring with Rayya!

[Morwo]

lol my lydia... i dunno i have to take a look after her!

[bobczes]

Purchasing furnishings from a steward will sometimes not work and the furnishings will not appear.

Analysis at Lakeview Manor: The rate that newly-purchased furnishings appear seems to be linked to the number of times the Homestead is loaded, and not the elapsed time in the game. Newly-purchased furnishings for the Bedroom add-on did not appear in the room while waiting (even after waiting for 20 days), but fast-traveling between Riften and Lakeview Manor 20 times eventually loaded all of the furnishings. Running a short trip also does the trick. Just leave the area and enter another cell and back again. The two pine trees between the carriage driver and the small pond is a good place to do it, as it is exactly there the cells change and is much faster than fast-travelling. The same with Heljarchen and Windstad - a short run away from the house is enough.

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Steward_%28Hearthfire%29

[Solomon Hawk]

Dang, I didn't know they could do all that. I've been working my butt off.

[gnewna]

Thanks for that, bobczes, I swear I looked at that page but I didn't see that!

[mpd1958]

The only thing I have my steward do is buy livestock and hire a bard. Part of the fun of the game is collecting the materials you need for constructing and furnising, it can take a while but thats why I play.

[gnewna]

I'm more interested in having adventures and crafting potions/smithing/enchanting (and using my iron for making pointy things to stab people with, rather than nails and locks beyond the actual building of the house), not shopping for straw just to have somewhere to sleep at night. Part of the fun of the game is that you have the freedom to decide (to a fair extent anyway) what the fun of the game is *for you*

[st0rmcr0vv]

My first play attempt (not through): I emptied my coffers to have my steward fully furnish my house. Then I saw (or rather assumed) that it would literally take months to finish, reloaded a previous save, did it all myself for a fraction of the price and in under a few real hours. Plus there are some oddly placed\buggy items that I elected to leave off (i.e. one mannequin in Winstad armory that seemed infinitely bugged and a poorly placed chest in the great hall that made it look like I'm a hoarder: which ,in-game, I am but all my crap is sorted into "properly" placed containers.)

Also, by level 9 on my second play attempt (without buying any other home and stock piling "found" crafting mats on follower) I was able to fully build and base furnish my own home (Full smithing amenities in cellar, Main Bed and wardrobes, Full armory minus cases, "lived in" looking great hall, trophy room bases and a few odds and ends to make it look somewhat complete) without having to buy (or steal) too many extras. Where as I wouldn't have been able to pay my steward to fully furnish with the 4000-ish sep I had left over after buying my plot + part of the addons. So late game it might be trivial to pay "insane" prices to furnish the house and wait (fast travel 20 something times) but early game; DIY is best for having a functional base of operations at minimal cost and effort (the latter being relative to the player).

[gnewna]

Oh, definitely, I just found building furniture pretty dull, and last time I don't remember it tanning this long (maybe four or five trips, I thought). She's getting there, but it's definitely taking longer this time round, and she's not quite finished the bedrooms, so I'm going to have to do that so as to adopt a child (though I suppose I should find a wife/husband first...)

[Alembrik]

Originally posted by gnewna:

Ha! I think she's jealous because I'm off adventuring with Rayya!

That leaves Lydia to patrol the grounds around Lakeview Manor as well as do all her Steward duties. And sleep.

I have Ria as my Lakeview Steward and Rayya as my Housecarl (Serana is my follower), and everything I ask Ria to do gets done quickly. I even encounter Ria and Vilkas out hunting and exploring far from Lakeview from time to time, while Rayya guards Lakeview.

Vladimar, my Windstad Manor Housecarl-turned-Steward, and now doing the duties of both, is taking forever to furnish it. He has his priorities correct though. The crafting stations can wait until he finishes the essentials.

My Heljarchen Hall steward is Mjoll, who has the dialogue to accept the position as Steward, but no other Steward dialogue. (That's not her fault — that’s just the way she was programmed!) So I have to furnish Heljarchen myself. She does everything else a Steward does though, as well as patrolling the grounds with Gregor.

Be sure to use Console commands to make all your Stewards and Housecarls ‘essential’ if they aren’t already. (To get the first two digits of their Base IDs, go to the Console and type ‘help’ for one of them. You can verify their Base IDs on UESP.)

[st0rmcr0vv]

Originally posted by gnewna:

Oh, definitely, I just found building furniture pretty dull, and last time I don't remember it tanning this long (maybe four or five trips, I thought). She's getting there, but it's definitely taking longer this time round, and she's not quite finished the bedrooms, so I'm going to have to do that so as to adopt a child (though I suppose I should find a wife/husband first...)

They should have just made it like furnishing the out-of-the-box houses and *poof* you have a furnished armory, kitchen etc for those that don't like scrounging for materials (in addition to letting you piecemeal it together). My first instinct when paying the steward gold, leaving and then coming back to find a still empty house was that I ran into a bug (or that I needed to whoop several thousand gold out of my steward). It also kind of makes me want to build three houses (for the achievement) but only furnish one (which is really all anyone needs assuming all of the crafting stuff is there).

Too bad they didn't let the Oblivion DLC guys have their way with Hearthfire. "Build your house, or Fortress (with posted guards), or Thieves den (with minions that go out and steal shinies for you), or Wizards tower complete with a dragon spire (dragon may or may not included)". Might have made for some interesting scripted events: Adopted child playing in the wizards tower, knocks over a tray of ingredients, accidentally summons an ice wraith... This "build one of three identical houses with varying additional wings that kind of make it look a little bit different... oh and you can hire a bard" is cool (don't get me wrong) but.. not much variety to it. Could have just as easily been one HUGE house that included the amenities of all available wings.OR make each wing come with an exclusive unique artifact that you couldn't get from anywhere else. Of course it was only $5 so I cant complain too much (even though I probably already have). I suppose I'll eventually have to dig through the many mods.

[MageThis]

Originally posted by LoganMalone:

In my game she just stays in the kitchen. Go figure.

Take her boots, if she is going to stay in the kitchen she should be bare-foot.
Same here with Lydia but I suspect because she was my Carl for Breezehome/Solitude that after I dismissed her as a follower she remains as a very depressed Carl. I felt bad so I made her a follower again, ordered her to stay at Breezehome and now at least she goes through the motions of making meals and sweeping up... she seems to be banging back a little mead now..might be time for a little therapy.

[mpd1958]

I always make my house carls the stewards, lydia is always in her room downstairs. (I have "Breezehome Fully Upgradable") so she never bothers me. I hate followers, they won't stop talking ever time we stop somewhere, and they always attack and get in the way when I'm sneaking, giving away my position. I've been looking at some of the Follower AI mods?

[MageThis]

Originally posted by mpd1958:

I always make my house carls the stewards, lydia is always in her room downstairs. (I have "Breezehome Fully Upgradable") so she never bothers me. I hate followers, they won't stop talking ever time we stop somewhere, and they always attack and get in the way when I'm sneaking, giving away my position. I've been looking at some of the Follower AI mods?

AFT (Amazing Followers Tweak) does allow, among many other functions, one to toggle "idle chatter", "sneak mode" and whether or not they will attack enemies on sight, on command, or only when you are attacked. Also, check out "Inigo" (mod of the year award) for an intelligent, deep follower.