I'm having trouble purchasing the last house upgrade from NPC Proventus Avenicci for Breezehome house in Whiterun. I have all the upgrades except the alchemy lab, which he no longer offers for sale.
I've killed the first dragon, become a thane, got a housekarl Lydia, cleared the barrow, and have the Whiterun homeowner's guidebook in my inventory. Have not started any stormcloak v imperial storylines, currently level 11 just finished Miraak's temple.
There are many threads on google (eg here on reddit or here on gaming.se) with similar problems, where the apparent solution is to make sure you talk to Proventus Avenicci during the day, when he's in the throne room. Not when he's in his bed or in on the Great Porch or whatever, at which point he doesn't offer upgrade dialogue options at all.
My problem is something different. I'm definitely speaking to him in the throne room. And he's definitely offering the "upgrade your home" dialogue. It's just that the only subdialogue is "never mind". There is no "alchemy lab" option.
Is there a thing where you can't have all the upgrades? Maybe getting the child's bedroom locks out the alchemy lab?
Earlier when I was purchasing upgrades, I clicked on the alchemy lab but didn't have enough gold, so he didn't sell it to me. I wonder if trying to buy it somehow glitched the NPC dialogue into removing that option without actually adding the lab.
I'm on console, so entering commands is not an option. Is there any other way to reset the dialogue/house upgrade options? Will it come back over time? Does anyone else take over this options? Would killing the NPC somehow help? Any way at all to reset the configuration of the Breezehome house? Any tips would be appreciated. Very much hope to find a solution isn't "load an old save and redo most of the dungeon and two dragons and several grindy battles". Thanks in advance.
Best Answer
There are several bugs associated with Breezehome listed on UESP and The Elderscolls Wikia. Some bugs and possible workarounds relating to the alchemy lab:
There are a couple other bugs/workarounds that may be relevant but they involve either console commands, or downloading the unofficial patches, so they wouldn't work for you, unfortunately.
Both wikis, however, do say that you can purchase both the Alchemy lab and Children's Bedroom any number of times and they will replace each other. Although it may not allow you to replace the Children's Bedroom while they are currently living there. If you have children, try moving them to a different house before purchasing the Alchemy Lab.
If none of the above workarounds produce the desired results; you asked in a comment to another answer if the alchemy lab was more useful than a child's bedroom / worth going back a few saves and replaying a dungeon?
The main advantage to the alchemy lab is having it close to some safe storage, but if you don't mind a brief jog (or walk if carrying too much), there is an alchemy table nearby in Arcadia's Cauldron you can use instead.
Unless you are dead-set on using Breezehome as your main base of operations, there are several other player-ownable homes around skyrim with more features than just an alchemy table.