izigame.me

It's not a great DLC, to be perfectly honest. Why did I buy it way back in the day? Because for whatever reason, this little turd of a DLC contains some good assets that the mod authors learned to use. So, one could say it's a turd that contains a gem inside. A flawed gem that's not worth very much, but a gem nevertheless.
I'll be straight-up about this: I hate the kids in Skyrim. Adopting one or two of them is something I can't see myself ever caring to do beyond achievement hunting. They're rude, they're in the way, they have the same 5 voice lines on eternal repeat. They routinely act like they've never been disciplined, if their parents are still around, while the orphans run around acting like you just curb-stomped their puppy if you don't give them money. But, I can understand for some players, you've just married someone and now you want kids, and unfortunately (outside of mods), this is the only way to have them.
I liked the house-building aspect of it, personally. Sure, free mods existed (and still exist) that do similar things. But Hearthfire picked the three remaining cities that really lacked a reason for players to care about them, and gave us a plot of land to buy, and let us struggle through building homes. It's just basically "options between three things" most of the time, but that's better than nothing. Sure, Fallout 4's settlement system is a million times better, but this came first.
Another good thing is gardening - Ever had that moment where you really needed a specific type of potion or poison, and you hated having to make it because you needed stuff from all over the map? Well, if most of those ingredients are plants, plop them in your garden. Boom. Wait a few days and you now have infinite plants.
On the scale of DLC, this is a spiritual successor to Oblivion's house DLCs.