For my random_buildings mod, I tried to stick to blocks in the default game but wasn't satisifed. There is just too much missing (roofs, benches etc.), and there is no guarantee that other mods that provide these features (e.g. 3dforniture with its nice chairs and tables) are installed. Depending on a lot of other mods would not be very helpful I'm afraid.
Thus all those small things that proved usefull to small (rougly medieval) farm houses ended up in a new...collection. Most blueprints for the upcoming farm houses are going to need them. Players who don't want particular parts can let the mod replace those with other nodes (e.g. take the chair from 3dforniture instead of my simple bench).
The problem: How shall I call that assortment of nodes? "medieval" describes it only very roughly. "furniture for small rural houses" describes it partly. There was a suggestion of "olden days" which might fit.
What's there are a bed (split up into head and food node), sleeping mat, bench, table, shelf, simple washing place and stovepipe on the furniture side; slightly extended roof parts (those are used in random_buildings already); doorlike things (window shutters that open/close , half-door whose upper part can be operated independently, fence gate that drops to the ground when opened) and useful nodes for building/outside decoration (a wagon wheel, loam, straw, dirt road, barrels, tub). How to name that? And how to split it apart? What is the most convenient way for intrested players to get what they want out of these parts? The naming convention (every node name has to start with the name of the mod) does not make this easy.
My current approach is to split it up into seperate files and include them via dofile so that anyone who doesn't want a particular part can comment that out. That way, there isn't that much spam in the modlist. Download time and diskusage is insignificant in this regard. On the other hand, the nodes as such might be intresting in situations where the rest of the mod isn't (i.e. on servers - there you want the players to build houses, not mods).
If anyone is good at doing textures - help is welcome! The doors and the barrels could use better textures than the default wood. Those nodes that already have textures where not done by me (badger436 did the dirt road; VanessaE provided sleeping mat and wagon wheel; straw is from the darkage mod; the beds are from PilzAdams beds mod)