I'm about 50 hours in and have a house, but haven't been able to upgrade it.  Is this scrapped from FO3?  I'm getting a bit frustrated not having workbenches and campfires in the room where all my stuff is, so upgrading would help a lot.

If you're fifty hours in, you should have gone to the Lucky 38 by now right? If not, disregard this post. If so:
 

Thanks!  Haven't met Mr. House yet because I wanted to finish the strip missions first.  But, that isn't much of a spoiler, so thanks.

My pleasure, anything to help a fellow wastelander ;) Loving this game far too much right now, I'm already on my second playthrough :3

To ask about another kinda spoiler thing.  Do the different strip quests (such as with the Omertas etc.) have any effect on what happens when I go see Mr. House?  If not, I'll go do that right away. 
 
Also, I 'm def going to do another play through, maybe try to be evil and side with the Legion (though it's pretty hard for me to slaughter innocents).  I also want to try out a melee character, though I assume that may be frustrating.

" To ask about another kinda spoiler thing.  Do the different strip quests (such as with the Omertas etc.) have any effect on what happens when I go see Mr. House?  If not, I'll go do that right away.  Also, I 'm def going to do another play through, maybe try to be evil and side with the Legion (though it's pretty hard for me to slaughter innocents).  I also want to try out a melee character, though I assume that may be frustrating. "