Was looking at the newest batches of the new "creation mods", and this one actually looks pretty sick.
https://creations.bethesda.net/en/skyrim/details/5476/Echoes_of_the_Vale
Echoes of the Vale. It's a pretty large expansion: it apparently turns the Vale from Dawnguard into an actual area, filled with a new interconnected exterior, a dozen or so dungeons with sidequests and set pieces, new lore, and a bunch of unique pieces of gear to discover, all made to resemble and fit seamlessly into the vanilla game. This is stuff I can get behind. Seems like one of the few things worth the eight bucks.