That's so Krondor-y... it really takes me back... to yesterday, when I last played BaK.
In the interest of seeing this game finished, I'd suggest spending as little time as possible doing your own models/graphics.
Also, have you thought about making the game procedural like Daggerfall? If you're not planning some complicated natural-looking layouts, and if you can make houses and terrains modular, you could one-up Krondor by making the whole thing procedural. Then you could apply rules like the colder the climate, the more sloped roofs are, or the poorer the settlement, the more decrepit textures look, and by having player's actions affect the settlement, it could change dynamically which I don't remember seeing in a RPG. Plus by making everything modular, you will also make it easy to import art assets later and concentrate on making the core of the game right now.
Sigh, looking at this I wish I'd set my sights higher with my game. This looks like so much fun.