My home is inside of one of the obsidian towers for a roguelike dungeon. The chest in the upper layer usually has some torches in it, so I can light the place up, then I plug all the holes with dirt. The one I'm in this time around (on world number 15, lol) was on the side of a hill, so I had to flatten the area around it. But I'm right next to a desert, so I too use a moat of quicksand. It's only 1 wide and 2 deep (been thinking of changing that). And I have a tunnel that runs around the inside of it, so occasionally I'll go down there and can collect any mob drops that are in it. If a giant skeleton or zombie gets stuck, I can kill them from below without them being able to fight back. Ideally it should probably be like 2 wide and three deep so that way it will catch/kill pretty much everything that's not flying.
I have a garden going on the roof. I built a vertical shaft of dirt on the side going from the second floor up to the roof, and put ladders in it, so I could get up there right away. I'm in a grassland biome so it counts as pretty much everything except desert. Every now and then I have a flying mob up there, but they're not too bad.
I use dirt to block off the lower levels, even after it is well lit. Not taking any chances. I use one of the 4 entrances on the main level as my actual way in and out, using dirt as a "door". I use another one to go to the tunnel that goes around the moat, and a third to go to an underground tunnel that leads waaaaaay off. That third tunnel eventually leads to my mine, but also has offshoots for my nether portal (also with a moat of quicksand), my chicken room, and my smeltery.
