house means the temple, and the palace should be translated the castle.
It was a tower which stood at the north-west corner of the temple
platform, and commanded and protected the temple courts. (2) He required
wood for the gates of the wall, and (3) for 'the house that I shall enter
into,' i.e. for my own dwelling-house.

All is granted--the royal secretaries are called, and are bidden to
write the required instructions to the governors beyond the river, and
to Asaph, the bailiff of the forest. Nehemiah takes no credit to himself
that all has gone so prosperously, he does not praise his own courage,
or wisdom, or tact in making the request, he knows it is a direct answer
to a direct prayer, he recognises the fact that it is God's doing, and
not his.

'The king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.'

That was Ezra's motto, quoted by him again and again (Ezra vii. 6, 9,
28; viii. 18, 22, 31). In all his deliverances, in every one of his
mercies, he had seen the good hand of his God, and he had taken those
words, 'The good hand of my God upon me,' as the keynote of his praise,
and as the motto of his life. But Nehemiah had in all probability never
even seen Ezra, yet here we find him quoting Ezra's favourite saying.
Can it be that Hanani, his brother, who had been one of Ezra's
companions, had repeated it to him? Can it be that in order to cheer and
encourage his brother when he undertook the difficult task of speaking
to the king, he told him how Ezra was always repeating these words, and
how he found them a sure refuge in time of need? If so, how gladly would
Nehemiah hasten to his brother when his duties in the palace were
completed, to tell him that Ezra's motto has held good again, for 'the
king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.'