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I guess I just don't understand why everything that is in the basement can't just be on the first floor instead. Then there is no issue with water. As far as pipes not freezing because they can be kept warm in the basement...wouldn't they be kept warm on the first floor too?
Storage...if you have a 1500 square foot basement with a 1500 square foot floor above ground, or a 1500 square foot first floor with a 1500 square foot second floor, isn't the storage situation exactly the same?
Anyway, thanks very much for responding! One thing I have gotten out of this is that it seems to be mostly a preference issue. Many apparently prefer to have them...including my husband, who is also from Canada. I just happen to be on the other side of the fence.
Thanks again for your input! Have a great day!
I have a 1200 sq ft basement, first and second, floors. Four bedrooms 2 baths on second floor, living room, dining room, family room, kitchen, bath and laundry room on first floor, game room, bath and storage in basement. I have been here 7 years and have had no water problems. If I didn't have a basement I would need a third floor or a bigger lot and have more grass to cut. I'm afraid of heights and I don't like cutting grass.
I always thought that basements were a necessity until I lived in a house without one. Then I decided it was kind of nice not to have one. For the most part I used it to do laundry and collect junk I otherwise would have gotten rid of. Less junk and a 1st floor laundry are nice
The other nice thing with basements is they mean warmer floors in your house during the winter.
In Sourthern California, most really old houses have Basements. New houses almost never.
A finished basement is ultra cheap added living space, but it does not count in the appraisal square footage. We added 1300 s.f. of really nice living space (2 Br, 1 BA, and a game room) for less than $75,000 which is a bargain, however the appraiser valued the entire thing at $5,000.
Is sure is nice to have your uglies (furnace, water heater, laundry etc) hidden away in the unfinsihed part of the basement. It keeps the living space for living. However I do wish that we had found space for a laundry chute or a dumbwaiter.
I live in Ontario, Canada. Basements are a very big deal here and are very common. Personally, I hate them. I think they are creepy, dark, dreary, and it seems like you can't turn around without hearing that someone has water issues with their basement. I am sure not all basements are like this, but in my experience, if you want your basement to be decent, you have to dump a pile of money into it and say a heck of a lot of prayers!
That being said, I am originally from California. I never had a basement, nor have I ever known of anyone who had a basement before I came here.
Can someone explain to me why anyone would build a basement, particularly when the probability of it leaking seems so high? In fact, from what I have seen, the likelihood of the basement leaking is so high, that a sump hole is automatically built into a basement in order to house a sump pump to pump out the water.
I can't understand why one wouldn't simply build a two story above ground house instead of one story underground (and potentially full of water!) with only the second story above ground.
Can anyone shed some light on this for me?
Thanks very much!
Tornadoes. For one. A basement could provide some storage that you might not be able to match with an additional floor...because you could keep the stuff in boxes. Like...Christmas trappings, for one.
The "flooding" issue could be taken care of with a sump pump.
Or if I have a 1500 square foot first floor and a 1500 square foot second floor, I could have another 1500 square feet in the basement...if i wanted to finish that space. Why would I want to store my christmas stuff, infrequently used items in a living area when I can just throw them into the basement? It could be a preference issue, but I would agree with other posters that depending on what area of the country its in, having one is very practical to neccessary...
You keep your JUNK in the basement, where visitors aren't going to see it. Put it on the main floor, and you have to "hide" it somehow.
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