Most of you live in a Two-Story house, with basement, two floors, and livable attic space. This gives you four floors for living, storage, etc. The two of us live in a Single-Story house, as are all the homes in Southern California's High Desert. It's all built on a 3530 sq.ft. concrete slab, with 2800 sq. ft. for the living spaces and 730 sq. ft. for the 3-car garage. Our sandy desert soil will not allow excavations for a basement. Could any of you find peace and comfort in a single story home? Hal
I live in a ranch home with attached garage which is single story but with a basement. The basement is good for storage, laundry, water heater, water shutoffs and breaker box. The lady who lived in it previously ended up going to a nursing home, so while in her pre-nursing home condition, the house was manageable for her living alone. That's the kind of home I was looking for where I can manage the home up to the point that I'm nursing home material. The only bugger is grass cutting but I can pay for that.
There are times when I wish I didn't have to climb stairs a few dozen times a day, but mostly I like having more than one floor. For heating purposes, multi-floors makes sense in cold-weather areas, I think.
No basements in the Houston area; the water table is too high. We have a 2-story house on a slab. Five bedrooms so larger than needed for the 2 of us, but we have no plans to move.
Old brick bungalow I grew up in (and subsequently bought when my folks retired) had a basement and attic. Basements were universal around the Chicago area because the foundations had to be minimum 48 inches deep anyway, to prevent "frost heave". The basement was the catch-all place for stuff used often, tools and such, the attic for storage of items rarely touched, or seen. The basement regularly flooded after heavy rainfall, a fault also universal in our area. Nothing damageable by water was kept on the floor, unless in waterproof containers. Boxes and such were stacked up high. The water rarely exceeded 1 foot deep or so (though one year it was 3 feet!)., and of course contained sewage......airing the place out after flooding was an absolute necessity. Houses owned subsequent to leaving Chicago: Las Vegas (slab construction), Canon City, Colorado, crawl space, Indiana slab construction, Phoenix slab (2, first purchased, 2nd. self-built), Show Low, Arizona, 16 X 40 frame cabin in woods, Missouri Ozarks, 100 year-old farmhouse, my wife's lifelong dream: And finally, our present abode, manufactured home 1900 sq. ft., 2 acre lot, Fort Mohave, Arizona, pit-set, crawl-space, can never be moved. Frank
I lived in a 600 ft² home for over 30 years. Then I moved into my current 1,300 ft² home. Both have crawlspaces (no basement.) Both have pull-down attic stairs (no formal staircase.) If I hit a lottery, I would not replace the home I have. Why punish myself with stairs and incur the risk? I would do some upgrades...extra insulation in the walls, new siding and a sun room would be nice.
I grew up in a ranch style house with a basement. I didn't care for it. It seemed like there was nowhere to get off by yourself except lock yourself in your bedroom. Now I wouldn't have that problem. I've always liked the layout of two-story houses. The stairs keep your legs in shape. In town I have two stories with basement but no live-in attic, about 1900 sq. ft. I would really miss a basement. In town a ranch style house with the same floor space would not fit well on many city lots.
Sure, I would. Since land is scarce and costly, though, you'd very rarely find families living in a bungalow-type home because they usually don't provide the space needed. I built a semi-detached two-storey house with attic (not used for living-in) and basement that included garage, laundry, hobby room/workshop and the other half for my in-laws. So, basically, I needed to climb the stairs between first and second floor. I knew, though, that, as I aged, I wanted to have a single-storey home if possible. My dachshund also strained her back by frequently racing up and down stairs. While holidaying we made sure we rented a holiday apartment that was single-storey and each time enjoyed the difference. Now my MIL still lives in the house attached to our previous one and while visiting her I'm always reminded of the difference it makes. Now I'm living in a ground-floor apartment with an attached plot of land and Sari says she doesn't need stairs either. If I hadn't been able to move home, I'd still be living in the previous house and would have a stair lift built in if needed as my in-laws did.
We have a 2400 sq ft ranch on a slab. 4 beds 3 baths I would have liked a basement but our land was not suitable.