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I guess it depends on where you are located. I would NEVER buy a house on a slab again. I had very bad things happen to my ranch-style house on a slab. Having no access to pipes and anything else makes repair so difficult. If you have a leak somewhere in the slab, you may never know. Make sure the heating ducts are NOT in the slab, too. They should be run overhead. I guess if the house is properly taken care of, a slab could be ok. Just no more for me!
It's not all that irrational. My basement is long and skinny, and half of it is finished. While I love the extra living space, I don't love is the fact that so many of the utilities are walled in, and that the finished space also eats into storage.
When my washer decides it wants to leak, I want it to leak onto the concrete floor of the basement, and directly into the floor drain.
Just about everyone I know ... Main floor bedrooms are a 21st century phenomenon. I don't like 'em. Another reason not to buy a new house ...
Regarding your second paragraph------do you also have all your bathrooms, kitchen sink, and dishwasher in the basement?
They also can leak.
Almost no houses in my area have main floor bedrooms. They are all on the second floor.
Same here in the Midwest. Our house is something of an oddball in that we do have two small ground-floor bedrooms.
I do wonder, though, as the population ages (helllllo baby boomers) if we will see more of a trend to "universal design" in housing.
As I stated earlier, we are planning a future ground-floor laundry even if we won't use it. We've also discussed turning those two small bedrooms into a main-level master-suite, complete with a roll-in shower stall.
When I see a bedroom on the main floor it just makes me think of old people who need it because they can't do stairs. I'm not sure I would consider a house with a main floor bedroom. I like the seperation between entertaining/living space and sleeping space.
You only need an egress window in a bedroom in the basement. Even if you have no zoning (I don't), insurance standards require it. It's not just a hole for future purposes, but active means for escape during a fire. (had one)
But, being a TX girl, never even saw a basement, now I love them. My older Mom won't go out in winter (5 months) but will walk miles daily in that nice heated/unfinished space!!!!!
We added a couple egress windows in our old house and I was going back and forth as to what style I wanted and I commented about them being easy for the kids to operate in case of a fire. The salesperson told me that the real reason the windows had to be the size they were was not for your kids to get out but for a fireman to get IN fully outfitted. I then picked the kind the firemen recommend the most.
Quote:
Originally Posted by marmac
A house with no main floor bedrooms would not sell very well where I live.
Who in the heck would buy a 2 story house that had no main floor bedroom ?
Main floor masters are only common is pretty high end houses here (unless you only have a single story which are hard to find too). When we moved to the house we are in now we wanted a single story (rambler) with a master suite on the main floor and 3 bedrooms in the basement thinking down the road to old age and me never wanting to move again. We could not find anything like that and hubby didn't want to build. We did find a 2 story with space to add a main floor master down the road.
I am helping my parents find a home to retire into when they move back to the area next fall and main floor living is a must. They are fine now but who knows in 5-10 years.
Actually I take it back about main floor bedrooms being a 21st century thing. A lot of Cape Cod style homes built in the 20s through the 60s had one or two bedrooms on the first floor. Heck, I owned one. D'oh!
As for basements, though, I still wouldn't want to not have one ...
I lived in Michigan for a long time where basements (both finished and unfinished) were the norm. I loved it for the extra space and versatility. Now that I am in the Southwest, the vast majority of people do not have basements. Where do you store all of your extra stuff? (Childhood memories, Christmas tree, etc.) We have made do so far with the tiny storage space above our garage and the closets in the extra bedrooms but that storage space will eventually go away with children (and presumably the clutter will increase). I would love love love to have a basement here.
I lived in Michigan for a long time where basements (both finished and unfinished) were the norm. I loved it for the extra space and versatility. Now that I am in the Southwest, the vast majority of people do not have basements. Where do you store all of your extra stuff? (Childhood memories, Christmas tree, etc.) We have made do so far with the tiny storage space above our garage and the closets in the extra bedrooms but that storage space will eventually go away with children (and presumably the clutter will increase). I would love love love to have a basement here.
The whole garage
The vehicle stays in the driveway, LOL
(Not mine! The guy across the street! I shudder whenever I see that door opening, waiting for an avalanche ... )
The whole garage
The vehicle stays in the driveway, LOL
(Not mine! The guy across the street! I shudder whenever I see that door opening, waiting for an avalanche ... )
Yes, but we have things like snow and cold weather-we actually use our garages for our cars .
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