When I was younger I used to go down stairs like this. Alas no more now with a death grip on the railings and knees creaking and popping. I have an extremely rare basement in this maritime community but I am located at least 100 feet above the high tide mark and the land slopes away from the house. And I don't pay attention to things like lit basement windows at my age too busy keeping my eyes on the road.
I couldn't and wouldn't even considering living in a house without a full basement. Period ! In the NE, I would figure there aren't many houses that don't have a basement, especially ones built before WWII. Thou I have been in ones built after WWII (on the cheap) w/o one. The same ones with their suburban attached garage that has been converted over into living space since there qwasen't much of that in the first place. Same goes for an attic (to a certain extent).
Maybe you didn't choose wisely? I'm remarried having learned the lesson the hard way first time around. When looking for a house in 2017, a basement suitable for trains was on my wife's checklist of top priorities. Bless her!
I should of added; where on earth would ones; furnace, water tank, laundry washer & dryer, clothes line, work shop, electrical panel, access to all the utilities (power, plumbing, cabling etc.) go without a basement??? Among other reasons, the above is a main reason I would never live in a post WWII house which includes those lame 'condos' where you really don't own the building (among other reasons). BTW, a crawl space doesn't cut it. (The model RR room is naturally the 1st on the list here )
The only upside to not having a basement (they're rare here because of the water table) is that we are forced to jettison things to charities or garage sales because we have limited space. It helps prevent us from becoming "prisoners of our possessions", with unused things packed away into every corner. I guess it also limits our spending because if we don't have space for something, it doesn't get bought. But, make no mistake -- a basement will be a priority in our retirement home!
My house has a basement but from my travels I see these are usually in the garage. There's always two sides to everything. Basement can enable one to become a hoarder as Hardcoaler hinted to. Also, if there is moisture penetration which can easily induce the growth or mold, then you really have a problem on your hands!
Basements aren't very common here either.....a lot of "split levels" but not true basements. My train room is actually upstairs........when we built our house we had the option of doing 2 bedrooms upstairs, 1 bedroom and and an "activity room" or one big 42 X 16 room.....guess which I got.
I have a leaky one here in il. I live in a flood zone lights could be for doing laundry lots of washers, dryers and freezers in basements here
