With regard to living in a basement ...
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- Don't complain about lack of options. You've got to pick a few when you do multiple choice. Those are the breaks.
- Feel free to suggest poll ideas if you're feeling creative. I'd strongly suggest reading the past polls first.
- This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane.
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Basements (Score:5, Funny)
Living in basements is for poor college students and nerds. Oh wait, I'm both......
Re:Basements (Score:5, Funny)
It's also for those hosed in a divorce.
Re:Basements (Score:4, Funny)
You have a basement? All I had after my divorce was a hole in the ground covered by a sheet of tarpaulin ...
Re:Basements (Score:5, Funny)
A hole? I would have killed for a hole! After my divorce, it was me and six other deadbeat dads taking shelter under a public urinal...
Re:Basements (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Basements (Score:5, Funny)
A Swamp!? HA!
Back in my day, when a guy got divorced he got booted naked into a desert and told to run for his life from a hoard of hungry scorpions!
Re:Basements (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Basements (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
After my divorce, I couldn't afford tools to steal the car. I slept under it until it got towed and they found a dead body (not of my doing) in the trunk. That bad smell isn't always just a dead squirrel, nor the fact that you haven't showered in a month.
Re:Basements (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, but you try to tell that to the single guys today who are thinking of getting married....and they won't believe you!
Re:Basements (Score:5, Funny)
[quote]Yeah, but you try to tell that to the single guys today who are thinking of getting married....and they won't believe you! [/quote]
But, but she MUST be the one for me. She has pulse AND respiration!
Re:Basements (Score:4, Insightful)
Sooo... How old exactly are you now?
I'm 29, with a 4y/o child. One divorce behind me. Never going to marry again.
Why do you think people mature when they get older? It is not because of the age naturally making you boring and "ready for marriage". People get mature and boring because they get married, have kids and face the reality of responsibility.
I guarantee you will be even more miserable and depressed when you trade in your swanky lifestyle for marriage in thirties.
As for me "never marrying again". I actually might, when I get old and frail and start worrying about dying alone. I've seen it happen. For now, I dedicate myself to hacking, arts and music. And of course to my daughter when she is around. (Shared parenthood, half of the month with me. Excellent.)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Financial equals are the worst as far as divorce damage. They have the money and confidence to hire a top-notch attorney.
I got astonishingly lucky and found someone perfect
Divorce in Canada (Score:3, Interesting)
I can tell you that if I was still living in Canada I would be a confirmed bachelor. It's unbelievable how badly divorce laws are stacked against men now. :(
Men should unite and refuse to marry until things get fixed.
Might sound like a troll but isn't intended as one (Score:5, Interesting)
I always wonder if getting sued in a divorce is purely American thing? I see it in TV series and hear people on the Internet talking about it but where I live (Northern Europe), I never see it in real life.
When my parents got divorced, they argued a lot about who should get what (which ended up with my mother owning 75% of the apartment and paying for the last 25% to my father because they made a deal that she would pay for my living expenses, etc.) and I have distant memory that my mother might have even called a lawyer by phone and asked for legal advice but courts weren't involved.
Several of my friends have also divorced parents (I'm college student so don't have much friends who would have divorced themselves) but I've heard of legal battles in none of those.
Even more absurd seem to be the legal battles of if the other parent can meet the child. In several cases I've heard that someone lives with his mother after the divorce and goes to live with his father on the weekends or - with older children - lives with whichever parent and meets the other parent whenever he wishes to. But all such arrangements have always been just agreements, I've never heard that courts would have gotten involved.
Don't get me wrong. I realize that of course, there must be some times when Europeans bring divorces to court. Especially among the wealthier population. However, it just seems extremely rare from the limited sample that I've seen.
So which is it? Is my sample simply too small? Do europeans take these things to court less often? Or is it infact so that Americans also don't usually take divorces to lawyers and courts but those small part who do get all the attention?
Re:Might sound like a troll but isn't intended as (Score:4, Insightful)
I see it in TV series and hear people on the Internet talking about it
There's your problem: Television is fake or about arrogant rich people, and nothing on the Internet is true... including this post.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You should have simply programmed an escape function so that it could gloss over logical impossibilities. Seriously, isn't this Programming Sexbots 101?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
It's because you only hear about the outliers. Most divorces I've known of (and my wife and I are considering a rather weird one! (*) go quickly and easily. I have only known of one with the classic "battling lawyers in court" scenario. Here in Minnesota, we pioneered Collaborative Divorce in which the point is to avoid fighting and the lawyers sign an agreement that they must withdraw if the parties want to go to court.
(*) As far as my own situation goes, my wife and I will (probably) get divorced, but we
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Simply put, we want to be together, but we independently figured out that the concept of "marriage" changed us both too much and for the worse.
So, instead of fixing the individual character defects that cause both of you to respond negatively to the official, public commitment of marriage, you're just going to get a divorce.
Got it.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Might sound like a troll but isn't intended as (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Might sound like a troll but isn't intended as (Score:5, Insightful)
Now in my case there was no reason and no point in going to court. My first wife could afford to buy as much and as best of legal representatives money could buy. I had nothing in comparison to her. I knew I'd get shafted. There was no reason to hire an attorney for myself. What good would it have done. She'd have just buried me in expenses. So, I just loaded up my car with what I wanted, left a note, and I was gone. When her lawyer drew up the papers, I just signed it and mailed it back. There wasn't much point in negotiating. She's still waiting to collect (there were no kids). Children change everything.
The problem with your world view is you expect people to be rational about emotions. This is very unlikely to occur. Emotions and rational thought are on opposite ends of the spectrum of thought. Not to mention those who view a spouse as property that needs to be kept (think very abusive spouses).
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
As a
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Courts look at what you're doing with your money. Anything that even *looks* like an attempt to shuffle money, even if it's legal, and the judge will take you apart.
My friend hired his new girlfriend to do paralegal work, and set up an offshore company for another project, and even those got him a lot of very difficult questions fr
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
It's hard to plan ahead when one party leaves in the middle of the night.
The moment the divorce papers are filed -- which was a surprise to him, in this case -- the assets of the marriage were no longer "his" or "hers" to give away to the Salvation Army or anyone else.
If he'd done that, there's a good chance the judge would've said "fine, you're a very generous person, but you still owe her $2M" and he certainly would not have won the subsequent child custody battle with that kind of
Re:Basements (Score:5, Funny)
Nah, you're suppose to get the spare room with a friend that she didn't get as part of the divorce. Good luck though, she'll get the house, car, dog, your clothes, your dignity, and probably your future earnings for the rest of your life.
The better option is to quit your job, move to another country and work under an assumed name. Be careful never to tell anyone who you were, or ever answer to the old name should someone call you by it. "Hey John!", and a positive answer mean you'll have to start over again, or other more serious problems. I strongly recommend picking up the local accent quickly, and then moving to another city where you're close enough for the accent to apply, but far enough where no one from the first place will recognize you. I hear Istanbul [wunderground.com] is beautiful this time of year. Just be careful not to make friends with any Islamic extremists, or you may find yourself renditioned to a non-existent prison where they'll likely get you to admit your real name and nationality. As they're waterboarding you, you'll likely admit to anything they want. Of course, you'll need to become very familiar with Islam, as 99.8% of the country is Muslim. Remember to blend in well, or you'll get caught or killed (or both). Your new name is Enis Yilmaz. You will find under your chair an envelope containing your new passport, a one way plane ticket, and enough local currency to purchase new clothes and accommodations for two months. After that, you are on your own. Get a boring quiet job where you don't interact with a lot of people, and living accommodations where you will interact with as few people as possible.
This daily life reminder comes as a public service of the JWSmythe Secure Relocation Services, a division of JWSmythe, Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of JWSmythe Enterprises, Inc, a non-existent company. JWSmythe's images, trademark, and bogus statements are entirely created by JWSmythe, Inc a fictitious company owned by a fictitious person.
Have a nice day.
Subject! (Score:4, Funny)
The closest I ever came to living in a basement was spending New Year's at a friend's cabin.
The first floor was really epic, but below it was the "basement". A game room with a wood stove, throw rugs, and sliding glass doors going out to a lake.
It woulda been way more fun if it wasn't the dead of Winter and snowing like a Columbian drug smuggling plane blew up overhead.
Re:Subject! (Score:5, Funny)
It woulda been way more fun if it wasn't the dead of Winter and snowing like a Columbian drug smuggling plane blew up overhead.
I'm trying to imagine how must it snow to look like a "drug smuggling plane blew up". Deafening explosions, pieces of red hot jagged metal falling all around, the occasional long scream ending with a wet thud...
Where exactly was your friends cabin?
Have you checked lately if your friend has a tendency to speak in latin? Redish skin, maybe? Any horns?
Re:Subject! (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Never lived in the basement but... (Score:2)
I never lived in the basement but spent most of my time in the garage when I still lived at home. I had a desk and a couple of computers setup in the corner along with a couch. We lived in a townhouse so no one seemed to notice when I had a few friends over late at night to geek out and look at cool winamp plugins while blazed. :-P
"I miss my basement" (Score:3, Interesting)
I live in the southwest US (Score:2)
Re:I live in the southwest US (Score:5, Interesting)
I've never even SEEN a basement (Australia). Anybody know why they're common in some areas but not others?
Re: (Score:2)
Anybody know why they're common in some areas but not others?
I know that the ground is very important (that seems obvious as I type it). If you have solid rock a foot below the ground (some parts of the south do, I know) it isn't economical to build one. If you have extremely wet soil, you might run into issues with structure and leaks.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, I am currently living in the southEAST US, central Florida, and NOBODY around here has basements. Just too wet and sandy, plus hurricanes and such. The last house I was in (NY Hudson Valley region) had a basement, a FULL basement, but I couldn't begin to tell you what it was full of! At one point we did have someone living in the basement.
And for a while I had my computer set up down there, it was nice and private. But when we decided to sell and move down here to FL, my wife made me move the computer
Re: (Score:2)
I really wish I had a basement here
Where I live you can buy underground water tanks, which gets me thinking about ways to create extra living space.
Re: (Score:2)
It's mostly a cost issue. Basements generally require a lot of brick and cement to avoid damage from water, bugs and animals. People not like to live in basements, so rather then spend the money on one that will only be used for storage they make the houses 2 stories for less money with more living space.
Most of the basements I've seen were of the walk-out kind that were built on a hill. As well as much older houses built before central heat and air were common as the temperature underground is more stabl
Re:I live in the southwest US (Score:5, Informative)
In fact, it's been illegal to build a house that isn't brick+mortar (in some form) around these parts of Europe since the 18th century. Because such structures usually need a proper base to sit on people build basements because, fuck it, you're making a big hole anyway. Why not use the room for something useful.
And yes, before you ask, even houses 2 meters away from the sea have basements. In fact, every single house in Venice probably has a basement of some sort. And someone replied in a comment that basements on solid rock are too expensive
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Basements are designed for the sole purpose of insulating against the freezing ground. The frost line varies by area climate. Here in the Northeastern US, basements descend about 6 feet (~2M) below the surface, though there is variation in older houses.
Your insistence that it is illegal to build a non-brick/mortar house in Europe must mean that many of the new houses I have seen in Germany are illegal. They clearly had vinyl siding, which one would not use over brick and mortar.
Wood is a convenient and inex
Re:I live in the southwest US (Score:4, Funny)
Also, Europeans keep their daughters down there.
Re:I live in the southwest US (Score:5, Funny)
Too soon dude, too soon.
You evil, nasty magnificent bastard!
Re:I live in the southwest US (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Well-made Brick and Mortar homes are earthquake-proof... And no, a flimsy sheetrock construction is not a good alternative.
Trust me, I live in Mexico City and we learned that the hard way.
Re:I live in the southwest US (Score:4, Informative)
Stone has thermal mass, which means they can suck up heat during the day and radiate it back at night. But if it's cold both day and night, they're endlessly sucking up heat and radiating it outside.
http://inpicenum.com/2007/03/05/the-myth-of-stone-walls-as-insulation/ [inpicenum.com]
Re:I live in the southwest US (Score:4, Informative)
Well, actually - it probably is due to having much more space - supply and demand.
The original poster isn't quite right - there are places in Europe where timber framed houses are built. There are a number of them close to me - timber frame with brick facing.
The price of housing has almost nothing to do with how much they cost to construct. My house - like many around here - is around 150 years old; the cost of the building materials is totally irrelevant. Yet it was enormously expensive - not due to being 150 years old and made out of stone - the cost of the timber frame houses are exactly the same. It's to do with demand for housing vastly outstripping supply. This is caused by two things: 1. far too many people, 2. strict planning laws that make it nearly impossible to build new houses and a nightmare to fix up old ones. (You need planning permission just to replace windows around here).
Re:I live in the southwest US (Score:5, Informative)
I've never even SEEN a basement (Australia). Anybody know why they're common in some areas but not others?
In some parts of the US (i.e. the upper Midwest), the foundation must start below the frost line [wikipedia.org], to avoid frost heaving [wikipedia.org].
Since the foundation is already that deep, you might as well use the space for something. It was typically used for food storage and a shelter against severe weather, but now it's common for the basement to be finished into a full-time living space.
Re: (Score:2)
I've never even SEEN a basement (Australia). Anybody know why they're common in some areas but not others?
I'm in Victoria. A place I used to stay at on Mt Buller had a basement. It was unheated so it functioned as a cool room. You got there by opening a hatch in the middle of the living room and climbing down a vertical ladder. Made a big impression on me as a kid.
Now that the cost of land is going up it might make sense in urban areas to have an extra storey below ground level. But I think it would just fill up with junk.
One row of terrace houses near me in East Brunswick have a lower storey below ground l
Re:I live in the southwest US (Score:5, Informative)
Most likely, it's something to do with the soil.
Or weather. Root cellars are common in cooler climes and storm cellars were(?) in the Great Plains. I'm sure that basements are derived from them.
You don't see them in coastal regions,
Like New Orleans. But downtown Chicago (right on the Lake) and Manhattan (it's granite) are crisscrossed with tunnels and basements.
Well, that, and they're expensive.
And the price of land. Basements are good when land is expensive, so you buy a small plot and go vertical.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
You generally also need storm sewer access for the basement weeping tiles [wikipedia.org], to prevent flooding, foundation damage, etc.
I'm definitely not a construction expert, so I could be totally wrong.
Re:I live in the southwest US (Score:5, Insightful)
Root cellars are common in cooler climes and storm cellars were(?) in the Great Plains. I'm sure that basements are derived from them.
That's something that I find depressing about modern lifestyles.
Instructions to store food in a "cool and dry place" ends up being translated as "stick it in the fridge". And what was once stored in a pantry (a term that could almost be described as quaint) now also gets stuck in the fridge. Never mind that a fridge is not where you want to be storing certain foods, that the cost per cubic foot is higher than the most expensive hotels (mints on your pillow and hookers included), or that the space it provides isn't free (cost of the unit plus electricity).
When I was growing up, we had a large enough house, but the fridge was reserved for fresh meats, certain vegetables, and dairy; everything else was stored in the pantry or the basement. If you had suggested that a fridge was an acceptable alternative, we would have looked at you like someone who didn't know what food was. And our immigrant friends, who used their basements for such things as making wine and curing meat would have laughed at you.
Today, of course, we all want stainless steel side by side subzero fridges. Why? Hard to sell someone on the benefits a hole in the ground, especially if they don't know any better.
Re:I live in the southwest US (Score:5, Interesting)
that the cost per cubic foot is higher than the most expensive hotels (mints on your pillow and hookers included), or that the space it provides isn't free (cost of the unit plus electricity).
only if you have a crappy fridge like most you can buy.
Convert a chest freezer into a fridge and it will out perform the BEST fridge you can buy. and it's just as convenient as a regular fridge. Mine blows the hell out of the best energy star rated traditional fridge and I paid $199 for mine including conversion costs.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I used to dream of living in a basement! (Score:3, Funny)
We used to have to get up a half hour before we went to bed, drink a cup of sulferic acid for breakfast, work 27 hours at mill, and our father would beat us to sleep with a broken bottle.
Re:I used to dream of living in a basement! (Score:5, Funny)
,br>Oooo! Look at me. I've got a father! La-di-da!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You mixed the lines a bit...
Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, eat a lump of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing "Hallelujah."
Said Al: (Score:5, Funny)
Well, nobody ever drove me to school when it was ninety degrees below. We had to walk butt naked through forty miles of snow. Worked in the coal mine twenty two hours a day for just half a cent. Had to sell my internal organs just to pay the rent...
When I was your age... When I was your age... When I was your age... When I was your age...
Let me tell you something, you whiny little snot... There's something wrong with all you kids today.You just don't appreciate all the things you've got. We were hungry, broke and miserable, and we liked it better that way.
There were seventy-three of us living in a cardboard box. All I got for Christmas was a lousy bag of rocks. Every night for dinner we had a big chunk of dirt. If we were really good we didn't get dessert...
When I was your age... When I was your age... When I was your age... When I was your age...
Didn't have no telephone, didn't have no fax machine. All we had was a couple of cans and a crummy piece of string. Didn't have no swimming pool when I was just a lad. Our neighbor's septic tank was the closest thing we had. Didn't have no dental floss had to use old rusty nails. Didn't have Nintendo, we just poured salt on snails. Didn't have no water bed, had to sleep on broken glass. Didn't have no lawnmower, we used our teeth to cut the grass.
What's the matter now, sonny, you say you don't believe this junk? You think my story's wearin' kinda thin? I tell you one thing, I never was such a disrespectful punk. Back in my time, we had a thing called discipline.
Dad would whup us every night till a quarter after twelve...then he'd get too tired and he'd make us whup ourselves. Then he'd chop me into pieces and play frisbee with my brain. And let me tell ya, Junior, you never heard me complain!
When I was your age... When I was your age... When I was your age... When I was your age...
One Great Thing Was Geothermal Regulation (Score:5, Interesting)
Also, it was easier to keep dark so I could sleep whenever I needed to with a blanket over the small window.
Re: (Score:2)
"in the summer it was great insulation if you had a heat source."
I'd hate to think what it was like in the winter :)
Re: (Score:2)
This is actually the main reason that I want an underground house. Who needs a basement when the entire house is a basement. Plus, you get to use your "roof" for extra yard space.
Re: (Score:2)
This is actually the main reason that I want an underground house
Sunlight is a Good Thing, and the view into the backyard with trees and bushes and birds and squirrels (and, at night, racoons, possum and occasional coyote) with the doors open to let in a fresh breeze is nice and peaceful. Very pastoral.
And "green". No need to turn on the lights during the day.
Re: (Score:2)
Ditto. Though most of my unit is ground-level, my bedroom is below ground, with just a smear of stucco between me and the foundation, and it's delightfully cool in the summer. When all my friends and family complain about how they can't sleep at night because of the heat, I'm still using a big down comforter and a blanket.
Basement can be huge. (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Eventually the rats drove us out
Traps? Poison? "Sticky paper"? Throwing out the garbage?
nuance (Score:2)
Basement Studio (Score:5, Interesting)
Basements are not just for living in, they also make decent studios. Using 3 guitars, a keyboard, a drum machine, and a computer my son created an album in his. And yes, I admit I'm biased but I think it turned out pretty damn well [youtube.com].
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Lisa: I've never heard of these bands, Mom, what kind of music do they play?
Bart: Crap rock?
Marge: No...
Homer: Wuss rock?
Marge: That's it!
Re: (Score:2)
Lisa: I've never heard of these bands, Mom, what kind of music do they play?
Bart: Crap rock?
Marge: No...
Homer: Wuss rock?
Marge: That's it!
Hey, I linked to my favorite track because of the rock opera thing he was shooting for, try this one [youtube.com] for something a little less "wuss".
When did basement dwelling (Score:3, Insightful)
Become such a social stigma and conjure up the typical loser?
Blame Canada (Score:5, Informative)
Believe it or not. . , it's William Shatner's fault.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihsSmJNsDX8 [youtube.com]
I can't seem to find the whole version; probably purged from collective memory due to its being too painful, but this clip gives the general idea. I remember being a teen when that sketch first aired, and it had a devastating effect upon all geeks in every corner of industrialized creation.
Until that fateful SNL routine nobody cared whether you lived underground or not, or at least those who did care never put it into words and certainly not as succinctly as William "Mr. Charisma" Shatner.
-FL
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4513337/William_Shatner_SNL_-_Get_A_Life [thepiratebay.org]
I don't think I will ever understand why SNL goes after video sites. It gives them free advertising, costs them nothing, and it's not like they have an alternative somewhere that they control. It's as if they really don't want people to remember old sketches.
Re: (Score:2)
We don't have basements around here Y'ALL (Score:2)
Back in the 90's I lived in north Texas where the ground is clay for as deep as you can dig. You build your house on a concrete slab. And then you water your foundation, so as the clay doesn't expand and contract from repeated wet/dry cycles. Building a house with a basement is just asking for structural problems. We didn't have kids when we lived there so someone else is going to have to explain where they warehouse the teenage/twenty-something/thirty-something geeks and/or child-molesting misfits. Wh
Re: (Score:2)
You forgot the point about the difficulty of bringing your basement in on a trailer.
Basement for work! (Score:2)
During dotcom days, I worked in a basement. No windows and this was east of Los Angeles, CA, USA. :D
Re: (Score:2)
A little more specific, please? Most of the U.S. is east of Los Angeles. :-)
Re: (Score:2)
Near it. ;) That's all I am saying!
My first out-of-college home.... (Score:2)
My first out-of-college, out-on-my-own home was what a real estate agent would euphemistically refer to as a "garden apartment" in a rather run-down complex.
Ground level was about 4 feet above my floors.
Always damp and somewhat stinky.
In a basement, but not parents... (Score:4, Funny)
Where I live, bedrock is almost surface level... (Score:2)
Since the bedrock is almost at the surface in the area I am, a basement is a very expensive item because of all the digging required.
Instead, what people do is convert a garage, or use a detached as additional living space.
Florida Basements (Score:4, Insightful)
Where I live (Florida), basements are referred to as "indoor swimming pools".
Free AC (Score:5, Insightful)
I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it before. After a few weeks of literally stripping down to shorts living in a room that regularly hit 90 degrees, I discovered that the basement was perpetually at 68.
Haven't come out since.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
My basements have been boring, but (Score:2)
my college friend got #2 in the Vietnam draft lottery, dropped out of college, and went conscientious objector. He got a job as a janitor for the two years in a nursing home and they rented him literally a basement closet in the building for the intermediate ambulatory for $25/month. Stayed over a few nights. There was just free space length and width to roll out a sleeping bag parallel to his bunk. No kitchen or cooking of course and the bathroom was one of the home's public rest rooms or the closer mo
Attics (Score:2)
Some of us prefer attics. A nice view over the neighborhood, a typically larger space, and less dampness are all good benefits.
Well, sorta (Score:2)
Does a half-underground first-floor apartment count? If it helps, it was dank and the local cats liked to *ahem* socialize outside my bedroom window.
Does living in a Cave, count? (Score:3, Interesting)
I spent a week mapping a cave while an undergrad.....
Where is Cowboy Neil (Score:5, Funny)
I'm having trouble filling out the poll.
I haven't lived in a basement for years AND I'm thinking of moving back. I'm trying to check both option but the black dot is too quick for me. How can I slow it down so I can click both? I tried chewing gum but it just wont stick to the dot (the screen is in the way).
If only Cowboy Neil was here to guide me. I have lived in his basement.
Missing option (Score:3, Funny)
and it's the basement of my own home.
I don't have a basement in my house... (Score:3, Funny)
But I stay in one when I'm visiting the in-laws.
Basement, dude! (Score:3, Funny)
Not basement, but attick (Score:3, Informative)
Up until I was 7 years old we lived in an old house with an upstairs attic that had the same floorspace as the two bedrooms combined. You could only get up there with a stepladder. I remember it as this big room that hadn't been decorated in decades so the wallpaper was peeling and the carpet was all torn up. No electricity other than a light. The only furniture was some old mattresses we pulled up there and an ever rotating supply of toys.
Coolest. Den. Ever.
The new owners turned it into a third bedroom. Idiots.
My Basement is My Apartment (Score:3, Interesting)
I am married, two kids, nice house (4BR, 4BA), etc. etc. Unfinished basement. For those who don't know what that is (Aussies, among others), it's the concrete foundation, nothing else. We used it to store junk.
Then my two daughters got older.
I cleaned out the basement, and built my dream apartment. Large home office with a dozen GB ethernet wired ports, wireless router, three PC's, docking station for the work laptop, and a Lord of the Rings shrine. Also in the basement are a gym, large walk-in closet, full bathroom, storage, and a full home theater with kitchenette. All my clothes, toys, brewing equipment, etc. are down there.
The main PC's, server, RAID boxes, etc. all sit in a different room from the office, with patch panels connecting the peripherals from the equipment area into the home office. It's dead silent in the office even with all of the PC's going. I have a wireless transmitter to repeat the satellite radio signal from the outside antenna throughout the basement. In addition to the home theater the gym sports a flat-panel TV with satellite TV and DVR.
I own the decoration of the basement. The wife gets no say. Just as I get no say anywhere else in the house.
The only way you'd know I actually live in the main floor of the house is that I am in the family picture in the living room.
Love my family, but love my apartment too. And they appreciate that I have a place to hide, and have gotten all the electronics out of the rest of the house.
Sweet.
Sometimes, when you grow up, you get to move BACK into the basement.
Re: (Score:2)
I did spend several years in the attic
While growing up my room was the attic. It was only tall enough to stand up in a swath down the center but it was a significant portion of the main house in size. I had over 500 square feet of space.
Re:Attic (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Speaking as somebody from England... (Score:3, Funny)
... what the heck is an "English" basement?!
Did it come with free tea and a couple of gas masks left over from the war?
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I wondered that myself. When I was living there, I never bothered to ask. I assumed it was some kind of euphemism for "illegal basement rental".
Turns out, an "English" basement is a basement where you have an exit. One wall is far enough above ground to have its own exit. This particular one had an exit that you had to walk down pretty far to get to. It did have narrow windows at the top of the other side that let in a tiny bit of light (my "view" was the underside of a porch). As far as EBs go, this