How imortant is a basement!?

We own a house with a full (unfinished) basement now and it is basically a storage dump ( )

A house we are looking at in my dream school district has no basement...
BUT has an attached garage. The backyard is about 4 times the size of our backyard right now so we could have a pretty decent size shed out back and not feel like we are taking up too much space...

so my thinking is that we use the attached garage like our basement (storage) and the shed for our garage (more storage) and we wouldn't miss the basement...

thoughts?!?!?

I feel the better SD trumps the no basement...am I nuts???

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

i think as long as it has an attic for storage you should be fine without a basement!

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

how big is the rest of the house? my house is small, but we finished the basement and it makes all the difference for us, esp with the kids toys...if the house was large then i might be able to get by not having one..hth

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

I grew up in a house without a basement, we had a large garage, shed & big attic. None of the homes in our neighborhood had basements. It was fine. We have a basement now & no garage. I think I'd rather have a garage & my ideal location.

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

I agree that SD is very important. As long as you have the space you need in the house, garage, etc., you won't miss the basement. Plus you never have to worry about water in your basement. Last year when we had all that rain, basements that had never flooded before were flooding...What a mess that must be!

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

SD trumps the basement, but I waited for both. I have a great district and a basement. I wouldn't buy a house without one. I had to forgo a formal dining room and a few other things, but we wouldn't even look for houses without basements.

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

I would wait for both.

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

We bought a house without a basement.....We have tons of other storage. I don't miss it and it keeps us from keeping too much junk. Most of the houses in our neighborhood do not have basements

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

For me, no basement would be a dealbreaker. Ours is finished and we could not live without the extra living space.

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

You have to ask yourself...is this a forever home? Is there enough living/storage space? Will there be enough living/storage space when the kids get older?

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

This was our exact scenario, and we bought w/o a basement. Very few of the homes in our area have basements. We have a large attic, garage, and large shed. I do wish we had a garage for storage space (it's hard to get into the attic), but I do not regret our purchase. SD totally trumps basement IMO.

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

I saw houses without it and we realized it was a must have very quickly. we currently have an unfinished basement and we would not be able to pull our cars in the garage if we didn't have it And we don't even have kids yet. I just like it for the storage. eventually I would like to finish it off and make some of it storage and the rest a playroom when we have kids. DH doesn't want to finish it off at all. I think he enjoys just dumping his stuff down there. either way, I like the storage space. I have never lived in a house without one, and I just can't imagine living without one.

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

Basement for sure. SD is under the assumption that the buyers have kids or even considered SD. Many people buy homes on looks compared to those who actually research SD.

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

No basement was a dealbreaker for DH, which is ironic because we bought a house with an unfinished one and 2+ years later it's still unfinished . We do have a lot of stuff down there though.

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

I grew up without a basement and own a house without one. You can't miss what you never had. Our house does have a decent but limited amount of storage space (attic, garage, closets) which is fine because I'd rather be very selective about what to buy/keep as opposed to storing lots of stuff.

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

I guess the basement deal for us depended on the size of the house. We ended up buying a much smaller house than other homes we were looking at. Without the basement we would have never bought this place but because we plan on fixing it up and turning into extra living space it was a deal breaker on this one. We also live in a good school SD. We only looked in neighborhoods with good SD's so it was never up for debate.

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

i think a basement is a must! we entertain in ours a lot! and we have plenty of other storage as well and im still glad to have a basement!....i would wait and try to get both basement and SD---u r spending a lot of money-im sure u can find both!
wanted to add, that we did look at houses w/o basements and even put a bid on them! im so glad that those houses didn't work out!-i say this all the time!

some things i also don't like to store in my garage/shed--so i like having the basement for storage as well

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

I've never had a basement so I don't know what we are missing - I could definitely see one being useful for storage or even as more living space though. If we decided to ever move we would probably look for a house with a basement, although it wouldn't be the be all end all , KWIM?

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

if you dont utilize the basement now as a living space, then you wont miss it when you dont have one.
go for it!

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

We just sold our house (which doesn't have a basement) because we wanted a house with a basement. We were in one of the top school districts on the island.

We wanted a basement mainly because we don't want our son's toys on the main floor. We want him to have a playspace without having to worry if it happens to get a little messy from time to time.

We have purchased a brand new house, (also in a great SD) so we will have to finish the basement. In addition to a playroom, we will also have an office and an exercise room down there. I can't wait to do it, because it will increase our living space BIG TIME!!

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

must have for us! DH would never be able to live in a house where the garage was used for storage! It would kill him to keep the car(s)outside all the time!!

Re: How imortant is a basement!?

I need a basement, but that's just me. Does it have a crawl space that you can use for storage? Or an attic? My MIL's house doesn't have a basement but she does have a crawl space.