Basements are skeevy?

When I was growing up visiting my grandmother every couple of years who had a basement it just grossed me out. It smelled, it was damp and so dark. So a basement is out of the question when it ever comes to shopping for a home for myself.

Why do you like your basement so much? Do you have any issues with yours like my grandmother had with hers?

One thing that I may like about having one. It would make a great home theater room...

Re: Basements are skeevy?

I have to say- I made the HUGE mistake of buying a house with no basement.

WORST mistake ever. I would never ever ever buy a house without one again.

A basement is amazing for extra storage, living space etc.
I'm not a huge fan of musty old scary cellars, but we are CHOKING for storage space.
I have nowhere to store Christmas decorations, off season clothes, etc.

I'd KILL for a basement- skeevy or not.

Message edited 6/16/2011 3:47:54 PM.

Re: Basements are skeevy?

MY basement now... yes skeevy, dark, cold... and unfinished...

my basement growing up... the same as any other floor in the house

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Growing up I didnt like our basement because during the summer there would be crickets.

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I'm like you.

We have a big finished basement. I've been down there twice, I think.

I have no interest. It's underground and there's like no sunlight. Not my thing.

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My basement growing up was awesome, beautifully finsihed and had a full bathroom.

Now, it's not finished. It's two sides - the laundry/tool/oil tank/extra refrigerator side - and the other side is DH's workout area - the Bowflex etc.

Yes, it's unfinished, but I don't think it's skeevy.

The next house will not have a basement though.

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I have an awesome wood shop in half my basement. I don't have a garage, but even if I did, I wouldn't keep most of my tools in there. With the basement, I have roughly 500 s/f of uninterrupted space for shelves, table saw, workbench, drill press, projects, etc.

The other half of the basement has storage, laundry area, and weight room.

Re: Basements are skeevy?

Our finished basement was one of the big selling points for us. Unfortunately, we had some serious rain damage recently and had to pull up all the carpeting. We are in the process of tackling the water issues and will be re-finishing as soon as possible.

The reason we love the basement is because we live in a ranch with small bedrooms. So the finished basement will be our comfy, tv, hang-out, room. And when we have kids, it'll be the play room.

Also, we have a big family with lots of nieces/nephews and I like the idea of letting the kids play downstairs while the adults hang upstairs in the kitchen/living room.

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No matter how bad, cluttered, etc., I am thankful, I have a basement, to go to when we have tornado warnings!!! Mary

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Our house has a finished basement where we watch tv. It's awesome!

It should add that it's split into a few rooms -
- huge tv room
- guest room
- laundry/utility room
- play room

Message edited 6/16/2011 4:13:38 PM.

Re: Basements are skeevy?

I think it depends on where you live... how finished the basement is, and how clean you keep it.

I know my husband would never have moved into a place w/o a basement / MAN CAVE

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DH refinished to theater - hang out area... He did a great job but basements are just not my thing and next time around I DO NOT want one...

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Growing up I had a full finished basement complete with a full bar, juke box, entertainment unit, and half bathroom. It was the party and hang-out place in my house.

Now, our basement is finished, but no where near what I'd like it to be. It is carpeted, painted and has drop panel ceilings, but there's a lot we still want to do with it.

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Well as long as you don't have leaking issues - and you take care of your basement - most furnished basements are fine. Sometimes you have to run a humidifier to keep it from being damp but as long as you do you will have no issues.

We have been to homes that have fabulous basements and those that haven't been well cared for. And everything in between. A great basement can be a great thing to have - game room, play room, movie room etc. I would never rule out having one - but you just want to check it out.

Re: Basements are skeevy?

growing up, our basement was dark , cold & freaked me out a lot... never flooded though.

dh's basement growing up flooded all the time- they couldn't even place boxes on the ground just in case it was going to rain.

idk, if I want one or not in my next house.

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Our basement is finished, we have it set up like a living room with couches, books, tv, ect. It is carpeted and warm, no bugs so it doesnt skeeve me out. Just darker than the upstairs!

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i have no issues with water in my basement (except when someone let a sock fall into the slop sink and it overflowed from laundry water) but other than that there is no dampness down here. We pretty much live most of our time in this basement. it's where we eat dinner while watching t.v...play games and use our computers. We are putting down new pergo floors and painting the walls to update it because its very outdated from when we bought it (wood panel looking sheetrock and 2 tone checkerboard asbestos tile) but once we update it this room will also be where our baby can play. I can't imagine NOT having this extra living space. our basement is split in half...half is living area and the other is laundry room / storage.

Message edited 6/16/2011 8:34:05 PM.

Re: Basements are skeevy?

I didn't have a basement growing up. I didn't have one in my first house. My second house is a raised ranch, so its kinda of a basement (half above ground - walkout to garage) and finished. We spend ALOT of time down there.

The house we are in contract has a huge unfinished basement that I can't wait to finish. We are putting in a bathroom, bar area, playroom and tv area.

I love having a basement - as long as its dry and done nicely you shouldn't even feel like you are in a basement.

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I have had a house with and without. A house with no basement is a pain IMO. You lose out on so much storage space. There are certain things I just don't want to put in the attic and if we didn't have a basement I have no idea where we would put this stuff.

Last year I made the mistake of storing all of my Christmas stuff in the attic and ALL of my candles melted. I just didn;t think of it when we packed everything up in January. This year everything went in the basement.

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we have a finished basemetn carpeted etc. just used for storage and laundry. I don't like basements and wouldn't use it for living space. if when the kids get older and want the space for video games etc, they can have it

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The main reason I like to have one is you can see what's going on, pipe leaks, wood rot etc. It's added storage space and you can finish it

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idk why, but basements are scary to me. We have one and it is unfinished and are in the process of finishing it to make it additional living space but I prefer the extra living space we have on the 3rd floor. There is plenty of light there. So for me, there is a skeevy factor.

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A basement was an absolute must on our list when we bought our house.

I was always scared of basements, not really skeeved. Growing up we at first had an ugly creepy basement, then it was finished as a hang out room for me am my sisters. I was only scared to go down there cause of the occasional spider!

We just finished our basement in January, ceramic tile, bar, dart board, 55" TV couches and lots of extra space for our future kids to play. It is a great extra living space!!!

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Ours is fnished and has a bathroom. Awesome for the kids to play in. My husband has his man cave on the other side. Not smelly, not damp