Hellobee Boards

@REESE: Yup! Homes without basements aren't valued as high and tougher to sell. It's not very often there are homes without them; the majority were built in the war time. The newer ones without are built with either a crawl space or just a slab (usually '50's builds). We live in Canada, Manitoba to be exact

@MrsH: Where do you live? Curious if you're similar climate/location/soil type.

@Bao: Where you are is it common to have the basement fully finished and very livable - virtually doubling your living space or more so for storage?

@Bao: No one has one here! I always see them on HGTV and I want one lol

It's uncommon to not have basements here either! Looks like that's true across the Canadian bees? We're in the west coast

I want Scott McGillivray to come and turn ours into a pretty one like in HGTV. LOL

@babyjmama:  "backwoods rednecks out on our porch drinking beer watching the storms" only those who live in tornado alley can truely appreciate a good storm.

It's rare to find a house or apartment building that doesn't have a basement or storm cellar.

We have our family room, office, 2ND bathroom,& laundry in our basement. It's good for more than just storm shelter ;–)

@lolabee: Michigan. Basements here are more extensions of the house. We have a lot of walkouts in our neighborhood.

Normally yes we do, but we live in the country where the water table is very high so we are unable to have a basement. We do have a crawlspace where we can put our water heater, water softener, and that kind of stuff. I do not go down there though cause I always think there are mice down there. Yucky!