Attic requires going up one of those weird pull-down staircases or climbing a ladder. And walking across beams so you don’t fall through. I’ll take the basement any day.
@kostia Similar here. Attic has pull-down stairs, but also a light switch that turns on a half-dozen bulbs, and permanent wood flooring, so not bad, but still not climate controlled, and not tall enough to walk around without ducking.
Basement, on the other hand is finished and where my office is that I go to everyday. No competition there.
@kostia@smyle Similar here - finished walk-out basement but only an access hatch to the attic and no stairs, lights or walkways. The last time I was in the attic was to run ethernet cables while the house was still under construction. Who knows what nasties lurk there now.
No basement, but a crawl space. Ugh, no thanks. Yeah, that’s where the sump pump is. Is it still working? I sure hope so, cause I’m not going down there to check.
I live in the basement of a house and it’s pretty great especially without all you basement haters!
Plus when I was a baby my bedroom had attic access and my parents told me that a bat flew out of the attic(trying to kill me no doubt) and my dad fearlessly killed it with a flip flop. So boo to attics!
Basement is finished and quite comfortable. My cats keep any spiders at bay, tho I have a live and let live policy with almost all spiders, since they kill mosquitoes and other flies.
Getting to attic would require breaking and entering unit of people who live above me, so not a good idea.
Attic, by a wide margin, and I don’t even have a basement. I’d much rather walk down some stairs into a big open room with a solid concrete floor than contort myself around roof trusses and A/C ducts, while also making sure not to step through the ceiling.
The attic requires a ladder, and it’s a small opening, so it’s tough to store anything up there. It’s a large space though, if I could figure out decent access I should do something with it someday.
Haven’t been up there in years.
The cellar is half concrete, half dirt and is about 1/4 the size of the house. The rest is crawl space, or no space. Access is lifting the plywood hatch, and awkwardly working around insufficient footing to get to the head of the stairs that are pointing the wrong way, otherwise the first step is 3-4 feet, and it’s a doozey. (At some time it was an outside entrance.)
It gets used for storage, accessed every month or two. No problem with light, two very bright LED bulbs. Now I just need to get around to installing the smart switch.
I don’t have a basement now, and I’m glad. The house I grew up in had an incredibly scary basement. I don’t ever want another house with a basement; they scare me, especially the ones in old houses that remind me of the one from my childhood.
@lisagd I saw the basement under the house where my father grew up (built in the 1880s), so I know what you mean. Stone walls, low-hanging beams, next to no lighting…
@lisagd@werehatrack
My friends old house was an old farmhouse from around that time and the basement was accessed from boards in the closet. It was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. A true Michigan basement. You lifted up the floor boards in the closet and there was a ladder that went straight down to a very small room with low ceiling. I reminded me of a torture chamber bc you could totally lock your bad kid down there for days and nobody would know. It was really creepy.
@werehatrack Yes! Don’t forget the spiders/cobwebs and all the dark nooks and crannies where monsters could be hiding. The stairs in my basement ended right next to the furnace, which always seemed to switch on when I was next to it. No wonder I was afraid to go down there.
@Star2236@werehatrack Me either. We didn’t get tornadoes in Maryland until recently, and they’re still uncommon, so we don’t have tornado-shelter basements.
No attic in any house I’ve lived in, they’ve all had basements. When I was a teen my room was in the basement for a short bit before I got kicked out (was a bad kid) but I loved the dark and cool to sleep in.
The hatch to my attic is bizarrely positioned above the midpoint of the stairs to my basement, with no pull-down steps. You have to somehow prop a ladder on the stairs and then push the hatch in, and in there it’s only about 4’ at the highest point. Only two people have gone up there since we moved here, and I was terrified that they’d fall since the ladder was so precarious. Who the hell thought that was a good idea?
House built in the 40s, added on to, but this is part of the original design.
Basement is semi-finished but not too bad; it holds the washer and dryer and storage.
TL;DR: Attic is far worse!
@Kyeh one of the Werner or little giant ladders where you can set one side longer than the other might help there. Still I would not bother going up there.
@unksol Thanks, that’s a good idea. I can’t remember what my friend went up to check the first time - seeing if there’s a roof leak, maybe? The second time it was a guy getting rid of squirrels who’d invaded that attic. So unless I have to deal with anything like that again, nobody’s going up there!
@Kyeh pretty much why I need to go up. There is a stain showing in one bedroom. Roof is wearing out. There have been been squirrels.
Attic can be handy to drop wire runs. They ran some crappy plastic ducts that could have broke or been chewed through. Insulated ones would be better. But these type of attics aren’t meant to go into regularly
@dontwantaname my grandma’s house the pull down steps were good and in the upstairs hallway. And there was actually some space up there. I’m sure we were not supposed to but I can’t say we never did lol
Attic. Basement is a walkout/I spend half a day down there at work.
Attic. Need the ladder, youd need a mask cause blown insulation, a headlamp, need knee pads and boards to span the studs and crawl along, make sure you don’t get a nail in the back, and might have to fight a squirrel.
I really do need to get up there though, keep putting it off
@Kyeh it’s a true attic. Roof is steep pitch and the upstairs bedrooms have knee walls. So it’s not meant to have space. More like a crawl space vs a basement. I have thought about putting plywood down the center so you could crawl through to check stuff. Run some cable.
@spacemart Asbestos= Fireproof but also Asbestos = Mesothelioma (at least that’s what all of those lawsuit commercials say) So I’m not sure if it’s worth the trade off?
@sicc574@spacemart as long as it’s correctly installed and wrapped up it’s actually not a problem. Usually. If it gets loose it is like from squirrels nawing. If you go to tear it out you want a resperator/suit etc. Sometimes its best to leave it.
Those can both be manageable, but a crawl space is evidently called that because it is crawling with bugs/spiders/roaches/millipedes and all sorts of other vermin… plus is usually damp and dark, with lots of loose insulation hanging down where the freaking animals have pulled it down to make nests and shit.
so yeah… crawl space FTW.
This is the basement in our 1905 farmhouse in the woods. My husband has lived here 30 years, me 10. I grew up in CA, this is the place nightmares are made of. I refuse to go down there. It’s his, dirt floor, the mess, broken hand rail and all.
@Dakini
lately the f’in spiders OUTSIDE have taken to dropping webs across every open space that I walk thru in the yard! Damn orb weavers and argiopes are driving me batshit crazy. I come home at night from work about 2330 and have to wave my arms around like an idiot as I walk down the walkway from the drive to the front door…
All I can think off is this old Far Side:
Basement. I don’t have a basement, so a chore that would require me to go the my basement would also require me to dig one first…
@shahnm
Likewise!
@shahnm Same here. But at least it’s theoretically possible to dig one in this area. Back in Miami, you’d just be digging an under-house pond.
@shahnm Hand up (without a shovel), also.
@shahnm @werehatrack I hear an inground indoor pool is expensive
Not matter where you go … there will be spiders
Basements tend to be moist. That makes them a no go.
he he he he
he he he he
you said moist
he he he he
@hchavers Not out here in the desert. If it’s moist, I’ve got a plumbing problem.
@hchavers
Every once in a while you just have to see who’s tapping that star!
Lol
Attics are always hot and nasty. No way. Basements at least have a chance of being liveable
Basement. The attic in my house has been converted into an apartment, so it’s nice. The basement is a under,-lit horror full of spiders.
@Tripod2 Same on both counts. I’ve never once gone into my basement and not gotten at least one black widow bite.
Attic requires going up one of those weird pull-down staircases or climbing a ladder. And walking across beams so you don’t fall through. I’ll take the basement any day.
@katbyter If you do fall through the attic, you might end up in the basement and cover both bases…
My attic has pull-down stairs and one light bulb. My basement has a TV room furnished specifically so I can call it the Ottoman Empire. No contest.
@kostia
Winner, winner,
dinner!
@kostia Similar here. Attic has pull-down stairs, but also a light switch that turns on a half-dozen bulbs, and permanent wood flooring, so not bad, but still not climate controlled, and not tall enough to walk around without ducking.
Basement, on the other hand is finished and where my office is that I go to everyday. No competition there.
@kostia @smyle Similar here - finished walk-out basement but only an access hatch to the attic and no stairs, lights or walkways. The last time I was in the attic was to run ethernet cables while the house was still under construction. Who knows what nasties lurk there now.
No basement, but a crawl space. Ugh, no thanks. Yeah, that’s where the sump pump is. Is it still working? I sure hope so, cause I’m not going down there to check.
No basement, so I don’t have to go there.
Attic is 3 feet deep in itchy crap.
I live in the basement of a house and it’s pretty great especially without all you basement haters!
Plus when I was a baby my bedroom had attic access and my parents told me that a bat flew out of the attic(trying to kill me no doubt) and my dad fearlessly killed it with a flip flop. So boo to attics!
@sicc574 And missed your chance to be a vampire.
@blaineg That’s okay with me. I would of probably of had to be one of those new Twilight-ish vamos and that’s just too much glitter for me…
Basement is finished and quite comfortable. My cats keep any spiders at bay, tho I have a live and let live policy with almost all spiders, since they kill mosquitoes and other flies.
Getting to attic would require breaking and entering unit of people who live above me, so not a good idea.
Yes
Attic, by a wide margin, and I don’t even have a basement. I’d much rather walk down some stairs into a big open room with a solid concrete floor than contort myself around roof trusses and A/C ducts, while also making sure not to step through the ceiling.
The attic requires a ladder, and it’s a small opening, so it’s tough to store anything up there. It’s a large space though, if I could figure out decent access I should do something with it someday.
Haven’t been up there in years.
The cellar is half concrete, half dirt and is about 1/4 the size of the house. The rest is crawl space, or no space. Access is lifting the plywood hatch, and awkwardly working around insufficient footing to get to the head of the stairs that are pointing the wrong way, otherwise the first step is 3-4 feet, and it’s a doozey. (At some time it was an outside entrance.)
It gets used for storage, accessed every month or two. No problem with light, two very bright LED bulbs. Now I just need to get around to installing the smart switch.
I don’t have a basement now, and I’m glad. The house I grew up in had an incredibly scary basement. I don’t ever want another house with a basement; they scare me, especially the ones in old houses that remind me of the one from my childhood.
@lisagd I saw the basement under the house where my father grew up (built in the 1880s), so I know what you mean. Stone walls, low-hanging beams, next to no lighting…
@lisagd @werehatrack
My friends old house was an old farmhouse from around that time and the basement was accessed from boards in the closet. It was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. A true Michigan basement. You lifted up the floor boards in the closet and there was a ladder that went straight down to a very small room with low ceiling. I reminded me of a torture chamber bc you could totally lock your bad kid down there for days and nobody would know. It was really creepy.
@lisagd @Star2236 That kind was often built as a tornado shelter. I’ve heard of them before.
@lisagd @werehatrack
I didn’t know that.
@Star2236 @werehatrack Oh, that sounds creepy AF. It doesn’t sound very convenient to use, either (not that i would).
@werehatrack Yes! Don’t forget the spiders/cobwebs and all the dark nooks and crannies where monsters could be hiding.
The stairs in my basement ended right next to the furnace, which always seemed to switch on when I was next to it. No wonder I was afraid to go down there.
@Star2236 @werehatrack Me either. We didn’t get tornadoes in Maryland until recently, and they’re still uncommon, so we don’t have tornado-shelter basements.
No attic in any house I’ve lived in, they’ve all had basements. When I was a teen my room was in the basement for a short bit before I got kicked out (was a bad kid) but I loved the dark and cool to sleep in.
The hatch to my attic is bizarrely positioned above the midpoint of the stairs to my basement, with no pull-down steps. You have to somehow prop a ladder on the stairs and then push the hatch in, and in there it’s only about 4’ at the highest point. Only two people have gone up there since we moved here, and I was terrified that they’d fall since the ladder was so precarious. Who the hell thought that was a good idea?
House built in the 40s, added on to, but this is part of the original design.
Basement is semi-finished but not too bad; it holds the washer and dryer and storage.
TL;DR: Attic is far worse!
@Kyeh one of the Werner or little giant ladders where you can set one side longer than the other might help there. Still I would not bother going up there.
@unksol Thanks, that’s a good idea. I can’t remember what my friend went up to check the first time - seeing if there’s a roof leak, maybe? The second time it was a guy getting rid of squirrels who’d invaded that attic. So unless I have to deal with anything like that again, nobody’s going up there!
@Kyeh pretty much why I need to go up. There is a stain showing in one bedroom. Roof is wearing out. There have been been squirrels.
Attic can be handy to drop wire runs. They ran some crappy plastic ducts that could have broke or been chewed through. Insulated ones would be better. But these type of attics aren’t meant to go into regularly
Attic. Pull down steps are a pia.
@dontwantaname my grandma’s house the pull down steps were good and in the upstairs hallway. And there was actually some space up there. I’m sure we were not supposed to but I can’t say we never did lol
Attic. Basement is a walkout/I spend half a day down there at work.
Attic. Need the ladder, youd need a mask cause blown insulation, a headlamp, need knee pads and boards to span the studs and crawl along, make sure you don’t get a nail in the back, and might have to fight a squirrel.
I really do need to get up there though, keep putting it off
@unksol Your attic sounds almost as bad as mine!
@Kyeh it’s a true attic. Roof is steep pitch and the upstairs bedrooms have knee walls. So it’s not meant to have space. More like a crawl space vs a basement. I have thought about putting plywood down the center so you could crawl through to check stuff. Run some cable.
both are full of asbestos but the attic is far worse
@spacemart Asbestos= Fireproof but also Asbestos = Mesothelioma (at least that’s what all of those lawsuit commercials say) So I’m not sure if it’s worth the trade off?
@sicc574 @spacemart as long as it’s correctly installed and wrapped up it’s actually not a problem. Usually. If it gets loose it is like from squirrels nawing. If you go to tear it out you want a resperator/suit etc. Sometimes its best to leave it.
Those can both be manageable, but a crawl space is evidently called that because it is crawling with bugs/spiders/roaches/millipedes and all sorts of other vermin… plus is usually damp and dark, with lots of loose insulation hanging down where the freaking animals have pulled it down to make nests and shit.
so yeah… crawl space FTW.
This is the basement in our 1905 farmhouse in the woods. My husband has lived here 30 years, me 10. I grew up in CA, this is the place nightmares are made of. I refuse to go down there. It’s his, dirt floor, the mess, broken hand rail and all.
@Dakini
At least you can stand up down there!
(see crawl space above)
@chienfou If you want to get a head full of spider webs! lol ok ok, it’s only THAT bad in spots, but sometimes you accidentally find that spot.
@chienfou I don’t like crawl spaces either, they are pretty nasty too.
@Dakini
lately the f’in spiders OUTSIDE have taken to dropping webs across every open space that I walk thru in the yard! Damn orb weavers and argiopes are driving me batshit crazy. I come home at night from work about 2330 and have to wave my arms around like an idiot as I walk down the walkway from the drive to the front door…
All I can think off is this old Far Side:
@chienfou OH, spider webs in the face in the middle of the night…no fun.