"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 16 Apr 2014 05:48:08 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote:
'Course, I've never lived in a state where basements were a standard
item, either. The few I've been in were mostly cold, damp, and had
a
feeling of closeness. One finished basement I recall was quite low,
7' less beams.
I guess that up there, in the Great White North, you have to build
below the frost level or the foundations are spit up out of the
ground.
In Michigan where I grew up....primarily starting right after WW2..a
lot of young couples built a basement..or the inlaws built them a
nice
tight snug basement and put a decent roof on it..using the stud
patterns needed to build a house above it..and that was often the
wedding present to the young couple.
As they progressed financially, they would build the rest of the
house
above it over time.
This can be tracked with some accuracy by any house in that area of
the country that has a bathroom in the basement..quite often with
tub/shower.
The basements were generally built above ground enough to put
windows
all around at ground level (another tracking trait) and were very
warm, comfy and livable.
You would arrive and find a vehicle parked in front of what looked
like a fish shanty with a long tapered back wall. This was the
entry.
Open the door..often there would be a vestibule for shoes, boots and
coats, with a second door going down a flight of steps to the home
itself. In the winter..this was a bit "odd" to those from outside
the
state.
A lot of those homes had Aladdin Kit Homes put on top of them
(google it) within a few years.
Im totally unable to find any photos of what was once a very..very
common home. Interesting
Gunner
In the Northeast basements may have direct access through a
"bulkhead":
http://www.callstevens.com/doors_bulkhead.htm
I grew up in a brick and stone house built in 1830 that had one,
possibly original. Hardly anything had been changed in that house
since the 1920's. In winter someone had to get up at 3AM to stoke the
coal furnace.
An engineer I worked for began his house with only the basement. The
toilet was on a home-made elevator that raised it to the ceiling to
flush it.
jsw