On Monday, April 4, 2016 at 4:55:38 PM UTC-4, wrote:
> On Mon, 04 Apr 2016 13:15:14 -0600, Janet B >
> wrote:
>
> >On Mon, 4 Apr 2016 09:42:28 -0700 (PDT), Cindy Hamilton
> > wrote:
> >
> >>On Monday, April 4, 2016 at 10:46:06 AM UTC-4, Janet B
> >>wrote:
> >>> the basement under the house where I grew up was a scary place that
> >>> children didn't want to go. It was lit by a light bulb in each room.
> >>> You had to be brave to travel to the center of the room and pull the
> >>> string to light the bulb. Various rooms wandered off in different
> >>> directions. All rooms were rough made and obviously meant for storage
> >>> and such. There were the rooms that were coal bins in the winter
> >>> (coal came in through the window.) There was the furnace room, eerily
> >>> lit by flickering flames only in winter, otherwise totally dark. It
> >>> was a very cold place because the outdoor access was cement stairs
> >>> covered by a drop down wooden lid. This kind of basement was very
> >>> common in older houses in the upper mid-west.
> >>> Janet US
> >>
> >>If my grandparents were still alive, I'd compliment
> >>them on their posh basement. Interior stairs,
> >>natural gas heat, and a small play room for me.
> >>
> >>This was the 1960s in the Detroit suburbs.
> >>
> >>Cindy Hamilton
> >
> >I didn't know anyone who lived in a house like that. I imagine I
> >would have seen something like that out in the newer neighborhoods.
> >I'm guessing my house was at least 100 years old when I lived there.
> >Janet US
>
> Certainly the ones I referred to here with bare basements were at
> least in that age group. In the early 80s I did a basement finish on
> a house then nearing 150 and put in a little apartment. Worked
> wonderfully, student in the winter months, gone in late April then we
> could use it for summer visitors, best of both worlds.

Very few houses hereabouts are that old, since Michigan was settled
primarily in the mid-1800s. The vast majority of houses here are
post WWII--5 out of every 6 houses were built after 1940.

Nevertheless, bare basements are commonplace. DH and I think people
who finish basements in our specific locale are fools, because the
clay soil makes for water trouble.

Cindy Hamilton