Downsizing the family home

[barkley]

It's truly something that's regional in the US:

interesting-it shows my state as slab but it's got a wealth of basements. what i realy found surprising looking at homes here was the difference in what is considered a 'crawl space' vs. what i grew up with in california. in california a crawl space was literally that-something you had to get on your belly and crawl into, here it can be something akin to what we have which is 6' high (and wired with a light and outlets) so it can't qualify as basement but is sure much more user friendly for anyone needing access below the house (and doubling as spectacular storage).

 

[soccerdad72]

interesting-it shows my state as slab but it's got a wealth of basements. what i realy found surprising looking at homes here was the difference in what is considered a 'crawl space' vs. what i grew up with in california. in california a crawl space was literally that-something you had to get on your belly and crawl into, here it can be something akin to what we have which is 6' high (and wired with a light and outlets) so it can't qualify as basement but is sure much more user friendly for anyone needing access below the house (and doubling as spectacular storage).

We have what’s considered a crawl space in our lake house. It’s one or two courses short of being tall enough to finish it. We use it for storage and I can stand up down there, as long as I’m in between the beams (I’m 5’ 9”). Not sure why they didn’t just build up a little bit more, but I assume they couldn’t dig any lower due to the water table.

We have a full finished basement in our primary home - pretty much all houses around us have basements.