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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- I NEVER use the basement feature in this game lol
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Basements in Sims 4 feel so scary with that black void around it
So true. it would be better if instead of a black void, there was perhaps a grainy, earthlike texture. You could even have different textures in different worlds.
Yess, I once used a basement but when I got aware of the dark void around it I just don’t feel comfortable anymore
Yess! Never use basements in the sims they feel so out out place and the black void is definitely creepy! 😅
I actually just made a “three” story house but I lowered it until the first story was underground. You have to alt place plants to cover the gap, but I had the basement lead out to the backyard. You could skip that step, and not have to worry about the black void!
Eeee- They dooo
For those who don’t get the pool mesh walls, Just imagine a really big mesh tent over top of your pool to keep bugs out.
North America has way more insect life than the UK or Europe. The screens are mostly to keep mosquitos out, but it's a happy accident that it also keeps out flies, yellow jackets, and palmetto bugs. The only real downside to having the screen cage dealy is that if there's a hail storm, you're boned.
I picture mosquito proofing...I think most places get that. ;)
I can't imagine who can't picture it.
@Away I couldn't! I'm not from an area where pools are even common so I didn't even know this was a thing
in florida, the mesh around pools is often specifically to keep gators out and i am not kidding lol
Generally, if you have a basement it is separated by a door because you don't want to waste energy heating and cooling it. Also, if it is humid, you don't want that humidity creeping into the living space more than necessary.
Especially if the basement was initially left unfinished, and might not even “exist” on the floor plans sent to the House Bank with the loan application. In reality, most are at least a bit more finished than my sister-in-law’s parents’ basement however, as he didn’t have the area excavated until 20-30 years later-using explosives under the house!
When your furnace and water heater are in the basement, it get heated as a side effect. There was no door to the basement when I was a kid. It was out Winter playroom. So, keeping it warm was not an option. Then, it was not humid down there.
german houses are insulated very well, we don't have a door. Usually it is about 19 degrees all year around in the basement. In many houses you can find additional living space.
and then ther is my house.... made in the 70's where the stair is separated not from a wall but from wooden pannel like a fancy fance....separated visually only XD...
@@francesca5295 I've seen that myself.
Main entry door set just in front of the stairs to the basement, living room opening to the left. Carpeted stairs down. No door at the bottom of the stairs. Four steps up to the kitchen-dining room. Only a fancy decorative railing between the stairs and the living room and between the kitchen and the living room.
imagine activating all the emotional auras in the basement
an emotional rollercoaster of sim's memories
Look I don't play the sims to make them suffer like me
@@reaverkai no? haha
@@rees3spuffs it's too much like real life and I play to live dreams vicariously thru them
Emotion overload. Then at least one Sim dies 😂
The basement is just one more set of stairs to navigate. 😂
True Lmao.🤣
That’s what they said when they built every single house in Florida
@@reyrats lol!
we lived in a house that had three platforms you had to navigate to get from the living room to the family room and then a ten stair flight down to the basement. My grandma was trying to get from her room to the bathroom down two platforms, took a wrong turn and ended up at the bottom of the basement stairs. needless to say we moved out of that house asap. that house was a deathtrap at night
i love them because i find building roofs on 2 story houses really hard haha
this made me imagine an old couple. like the grandad who likes to play chess and watch films in the basement and the grandma who is in to gardening and reading on the porch I want to cry this reminds me so much of my grandparents house
i’m from somewhere where basements are pretty common, and i have pretty much only seen basement stairs behind a door. it’s also worth noting that basements vary a lot, from being beautiful living spaces or even bedrooms to completely unfinished concrete boxes. for some basement inspo, the house i grew up in had our laundry in the basement and we also used it as like a kids spot, with like video games and toys. it was pretty much completely unfinished though, there were even nails sticking out of the ceiling.
Yeah our basement changed a ton throughout the years. But now it’s sort of like a studio apartment, just without a kitchen. My grandpa stays down there now, but before it was a game room with an air hockey table where the kids should hang out, but they also kept the alcohol down there 🤸
My entire childhood our basement has been storage, heating center and laundry room + shower(yes, we don’t have a shower in the upstairs bathroom. it’s been broken for as long as I can remember)
Unfinished Winter playroom, unfinished furnace room with my father's 15+' long work table, about finished laundry room with a 12' long folding table almost twice as large than the living room added later and a barely functional second toilet with a shower that never got to be functional and no sink (just the plumbing for the planned sink). You don't want to use a shower that have unpainted dry walls and a rough concrete base that make the roughest sand paper feel like silk.
in my 19th century childhood house, the basement was basically just,,, a cellar? I guess? like there were just shelves with preserves on it, the stairs were stupidly dangerous, and it was very, very badly lit. Oh, and it was pretty humid and dusty too.
Anyways, the entrance was through a door under the stairs, and it was only ever used as a cellar or long term storage for things that wouldn't mind the humidity, and anything like tools and such were kept in the... not really a shed but kind of (walled off on theee sides, with a half-wall on the other, and a metal sheet roof lmao).
@@tora9989 that sounds like my house rofl our upstairs bathroom was basically abandoned for years once the toilet broke
A lot of old homes in the US built before refrigeration would have the basement stairs off from the kitchen (or near it) because it served as a cellar for cold storage. If it wasn't in the house, then the entrance would be outside, usually with storm doors. The "basement" I grew up with as a kid was the latter and basically just a dirt cave under the house where the old furnace was located (it burned on oil!).
Root cellars! They were made that way to preserve all your potatoes and beets and turnips, for all the reasons you explained, they were basically "refrigerators" for veggies and preserves.
I'm swedish but have a similar basement to the one you had as a kid! Oil tank and all, haha. It's very short, but quite cute!
My house is both, it's 156yrs
I think the "I hate when the rooms are dark" thing might be a holdover from the Sims 3, where you sims could notice if your build wasn't finished and/or didn't have lights and got really, really upset about it.
Do sims in the sims 4 not care?
@Joelle they do. At least they notice the lack of wallpapers and floorings. Idk about the lighting
@@pnckd7299 They don't care about lighting, but they do care about the drywall. They don't care about the default flooring IME
LOL the one wall always missed somehow when using shift to paint walls quicker and they have the sassy moodlet letting you know their disappointment is immeasurable and their day is ruined 😔😔 also I remember the dark moodlet too I miss those little details, its so strange that something that 4th wall breaking in a way can be a nostalgic memory where as if I tried to compare that reaction to surroundings vs the sims 4 interior design tastes, it feels kind of flat and cookie cutter in what you expect of them. Sims sorta felt real and unpredictable in older games, its cool we all kind of get similar vibes/carry those funny memories and note that, I was thinking about it too! (^oh and no shade on sims 4 at all when I was giving comparison btw its fun and I love the franchise and each game for different reasons X3)
I skipped Sims 3, but I hate dark builds in Sims 4 because I play on a laptop and my brightness is often low to preserve battery. My Sims don’t care if it is dark, but I genuinely cannot see what I am clicking on lol.
Playing off the grid before I got Outdoor Retreat (it has lanterns/bright off the grid lighting) was totally fine for my Sims, but miserable for me. 😂
Here in Canada every house has a basement, and every basement has a room called the cold room. It legit looks like a place you would hide a body, lol. It' so weird, but a lot of people use it for storing sauces, and jars with foods in it, or other things. It's generally unfinished, even if the basement itself is finished, so it has no insulation, just bare concrete walls and floor. It is pretty useful though, especially in the winter as you can use it a fridge if it's cold enough.
My grandma's basement has a room like that here in the us. She has a deep freezer in it and a lot of dry food storage.
I'm from Canada and every house I've ever lived in had a basement, as did all my friends houses, and I've never seen a "cold room" in my life. So that's not EVERY basement in Canada, maybe just where you live?
@@braveatheart it’s possible it’s just where I live, but that is strange but not at the same time given how big the country is. I live in the outskirts of Toronto. Cold rooms are usually way at the back, it’s possible that where you live they were finished and turned into regular rooms?
@@c3whitefangalexandradiaz20I'm from BC and my house has one too, maybe it just depends on the climate? Though I am pretty far north
@@c3whitefangalexandradiaz20 I'm in Vancouver and I've never even heard of cold rooms being a thing here ever. (I'm in my 30s btw). Maybe it doesn't get cold enough here for them to be a thing.
You could always do a story with this house of grandmas troubled teen grandkid moves in and grandmas cleans out the basement for them and tries to turn their life around (raise grades and skills). That would be a fun little LP.
love this idea!!!
Oooo I should stream this idea
Totally doing this! Thanks!!
Woow, this sounds like so much fun!
this is exactly what I thought! to me the house has grandma/grandparents and teenage grandson vibes lol
The basements always remind me of That 70’s Show, where they all used to hang out in the basement. So many good vibes, especially for like a teen hangout
that’s exactly what i thought of when the pack came out
The basement stairs usually come off someplace near the kitchen or if there is a main hallway. Most basements have doors at the top of the stairs. In the western part of the country a lot of times stairways are open to the basement because they're using it more as extra living area and there are bedrooms and things downstairs that you want to share heat with. In most older homes basements were storage area and a place for things like water heaters and furnaces. Generally not heated or finished.
In 100+ year old houses in my area, the door to the basement stairs is outside. Made getting to the fuse box in the winter really annoying, I had to put on my coat!
Yeah
Oh wow! Thank you for the info. We don’t have basements in California so this was educational.
As a fellow Floridian, absolutely loving your screened porch descriptions 🤣 you’re completely correct!
The best part of these kits being released together is the fact that they were released on 4/20 😂
I don't think that was an accident🙃
OMG that's actually hilarious
OMG GENIUSLY
Basement plant sessions, y’know?
Oh duh that’s what they have in common :P
Now since they have the greenhouse pack I'm just waiting for someone to try to make the Addams family house from the old black and white tv show.
I can't believe that they didn't make the heart bed functional
It’s EA. Of course they didn’t make it functional. They’ll probably make us pay $3.99 in a week to make it functional let’s be honest now. 😂
@@Polin-dx5ru yeah
@@Polin-dx5ru Exactly. So sad and pointless
Or repair it if you have max. The skill
@@Polin-dx5rudon’t fucking play then
It's so funny listening to you talk about Florida screens as someone who grew up going to Florida a lot because my grandparents lived there. I didn't realize it was so confusing for people who had never been! All the little oddities of home that make no sense to others 😂
imagine driving in 6 inches of snow and not panicking with a 1/4 inch. That is what I have a hard time imagining that other people don't know how to drive in the snow.
Realistically, you want to have closed stairs, basements are cold and damp. Only good use of open staircase is, if you have other livivig rooms there, like one more bedroom. You want to have areas like storage, garages or apartment halls well separated from the areas you really live in. Otherwise, it would be really hard to maintain temperature, air quality and cleanliness in the places where it matters.
Where Im from in Canada I would confidently say 95% of the houses have basements. Most unfinished basements tend to have a door to them. However, where I live most of the houses are either two stories or back/side/front split houses and in that case the stairs are open and near or beside the other set of stairs leading to the second floor. I love the new kit and play with basements a lot in my sims builds so im excited to see them in more builds hopefully!
maritimes/east coast? i come from right near there in new england in america and pretty much every house has a basement there too
In the northeast basements are usually a carbon copy of the upper floors because the exterior basement walls are made when the house builders lay the foundation for the whole house with concrete- ie the upper floors as well! And then they just build up from there! :] It's weird to think about in relation to the sims because we can just do whatever we want and add things anytime. But irl, it makes sense to do it this way!
Same in Norway, especially “House Bank houses” where the basement was initially left completely unfinished and officially didn’t even exist, because that would have made the house too big to get the loan application approved. So officially the outside walls of the basement were just the foundation of the house.
Also a lot of basements are daylight or walk out basements in the NE meaning a portion of the basement is above ground. This is popular because if you have issues with radon gas, the gas goes to the lowest level of the building and can be vented through a door to the outside if there's one on one side of the basement. Houses are built into hills and the basement has one exit through the back or side of the house that's above ground and another that has stairs going up to the first floor and/or garage. At least that's how they are in my area.
@@ragnkja In some ways, buildings in the North East of the US are similar to European builds, because it’s the oldest part of the US - you get much older buildings in Boston or NYC than you get in say Los Angeles. That said, buildings in Europe of course get much, much older.
Neil Gaiman is an author born in the UK and said visiting LA was surreal, because people brag about how “old” a building is - “it was built all the way back in the 1950s!”
Of course, in Central and South America, there are amazing buildings built in BCE - people have been living here long before Europeans got here.
@@ILuvAyeAye
“Built in the 1950s” conjures a particular image here in northern Norway, of a house built quite quickly and cheaply (it was right after the War, after all), two storeys and likely a basement, quite square and boxy, and most likely clad with Eternit (asbestos cement plates).
I love this!!! And, as a person from the NE USA, I would say typically finished basements don't have a door unless it is used as a bedroom or the access is somewhere inconvenient (i.e. through the bathroom). Unfinished or partially finished basements typically have a door to keep dirt/cold/damp out of the main house. Usually, access is in or near the kitchen, but I've definitely seen some weird scenarios for placement (as I've noted).
This is true in ID USA. Unless you live in a former 'hope house' where the basement was built first as an underground house with the hope to build the above ground parts later. I live in an area that still has some that are still waiting for the upper part, but most now are proper houses with basement apt.
Basement steps (in my experience) are only open if the Basement is finished or has a finished main room, meaning carpeted, painted walls, etc. If the basement is just concrete slabs, it's hidden behind a door.
That’s a good summary.
Most of my houses have had finished basements still separated by a door before the staircase
This turned out so cute, it feels so lived in and real!
Porches are uncommon where I'm from, and I've never met anyone who has a pool or a basement, so it's cool to see them included! They're things I rarely put in my sims builds just because I never think of them.
I like how this basement kit make people make basements now- I ALWAYS build basements I love them! Offer so much more “storage” space, a spare bathroom, a hangout, workout area, you can put the washer and dryer down there, and that’s where I put the butler’s room if I have a butler 😂
The poor butler having to live in the basement 😭💀
@@liablau hey they get an EXCELLENT room and en suite haha
@@liablau basement apartments are actually super common in some areas. In my city it's hard to find a house that doesn't have one 😂 when done properly they can be really nice
Hi Simsie! Where I live (province of Québec, Canada), basements are so common that it's if there isn't one that you must mention it. They are not merely storage space, but fully functional living space, often with extra bedrooms and family room. Some old houses have a door to the staircase, but most are open, just like the one leading to the 2nd floor. Most of the time, the two staircases are above one another. I hope this helps.
I never realized how strange meshed-in backyards were until you were talking about it LOL It's just such a normal thing in Florida because of all the mosquitos. Love the build! 😄
I have never heard of mesh covered backyards before watching this video lol you would never see these here where I live (Germany lol)
I had never heard of them except on tv, i always wondered what they meant. Then in 2019 i went to the US for the first time and i understood. Nowhere here has screens, despite summer being stifling hot [with no ac] and mozzy galore.
PA here and having Cold and Snow that helps control our mosquito population is why I would assume they aren't common here
As someone from South Carolina I also never even consider making basements since we don't have them here either but just like you I am OBSESSED with the mesh screens. I cannot wait to make screened in porches on every single build from here on!!
I'm from the midwest, here we mostly have basements and they're typically just behind a door somewhere. It's actually kind of fun running around and opening all the doors to figure out which one leads to the basement most of the time. I think that's typically more common in older houses though as finished basements became a big thing later on and so I feel like they switched to a more open basement plan.
This is probably one of the most realistic builds I’ve seen you do - the basement, the kitchen, the porch. I could definitely see my southern grandparents living here 🥺
The plant kit and the basement kit being released on the same day doesn’t make sense…until you realize that day was 4/20 😂
oooh good point lol
It's definitely uncommon for a basement to have a different footprint to the main house! It's usually only smaller if the ground floor has had later additions
You did a great job with the build as always!
In older houses in the midwest, most staircases seem to lead from the kitchen, to a landing at the backdoor and then down to the basement from the backdoor. Even if the basement stairs don't directly connect to a backdoor, they do seem to mainly connect to the kitchen. In newer homes, where they most likely intended basements to be finished and used as a family room or whatever, the stairs are usually more prominently placed like in the main hallway but could be anywhere really. Ease of access is basically what basements are about.. while attics are often hidden away behind some weird door around a corner or in a ceiling with a pull cord and a sliding ladder you're terrified will come down and hit you on the head.
Where I live, in Ireland, it's really uncommon to have a basement. I've only ever been in 1 house that has one. The washing machines are also often in the kitchen, but sometimes people have a utility room (laundry and storage room) . Every now and again, people will have washing machines in the garage, but they're usually really old houses with small kitchens.
I grew up in apartments but I had friends with basements and my dad lives in the suburbs. One thing I'm surprised we still don't have in any of the games is cellar doors, bc I've been in houses where those are the only way to access the basement, and as a New Yorker am always very wary of the open ones I see on the sidewalk.
Cellar doors - I can only associate them with horror movies
I've lived in a house like that, it was a little annoying sometimes!
@@bridgetthewench My dad once rented a house with that when I was a kid and tbh it might’ve been annoying for him but I loved going down there when I stayed over for weekends
I'm from Minnesota, basements are kind of essential here because of tornadoes. My grandparents' house and one of the houses I lived in when I was little had the stairs tucked away behind a door. You might have thought it was a small closet if you didn't know what was behind the door. Some houses are split-level, so you enter in an entryway and you either go up to the main floor or down to the basement from there. Hard to do in the sims though. In the sims, if I'm building a two story house with a basement, I'll often put the stairs going down next to the ones going up. Otherwise, I often tuck them away in a sort of cabinet, usually somewhere near the kitchen..
I'm hoping that in the hot update they add the heart bed to base game 😍
sorry to bother, but do we have any idea when the update is coming? i know its supposed to fix the face glitch that came with the newest update so im hoping haha
I feel it was a missed opportunity to "restore old bed" aka rebuild the heart bed from clutter to a functional bed
Ikr
@@samichmachine We have no information about that yet. The only thing we know is, that it’s going to come before the end of june. The glitch will hopefully be fixed before that.
@Abigail Martinez that's what u thought would happen when I saw it :(
On the topic of Laundry Rooms at 11:30 , At my Big Brother's house in Minnesota, he has a separate laundry room in his basement. Here in Southern California, we have a separate shed/garage thing that houses our Laundry, and storage. Interesting how stuff differs from place to place.
Having a lanai screen in Florida is heavenly 😄 it keeps the Alligators out the pool!
Ohhh, so that's what they're for! I forgot about the gators...
That’s what I was thinking. It keeps the alligators out!
Oml is this a joke?
@@ABCQTBREB google gators on Florida golf courses. Where there's water, there's a gator
@@ABCQTBREB Nope. They are everywhere there from what I hear... lots of water.
The house I grew up in had the basement stairs directly in front of the back door and, I think at one point, there was a door on the "same tile" as where the stairs started. When I got older, the door disappeared, but I have this deep seeded fear of bending over to put on my shoes to head out to the garage and falling face first down the stairs. 😅
I find that warm cozy basements might have open rail and dark, dingy or storage basements will be behind a door. From a practical pov, you don’t want have to heat the basement unless you’re living in it
lol this so so true but my house is the opposite.. laundry in the unfinished basement with an open fence
You mentioning your grandma's house(s) just made me have the sudden urge to try and recreate one of my grandma's former homes from memory.
First time we drove to Orlando we got lost looking for our hotel and ended up in an upscale suburban neighbourhood and I remember those screened in pools. I commented to my husband at the time "JUST how BIG are their mosquitos?"
Ha! Good question.
Why? Was the netting surprisingly coarse, like a gnat could easily get in?
@@ragnkja I'm assuming the screened in pools were big, y'know like in the picture
We don't have basements in Australia, so it's always so cool for me to see them in Sims builds or in houses in the US. Fun fact: at my ex's house, I fell down the basement stairs (on the 2nd step from the top, skidding all the way down to the bottom) and broke my coccyx bone! 😅
That sounds awful! Are you okay now?
@@thiccwalrus5602 Aww, thank you for asking!! It happened in 2016!! I was okay. It was the worst plane trip EVER getting back to Australia but as soon as I landed I went and got treatment for it 😂😂
That happened to me as a child - I tumbled and rolled face first in the basement stairs. I just have a cool scar to show for it though - I broke my coccyx bone on another occasion XD
House I grew up in had basement stairs behind a door. House I live in now has basement stairs off the kitchen with no physical door. The stairs are stacked under the stairs to the second floor. I think that’s really common.
Our house is the same with the stairs off the kitchen stacked under the second floor. Ours just has a door that we never close
My family's house has a door to the basement stairs off the living room but next to the hallway. The door is always closed because we just store things in the basement and we don't want the warmth to go away because the basement is not heated. The stairs are stacked and we have laundry in the basement
As an Aussie I am feeling you on the fly screen/mesh window love, it feels very much like home!
A FELLOW AUSSIE YASSSS
I FOUND FELLOW AUSSIES, YAY!
Basement stairs can be anywhere it really depends how big the basement is. Sometimes they're like their own apartments with kitchenettes for renting out or an adult child. More commonly you can have a wet bar and/or a lounge area. If the house has a basement that's probably where the laundry room is like 70% of the time in my experience.
It’s always so strange to me when there is just one bathroom in a house, with no separate toilet. To me, a bathroom is such a private space and where I live everyone has a little separate toilet room downstairs, so guests don’t have to go to the family bathroom. Only when you’re really close to the person you’re visiting it’s okay to go to their bathroom but even my closest friends I’ve never been in their bathroom, cause that’s just not done over here 😅
What country are you from?
Some of us are poor Lotte :)
@@Mikulover2020 based on the description and the name I'm guessing north-western Europe (northern Germany or the Benelux countries) or Scandinavia. I'm from southern Germany and (in houses with several floors/big apartments) we also usually have an often tiny bathroom with only a toilet and a sink on the first floor (usually near the front door) and then bigger bathrooms on the other floors, closer to the bedrooms, which are not normally used by guests
@@MartianMeli Ahh that’s so funny, to me having toilet in a bathroom seems like a luxury thing, I haven’t thought about it the other way around 🤯 and I’m dutch btw
I’m from the UK and I have this in my house, although a lot of people I know don’t!
basements r so underrated! i usually end up putting the toilets/bathrooms in community lots into the basement, it saves some place too which is nice
I live in a small town down in Texas. We mostly have large farmhouses, fancy mcmansions, and little town homes in neighbourhoods by the schools. We have our washer and dryer in separate rooms called "utility rooms", either by or going into the garages. We have ceiling fans on backporches, its too hot outside not to have one. I've never seen a basement irl, we all have attics instead.
I'm saying this as someone who's lived in full houses with basements, small apartments with basements, familyhouses without basements and currently house converted into three apartments(one per floor) with a basement: Have a door!!
The best usage for this is that it works as an isolater. I'm from Norway and when the Winter really sets, basements can be the coldest, without a door, the rest of the place gets so much harder to warm(and expensive). Also for safety. Cuz if you don't have any barrier for the stairs, I'll bet you that someone will fall down
Did you know that many basements officially “didn’t exist” in the original floor plans, because it would make the house too big to get the loan application approved by the House Bank? So naturally the basement couldn’t have stairs that were open to the rest of the house, and even the door might be a slightly later addition.
@@ragnkja really? All the houses in my neighborhood have huge basements. I figured newer houses (not even from recently, like from 2000s) mostly all had basements in the floor plans
@@harmc2301
I’m talking up to maybe the early 1980s. After that they relaxed the rules slightly, so that what mattered most was whether the house could be build within a certain budget.
I'm in south Georgia in a river valley former mill/textile town, so what's super common is row houses, basically really narrow and long victorian-1920s houses for factory workers. Kitchen and laundry, maybe dining in the back, a living space, and small bathrooms and bedrooms off a long hallway. We have partially screened in porches that are just brick walls and screen windows, but full screened in porches aren't super common. We can get away with basements but they're usually open to the backyard to prevent flooding rather than fully underground and closed.
my day gets 100% better with lilsimsie builds, the house looks so cool!
Where I live, the houses are built about 3 feet above ground, you walk up a few steps to get to the ground floor, so basements are partially underground and partially above ground, and under the whole house. The above ground portion usually has small windows to let in some light and ventilation. They are usually unfinished, but can be finished by the owner to provide extra living space. This is usually where the utilities come in and the furnace and water heater are there, too. Generally, the laundry will also be in the basement, and as our attics are mainly inaccessible, usually requiring climbing a ladder and going through a ceiling hatch, we store our stuff in the basement or garage. If the basement is unfinished, the stairs will generally be rough.
as someone from the midwest with family from florida, can confirm florida houses are like that lmao and a great, common addition to basements is a washer & dryer! from my experience where i'm from, most basements are where people keep those
Around here in the PNW, I've seen both. Basements used to be an afterthought, extra storage or utility space, etc. Now, they're much more incorporated into the living space. How (or if) they're finished determines access. In my house (built in 2020), the basement is fully finished and on a lot where there are windows in the basement as well, so our stairs are toward the front of the house with an open railing. Before we lived in a house with an unfinished basement, so the stairs were by the back door.
Here in the Netherlands, we have some smaller homes where you have to walk through the kitchen to get to the bathroom. The bedrooms are upstairs. Always thought this was so weird.
I had that in my apartment...the bathroom was through the kitchen instead of the bathroom. Made showering in winter not very enjoyable with the kitchen being the coldest space. Oh and studenthousing where the shower is IN the kitchen, behind a curtain 😂
Something about basements where I love: usually they're behind doors, BUT not always, especially if there's a fully done living space in the basement. My mom's house had a basement that was half unfinished, behind a door. My aunt's house has a basement that's completely finished with the stairs totally open to the house, and in fact right at the front door. The stairs go down to a little foyer in the basement with a storage room behind a door under the stairs/front porch, a little bedroom to the left, and a big second living room directly ahead.
At my friends house with a basement the stairs are literally the exact same as the one in this house. Behind a door and by the kitchen. But its kind of like a half basement cause it has a door to the outside cause the house is on a really steep hill.
Those are known as walkout basements! Super common in hilly areas
I live in the southern us where it gets hooot in the summer! We have a lot of screened in porches, but most have wooden doors rather than glass. Lots of people tear out screens when they renovate, but i like them! In general we have really large porches for our houses, because people do a lot of sitting on them/entertaining guests. Also ceiling fans, including fans on the aforementioned porches!
Also! My washing machine is in my basement! Basement also has an attached root cellar where we store preserves/canned vegetables. My house also has an old coal stove despite not being super old. I live in a very rural area so coal stuck around for longer than you'd think
all three houses i’ve lived in have had the basement staircase behind a door, i never realized how common it is til just now
where i’m from basements tend to only be accessible through some kind of utility room in the front or back of the house, like a laundry room or mud room, so they’re completely separate from the rest of the house lol
I can see them working together as in the parents love gardening while the teen lives in the basement but as the years go buy the parents pass and all their gardening equipment goes to the basement and mixes with the teens old stuff
I am from Quebec and basements here all have windows (the first floor is raised a little bit so we have lots of sunlights in the basements. All of our basements have bedrooms, at least one bathroom and a living room. Some have a "cold room" for storage too. And a lot of us have also laundry room down stairs.
The stairs are usually by the front door on the side of the house. But some houses, the stairs are in in the kitchen (closed with a door), or somewhere near the garage (so you have access to the outside).
My house as a higher basement (as you walk in my house you have to go up some few stairs to go to the first floor) so my basement has tons of lights in it because of the huge windows.
sims w high handiness should he able to repair things like the heart bed
that would be so cool
When the stairwell is a big connected thing through all floors, it tends to have no door, especially in houses with actual distinct floors, and especially if they open into a hallway type area rather than a main room. It also depends whether the basement is finished (no door) or if it operates more as a storage location only (door). However, I’ve found houses with distinct floors also tend to get doors if there is a safety hazard.
I grew up around mainly split level houses, and those tend to have doors at the top because they open up into rooms.
The house I grew up in is from the 1920s and the basement stairs are in the reception hall under the main staircase closed off with a door. There is a side door that was meant for deliveries that enters the house where you have the option to go up to the main level or down to the basement. Most of the older houses in the area (rural Midwest) have similar arrangements or there is no way to access the basement from the inside and just an exterior staircase with trap doors covering it, a lot of the older farmhouses (pre 1900s) will have this arrangement. Some houses have added on porches to where this trap door is now under the floor, I've even seen just a ladder before.
Kayla talking about pools being normal, and me here being from the UK thinking pools in gardens SCREAMS luxurious!
I also live in a basement terrace house that has like 4 windows in it. Not the most comfortable house in summer but in winter it’s SOOOOO cosy and cute!
I've lived in a bunch of different houses with basements - they're usually behind a door here because a lot of them are unfinished with raw stone/concrete walls/floor and exposed beams/studs. It's become a big thing to have finished basements as an extension of your space to add value to a house, either with new builds or renovated older ones. This is especially true in areas that are dry enough to not risk constant water/humidity damage, and a lot of people use them as entertainment rooms because they're a bit more sound proofed by virtue of being at least half underground.
One of the houses I grew up in was technically a double level but was built on a steep hill, so from the front it looked like one story and from the back it looked like two. The bottom floor was divided into half finished basement and half raw/storage basement, and the finished room opened into a screened patio and then a large back yard. The raw basement was used as a workshop/laundry room (having laundry in the basement is ALSO incredibly common) and was the part that was more underground.
I think most houses have their basements behind a door because they ARE unfinished and they can both be an eyesore and a safety issue for children, between the exposed walls and being where people usually dump all their extra clutter/old furniture, it can get pretty precarious.
A lot of the stairs down into those spaces tend to also be a lot more unfinished, just simple wood boards to step on rather than enclosed. It's probably more common to have them open-access when they're a finished space or in a home meant for a retiree or single tenant.
basements are SUPER common where i live. they're in pretty much every single house. the stairs are usually behind a door but the house I grew up in had them just open so its not too uncommon. I live in the western US so we don't really worry about humidity or flooding, so usually the basements have several bedrooms and a living space. in some houses the actual house is built into a hill so you can go into the backyard from the basement (that's how my house growing up was) basically you'd have the patio in the backyard connected to the basement and a deck/balcony thing connected to the main floor with stairs going down into the yard. also allows for a lot of natural light into the basement
I live in the Midwest so basements are pretty important here, most of the time they are set right off of the kitchen with a door leading to the stairs. Depending on what type of house you have or where you live the basement could be large or small, and most basements hold laundry, a storage room or/and a family room/extra bedroom and a bathroom.
Up in the midwest, most folks I know who have basements have one of the following: 1) a basement with living space (like a living room) usually is open to the main level. 2) a basement mostly for storage, or just with bedrooms, is usually behind a door. So in my experience, it depends on the use of the basement!
I live in CT, and since it's hilly, basements aren't always fully underground. For example, we have sort of a half hill in front of our home, so technically, there is a basement under the porch, but if you walk around to the back, there isn't a hill and the basement is really just a room that opens straight into the backyard. I used to live in FL, and what this area does lack is screened in porches. They are great! Especially for cats 😍
I used to live in Floridia and i related so much with your screened in porch talked, my great grandma used to have a screened in porch that connected to a beautiful screened in pool area. Then I moved to Michigan and it's almost completely suburbs or country houses.
Personally, I've seen a range of basements and pretty much all houses have one. They range from fully renovated with wood or carpet and a living area to completely just a basement. Also, washing machines are usually upstairs in a closet area if you live in a apartment or in the basement if your house has one.
11:00 here in New Zealand we usually have dedicated laundry rooms, they're usually placed close to wherever the washing line is! I was so surprised to learn that laundry rooms weren't a super common thing in the US!
Re doors and screens: most places I have lived that have a back door (currently live in an apartment, the back of my house is somebody else's apartment!) have both a sliding glass door and a screen door, so you can have the glass open and let a breeze in through the screen. Nobody screens in porches because we don't have nearly the problem with bugs this far north and also like, nobody really hangs out a lot on their porches, because it's cold and/or rainy a lot of the year. On my friend's porch we have a few camp chairs and a little bed for my partner's dog that we take out of the storage closet on the porch when we want to sit out there, but there's no permanent furniture. Too windy, we'd lose our chairs during the next storm!
it's always a joy hearing Kayla talking about Florida's architecture because it seems to very very similar to brazilian houses when it comes to bug problems and high temperatures. these types of porches are not at all common in Brazil (we have heavily walled around houses, so we just hang out on the garage), but we do use screens on windows and doors on neighborhoods close to nature and rivers, because omg so many mosquitoes. ceiling fans are also common in every room of the house, sometimes even the kitchen, because it's so hot. and we never ever build basements or attics, the way our roofs are built on a low angle doesn't leave enough room to walk in or storage stuff, it's just a dirty crawling space full of spider webs. when something needs fixing, we access from the top of the roof, removing tiles to get inside, more often than from the ceiling inside. sometimes hearing about the similarities between Florida and some brazilian states makes me realize why Florida is such a popular spot for migrating brazilians to move into
Basement stairs where I live are usually closed off. My house has a door off the kitchen to a little landing where we keep, like, cleaning products, pest control stuff, and recycling, and the basement stairs are there.
It's also impossible to build in the sims because the house is on a slope, so the front is level with the ground and the basement is underground, but the back of the house has a porch and a door from the basement which is now ground level.
My grandparents' house was on a skinny lot, so they converted most of the basement into an underground garage for their car. There was a small room for the furnace and main plumbing, and about one third of it my grandpa converted into a bar where he could hang out with his friends. It had those saloon doors, you know Western style, a counter decorated with empty beer bottles, shelves with glasses for different drinks neatly organized and lit by LED lights, a few bottles of special drinks, a fridge of course, and one of those "naked lady with a motorcycle" calendars on the wall. It was cool. And he built it all by himself.
basements are so popular here in ontario, canada! most of them are behind a closed door and will have at least one bedroom, bathroom and a laundry room! growing up my family had people rent out our basement so we had a few families living with us for a while and then we eventually started using it for us, we put an office down there and my dad was a contractor so he created his own woodworking shop and then on the other side we had the bathroom, bedroom, laundry room and a playroom that had our video games, board games and just toys we didn't play with all the time anymore! the basement kit definitely helps add more personality to people who love to make basements!
Midwest Gal here, most homes have basements in our area. Most older homes (90s and earlier) have their basement stairs behind a closed door, usually off the kitchen or laundry room spaces. A lot of newer builds, especially ranches or one stories will have it open staircase to the basement as a focal feature in the entry way or living room spaces and it is apart of the home design, usually these basements either have outdoor access like built into a hill or has egress windows which allow true bedrooms in the basement and its more of a second floor then a basement. Most homes use their basements for a teen hang out space, storage/hot water heater/furnace space also be sure to include the Midwest beer fridge, and sometimes a workshop space. Some homes have basement bars which is always a fun throw back typically from the 70s.Older houses might have laundry in the basement, especially if the basement is "unfinished". If the home is updated or has that walkout type style, there can often be a teen's room or mother in law suite in the basement. Nicer basements might also have a kitchenette along with a bar area.
i find that in the uk we dont really have front porches, mostly just a couple steps. its also extremely normal to live in an attached home, not as commonly in a stand alone. in my area, washing machines arent often in the kitchen, rather the bathroom or a random little cubby. if u take where my grandparents live, its a lot different layoutwise that people are used to. u walk into the kitchen, not a living room or anything. i think in america thats not terribly common but lets just see.
1:23 love to see an unfinished build in the back reminds me of my game
I like doing basements when I actually decide to play with the Laundry pack with the sims. Having the laundry room in the basement is always fun. It's also a fun place to squeeze in a makeshift living room or office, and sometimes I put spare bedrooms down there.
I live in Canada, and basements are pretty common here. To enter ours, you have to go out the back door since the entrance to the basement is outside. It's also an unfinished basement with gravel flooring, so it's mainly for storage for things like tools and deck furniture rather than things you would keep inside your home. It also floods sometimes. Also, my grandmother used to have a screen-house on her deck! They'd put it up in the spring and take it down in the autumn (since, y'know, Canadian winters).
Another Canadian here! I’ve got an finished basement and as soon as you walk into my porch they’re are stairs straight to my basement then to the right stairs up to my kitchen! This must be pretty common in houses around where I live as most houses I’ve been to have the porch leading to the basement!
im polish, i most commonly see basement stairs right next to the stairs that go up, so you could go from upstairs to basement almost without leaving the staircase. the basements usually cover most of the house surface. the stairs are generally either close to the enterance or adjacent to the first room you walk into after the room you put your shoes in (which can be farther away if its a big room or long hallway but you can still see the stairst at least)
Speaking as someone from the Midwest (so I’ve got a basement and been in a lot.) It really does depend on the type of basement, most people have either an unfinished (floors are concrete, and ceiling is just wood panels and stuff), or you got the finished basements which usually have carpet floors and painted walls (like the rest of the house.) Then if it’s an unfinished basement the stairs will most likely be wood (and it always gives you splinters walking down!) and if it’s finished, the stairs will usually be carpet. Also, most of them have a door leading to the staircase bc no matter if it’s finished or not, they all be hella cold!
From GA. When I was younger, my cousin’s house had their laundry on the back screened in porch. Mine now is in a closet in the kitchen. Also, most of the places up here are cabins, and you see basement steps with a door in 90% of them. I feel like it helps with sound traveling.
I live somewhere where most houses have a basement. The one in my house is actually in the entryway. From my entryway there are a few small steps up (through a door and) into the main floor of the house and then a L-shaped staircase down into the basement. We used to have a door at the bottom of the basement stairs, but we had a problem with mould and replaced it with more of a gate to increase airflow down there, but also keep my cats out.
I love how you're so happy that you can now build screened in porches, such a small thing, but makes a difference. For me it's always so hard to build something I'm used to and I always end up with an american style house. There are so many differences around the world with building that it's hard to have it all in one game. My mom has a very old house, with thick walls and her basement is in the back, you access it from outside, it's ment to be more of a winter pantry, very small and dusty and dungeon like 😅 My house has a big one with windows high on the walls so there is light there and you could full on make a livable space down there. We live in Ireland now and the houses I've seen here so far don't have one, which I find weird.
Basements in Alberta, Canada are almost always the same size as the upstairs. The basement itself will have a different layout than upstairs and usually the washer and dryer is down there as well. This is also where the water heater, furnace, and the electrical box are located. Sometimes it will have it's own room but not always. Ours does and shares the room with our freezer and some food storage. the stairs to go down there is off our back landing where the back door is. You have to go up three stairs to our main floor to the left and to the right is our stairs to our basement.
The house I grew up in had a door to the basement but we got rid of it eventually. (Replaced with a baby gate for my nieces.) We also knocked down the wall between laundry and bathroom and just combined them into one room. The basement itself was basically the same size as the main floor. That's basically got a living room and a bunch of storage spaces. The house I live in now is half-finished. Laundry, living room, a workshop, a bathroom we don't use, and a section that's just storage. Nothing screened in because snow, lol. The house I grew up in also had a door in the kitchen that we got rid of and turned into the corner where the sink lives.
My family home has the basement entrance outside. And also a trapdoor in the living room leading to an another basement, that one used to be patato storage (like, from your own crop). It also has an outhouse (currently unused).
Then again, that house was built in Germany before WWI, has been used as a post office and is now in Poland (borders and wars, man). We also have a table from 1920s, xD
It's small and simple (literally a rectangle) in an equally small (200 people), simple (1 unnamed street) and old (500 years) village.
Ow, weather wise, we have snowy winters, during spring apple and cherry trees blossom white, usually around 35C (95F) summers and lake's in swimmable temperature until early autumn and then colorfull leaves in late autumn.
In the Netherlands we actually always have a hallway when you come in the front door. There will be a door to the livingroom, the stairs for going up and a door, with behind that, the stairs to the basement.
I've never been in a house with 2 bathrooms. So I always think it's weird when builders make a shower room down stairs and a bathtub on the second floor. We have half-bathrooms (toilet and sink) on the first floor and the full bathroom upstairs.
The location of the washingmachine is mostly in the basement or in the bathroom. We don't really have dedicated laundry rooms.
grandmas house: basement stairs behind a door
The house I used to live in: one open and central staircase from top (3rd floor) to the bottom
I live in the Midwest so basements are super common, cuz tornadoes, usually the stairs are kind of behind a solid wall with a door. Again, because of tornadoes lol. Depending on the house people usually use basements as a kind of second living room or extra storage space, or when I was a kid that's where the like, play room was, we all keep the laundry room in the basement as it's usually just the best spot. Though it can be annoying to go all the way down to the basement to do your laundry lol.
So, the two basements I remember having in my lifetime I think both had basic wooden stairs with no railing or turns. I know some people have nicer basements that have carpet on the ground that also happens to be on the stairs, but I think those are a little less common. Most people just have the dirty wooden hazard stairs.
Edit: Oh, my grandma also had the wooden hazard stairs in her old house. They were painted blue for some reason and I was terrified of going down them
I live in Kentucky very close to the southern border and we're kinda in a weird place as far as basements go. They're not uncommon, here, but we're far enough south that they tend to flood unless regularly treated with waterproofing both in and outside. If there is a basement they always have a door. Kentucky is in the temperate zone so we don't have extreme cold or extreme heat for the most part but winters do still get cold enough that if the basement had no door the cold would seep up into the house and raise the power bill since it would require more effort to heat it. Screened porches are pretty common here, too. They aren't on every house like you'd see further south but they're definitely popular. I've never seen a screened in pool, tho.
This house is gorgeous, btw. I love small homes like this lol.
Also, I absolutely LOVE the old couch from the Basement Pack. That and the werewolf couch ALWAYS ends up in starter homes I build.
basements at my parents houses are behind doors, although they stay open a lot its pretty common to have a door for safety especially if you have kids, because unlike in the sims, irl babies don't just avoid stairs until they can walk. my dad's basement is a staircase off the kitchen, which is at the back of the house, and then there's a set of stairs that goes up to the second floor, and those stairs are right above the stairs to the basement, but they start in the living room. my moms stairs are off a hallway, so they are more like one of a series of doors in that hallway. and there's a half set of stairs, the side exit to the house, and then the rest of the stairs turn a corner to the basement. hope this helps!