My entire childhood I grew up with the self-explanatory luxury of having an in ground basement.
It doesn’t sound like much, plus I don’t feel I loved it at the time, but as an adult I would kill to be able to have all that extra space, not to mention the naturally cold indoor air! I didn’t realize it at the time, but that was an amazing advantage plus saved my family a lot of money on A/C costs.
We barely ever turned on our A/C unit, because my buddy and I could just go hang out downstairs when the air got too hot in the house. If it was a particularally hot day, my buddy and I kids just hung around in the perfectly cold air for the whole afternoon, rather than facing the sweltering heat outside. My Dad wouldn’t run the A/C anyways, so this was the best solution for us. It felt like seriously efficient temperature control, without the investment in a super powerful Heating plus A/C component or the burden of high utility bills. Sometimes I would even go down there to sleep at night, because the air temperature was ideal for falling asleep wrapped up in a cozy blanket. I hated the spiders, despite the fact that I enjoyed the feeling of cool air on my face, however now, I wish more than anything I could access a basement on the hottest days of Summer instead of running my air conditioner 24/7. I’m going to wear out my Heating plus A/C component suddenly because of my intense desire for cool air when I’m falling asleep.