My entire childhood I grew up with the simple luxury of having an in ground basement.
- It doesn’t sound like much, and I don’t think I appreciated 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 and saved my family a lot of money on air conditioning costs.
We barely ever turned on our AC unit, because we could just go hang out downstairs when the air got too hot in the house. If it was a particularly hot day, we kids just hung around in the perfectly cold air for the whole afternoon, rather than facing the sweltering heat outside. My mom wouldn’t run the AC anyways, so this was the best solution for us. It felt like extremely efficient temperature control, without the investment in a super powerful HVAC unit or the burden of high energy costs. 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, but I loved the feeling of cool air on my face. 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 HVAC unit quickly because of my intense desire for cool air when I’m falling asleep.