My grandparent’s house has both a finished basement and a finished attic. The basement is actually the main living area of the house, its open plan, with a full kitchen, bathroom, dining room and living room. There is also an enclosed laundry room/storage area/locker room. It is functionally the 1st floor of the house.
The 1st floor has its own kitchen, living room and dining room as well, but they were not used as often. It also included the entrance to the fully enclosed/furnished front porch.
The 2nd floor contained 3 bedrooms and another bath, the attic was made into two bedrooms.
LOTS of living space in that house!
My other set of grandparents also had a fully furnished basement. It was a business for them, an after-hours “jook joint” w/ a full bar, dance floor complete w/ disco ball and jukebox, and plenty of nooks and crannies and seating area for those after-hour joint going on’s. It was a popular spot in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, and plenty of $$ was paid to the police to “look the other way”.
I’ve known several people over the years who have rented classic New York City railroad apartments. When these were built, there was a shared bathroom for all the apartments on a floor. Obviously this won’t fly in the modern rental market. So the typical latter-day rehab was to stick a tiny lavatory in a corner and put the bathtub in the kitchen. Which creates any number of interesting social situations.
Similarly, I have a friend who has constructed a house in the Arizona desert in a whimsical, Gaudiesque manner. On the roof level is a shower and toilet in 2 seperate areas, partially walled off from the rest of the house but open to the sky on the 2 sides and the top. Once you overcome the oddness of showering or sitting on the can in a warm breeze it’s really quite lovely.
Lotta new construction has this nowadays. Seems pretty smart to me…
Many of the houses my friends lived in when I was a kid were turn-of-the-century or older and had multiple staircases, one formal staircase in front and one utility one in back. I’ve always liked the idea of that, and you never see it any more.
Basements are common in areas that get hard freezes because you need to take the foundation below the frost line anyway. If your digging that deep you might as well get some floor space for your trouble. One below grade floor is enough to get below frost line, so deeper is extra expense. In the desert southwest, the foundation can be, and often is, just a concrete slab with a substantial footer around the perimeter, and basements, while not really rare, are not the norm…
Hard to get any natural light or emergency egress on the lower levels. Most building codes would require two stairways if there are bedrooms down there. The extra stairway mitigates some of the gain from the extra level.
Next problem: Drainage. Sewers in aren’t usually more than 10’ below grade. It gets complicated to provide drainage if you want any plumbing lower than about 6’ below grade. You have to do something anyway, because if there is a water leak or sewer blockage anwhere in the building, water is going to find it’s way down there.
I’d guess it’s because not many have servants anymore.
The house I grew up in was built just after WWII by my grandfather and it had a finished attic. My bedroom was up there and I especially liked hearing the rain on the roof at night. However it was an icebox in the winter and an inferno in the summer.
