I was thinking about this the other day. It just popped up, with no particular trigger.
My maternal grandparents had a perfectly good, large by the standards of the time two-storey house. But they virtually lived in the basement. There were indications that people spent time upstairs – there was furniture in the living room, beds in the bedroom. One time the floor in the dining room was freshly varnished, by my grandfather, I assume. But I never saw them upstairs (except for the time my grandfather was sick in his bed). I never saw anyone in my grandmother’s kitchen, or in the living room. I sometimes went up and watched the TV they had upstairs, but aside from us kids, I never saw anyone in the upstairs portion.
My grandparents had a table, a stove, a sink, and (I think) a refrigerator downstairs. There was a daybed to lie on, and there was a toilet in the room with the furnace. They had everything they needed down there, and that’s where they spent all their time.
The upstairs was a sterile, under-decorated environmentr, devoid of life. We went all the way up to the attic once. It mocked most people’s ideas of “grandma’s attic”. It was completely empty, except for dust, and a trunk. The Trunk was empty.
Did anyone else have this experience?