Fires=scary. I can get the initial temptation not to leave because really, does this happen (but I have more warning, I'm thinking hurricanes) but...then I read up on Mt Stromlo and NO.

In the fires early this year around Melbourne, many people decided to stay and defend their homes, and wound up dying in their cars trying to flee once they saw how bad it was. However, it seems Emergency Services was negligent in not advising people of the extent of the danger.

Bec's farm was threatened by fire when she was growing up. Her parents opted to stay, with all their kids, and try to protect the place. It burned out some of their acreage, but they were very fortunate that it didn't reach the house. Seriously terrifying for small children.

What is a European-style laundry?

Instead of getting its own room, it was set into a cupboard area. Saves on space.

Oh! Why, I have one of those! Wouldn't call a space big enough to fit a full-size W/D a "cupboard", though. It's a, um, "laundry nook".

Like a harry potter sized cupboard maybe.

We didn't have a finished basement at all. The basement was where all the stuff went and we would occasionally play down there. My dad had a workshop, there was food storage including a chest freezer and the sewing machine was there, along with the washer and dryer.

But Ohio is damp and so even with a dehumidifier it was damp down there.

A friend of K's has to evacuate, but is considering not doing it because her house is "all I've got."

Is her staying going to save the house?

ita, of course not. It's not like her presence bestows some magical Save-The-House power. I think it's idiotic.

I'm really glad they painted my basement white. It isn't finished, per se. Concrete floors and cabinetry, but raw foundation plastered & painted white. I don't know if I could cope if it wasn't. It's a really visceral reaction I have to raw basements. And mine, while having a weeping wall, doesn't smell like basement. This is also critical.

Technically, parts of it aren't below ground. Front porch room is 3/4 below. To the back, well..it's 3 steps up to alley level.

I have always hated basements because of my spider phobia. The only time we didn't have basements was when we were living in California. Tennessee was a bomb shelter...it was the '50s and we lived in Oak Ridge. Midwest houses all have basements or storm cellers.

However, I am right now living in my sister's finished basement. But, I have plug in bug repellers in every outlet!

I think it's idiotic.

I guess it might have an effect on the firefighters if they have to respond to humans in the area, but that's playing dirty pool. I agree that it's a dumb move if you can actually get out, and you don't have a magic cloak of protection to extend over your property yourself.

The places we lived in London that had basements had finished basements. I think that that is probably typical of the city. I don't think I've actually been in an unfinished basement, now that I think about it--the house in Canada had a finished one, but it was always dark and musty in a way I didn't like (oh, as opposed to how dark I keep my apartments now) so I never spent much time down there, on the rare occasions I was home.

We had cabinetry and in one spot carpeting and wood panelling but it's not like they were rooms that an adult would want to hang out in. A high school friend's basement was FINISHED finished with a couch, TV, pool table, wood burning stove, wet bar, bathroom, separate entrance etc.

I really should get my ass off the computer and go be productive.

If it weren't so infernally hot, I'd roast some sweet potatoes and then roast some chickpeas (so good) and then make granola. As it is, maybe I'll go sew.