Living in a Basement
Living in the city is expensive. However, that financial hurdle is even higher for a family who recently immigrated from Asia with empty pockets. Therefore, the only rental property my family was able to afford when we first came here was the basement of a two story house. To paint a picture, the basement wasn’t extremely terrible. It was reconstructed to have a separate entrance, so we never had to interface with the upstairs neighbors. It was a finished basement with two bedrooms, a bathroom, and an open area that connects the kitchen and dining/living room. The vinyl flooring was old and degrading but still in tact. At the back of one of the bedroom is the furnace. It is quite loud during the winter. Looking back, it was probably a health hazard due to lack of ventilation and the potential for carbon monoxide built up.
There are a few annoyances of living in a basement however. One obvious subject is lack of sunlight. The basement we lived in was relatively deep in the ground and the entrance was half a flight of stairs below ground in order to open the front door. There was a total of five 1ft x 2ft windows, barely two inches from the pedestrian sidewalk. To avoid pedestrians from looking through the bedrooms and keep burglars from getting in, we always kept the windows closed, locked, and with the handmade curtains down.
One thing we had to deal with year round is the clogging and overflowing of the toilet and sinks. It is unclear whether the pipes in the house are outdated, too small, or the upstairs neighbors flushing handfuls of insoluble materials down the toilet, but every month or so, the toilet would all of a sudden start bubbling out sewage and feces. The bathroom would be flooded, sometimes out to the living space, and the sinks would clog. Every time this happens, the landlord would call the upstairs neighbor who happens to be a plumber (coincidence or intentional that it constantly clogs?) and they both would come down, enter one of the bedrooms to open a panel on the floor that exposes the pipes and run a sewer snake machine to clear the pipe out. It is extremely disgusting to have the place considered home to be filled with other peoples’ feces and for the pungent smell to immerse in every corner of the place. As I mentioned early, the windows are small so the smell would linger for hours even after the plumbing is fixed. This happened almost every month, just imagine the frustration and disgust during all those years we lived there .
The landlord for the most part was a nice guy, but he was extremely cheap. During the winters, he’d set the thermostat to 65F, which wouldn’t be too bad except the basement had no proper heating system. There was one small heating pipe that ran across the rooms when making its way to first and second floor. Additionally, heat by default rises so we were always cold in the basement even while sitting in the living room with heavy coats and two pairs of pants. Fortunately or unfortunately, there have been times when we turned on the oven and opened the door slightly for heat because we just couldn’t handle it anymore. The landlord is not just cheap to us though. When we visit him to pay rent, we noticed that his toilet is full of pee. It seems that his family just pees in the toilet and doesn’t flush to save water. They probably only flush the toilet once a day.
Although the winters were tough living in that basement, the summers were a little more enjoyable, except for the bugs and mosquitoes. The fact that heat rises comes to an advantage during the summer because regardless of how hot it is outside, coming home always meant being chilly and cool. We never needed air conditioning, not that we have one anyway, and were mostly comfortable in the summer. There were unfortunately a lot of mosquitoes and bugs that find their ways into our home. In front of our entrance is a drainage hole and a bunch of bushes and soil, which meant mosquitoes and bugs. And they came in all the time, from underneath the door and through holes in the screen door. The pests came in left and right, leading to red bumps and startled jumps.
In addition to the annoyances previously mentioned, living in a basement also negatively affected me socially and personally. For elementary and junior high school, most students went to schools nearest to their homes. I saw fellow classmates walking home to their above ground apartments and houses everyday and was envious. I was so ashamed of where I was living that if I saw any of my classmates walking in the same direction, I would either slow down to let them pass, speed up to hopefully get in my home before they see me or totally take another route to avoid them completely. I remember there was one classmate, let’s say John, who lived in this nice house around the corner and unavoidably found out where I live despite my efforts. I was so scared of John telling everyone where I live that I’d avoid him every chance I get as to not be a topic of discussion.
However, for whatever reason, one day John decided it was a good idea to bring a bunch of classmates he was hanging out with to ring our doorbell to show them where I live. Mortified, I became red with both anger and shame and snapped, “What do you want?”. Taken back by my sudden outburst, contrary to my usual quiet demeanor, John murmured “Nothing, we just wanted to say hi”. “Hi”, I replied and immediately shut the door and dashed to my room in silence. In hindsight, I know what I did was wrong and John probably didn’t mean any harm, merely stopping by to say hi with his friends but my emotions clouded my judgement at that time. We never talked since that time, and eventually graduated and went to separate schools.
Living in a basement and not having my own room stopped me from inviting friends over to hangout. I would always either went to my friends’ houses to hangout or public places such as the park or library. I was fortunate to have those places near me to choose from, so it didn’t affect me too much. The only thing is that I didn’t get to to host a party, gathering or have a birthday party.
Overall, living in a basement is definitely not ideal. However, when low on money, we had to prioritize food and shelter over a luxurious above ground rental. The experience have taught me to be thankful every time I move to a better place. Having windows that the sunlight comes through and I can see the outside? Amazing. A toilet that doesn’t flood the whole floor every month? Spectacular. My own room? Wow. Not needing to wear heavy coat and utilize the oven for heat in the winter at home? It means more than you know.
Originally published at https://limemstories.com on February 21, 2020.
