Why Phoenix Houses Suck

I think most houses in Phoenix suck. I am greatful I own a home, and we can pay the mortgage. I have noticed many of my neighbors can not. However being from New Jersey, it is hard to accept a home without a basement, or attic. We had both. It seems any home built in Phoenix in the last 20 years, contains no basement, no attic, or even a garage that can fit two cars, unless they are compacts.

In New Jersey our home had a full basement, full attic, plus a garage with a nice "buffer" between the cars perfect for bikes, wagons etc. The attic contained Christmas decorations, family memory items, and old baby gear. Our basement contained a food storage, pool table, ping pong table, a work bench area for my dad, and other various storage items.

When my folks moved to Provo Utah (LONG STORY!) our home didn't have a basement or attic, but two storage rooms. Needless to say still plenty of room to hold on to stuff we don't need.

Now my big complaint about houses in Phoenix, NO STORAGE. In Phoenix people store everything in the garage and leave cars worth tens of thousands of dollars parked in the driveway to fade in the blistering sun.

Homes don't have basements because of "hard digs." The ground is so hard you have to bring in heavy equipment to break through it. I know a couple of people who have done it and spent $100,000 to have a basement dug. Homes in Phoenix don't have attics because of all the heat. Both make sense. It still sucks.

So you'd think builders would built a storage room onto a house.. think again. It seems you have to buy a house with over 3500 square feet to get one, and it is usually a third garage.

Since Jason and I married, we have not been able to park our cars in our garage. There have been times of emergency we squeezed one car in but never both.

When we moved to this house the garage was full of our stuff. Boxes everywhere. After we bought Zach I consolidated everything to one side of the garage so I could park him inside. Jason had cabinets built this last summer and racks installed to hold more items. He couldn't understand that 9 month pregnant Jeanne could not organize the garage in 115 degree weather. He's a man so I'll move on from that.

See below how the garage looked:

One of my friends was having a garage sale to help a girl pay for a school trip. We used this opportunity to clean out the garage so we could park Sarah in there too. It took about two weeks but here it goes.
After:


There is barely enough room to fit the van and little tiny BMW we own. Tyler's bike is the only one that fits on the side. Ours have to hang with the water heater. I have to sit in the passenger area of the van to buckle Eric in his car seat, because you can not get to the left side of the van at all. If we want anything out of the cabinets, you have to pull the van out. It is entertaining to watch me shimmy out of the van into the house.

So I have decided builders lack of attention to the storage aspect will be to blame for the housing crisis. Not crazy loans, or people living beyond their means. People are just tired of not being able to buy a normal home with storage!