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Notes -
A garage is a needless luxury, just like a closet and a pantry.
(In response to deleted comment "Where's the garage???" by @sarker)
Ooh. Yeah, we have hail around here. People would riot without their garages.
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Are you a desperately poor 3rd worlder or something? Where does this opinion come from? And where do you store your food if not the pantry?
The comment was intentionally phrased in an inflammatory manner for laughs (since this is the Friday Fun Thread). Seriously, though, as a reasonably-well-off person living in the US, I personally have little need of garages, closets, and pantries.
I have no pantry. All my room-temperature food is in the kitchen cabinets.
I have a closet, but I hardly use it. Rather, I keep all my regularly-used clothes in a large plastic basket or haphazardly around my bedroom. And a wardrobe can serve the purpose of a closet anyway.
I have no garage. I can see how it might be useful for working on a car, but I personally just go to a mechanic.
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I deleted it because I figured the big black blocks are garages and driveways, but I guess I was mistaken.
The big black blocks are driveways without garages.
Garages are kino. You can park your car there, have a gym, or a woodshop, or a metal shop, etc etc.
A basement can serve most of the same purposes.
Not all areas have need for basements: if you're not digging to get below the frost line (warmer climates), soil is shallow, or the water table is near the surface (the entire Gulf coast), a basement is really expensive to build as an option, and they aren't very common choices. I'll keep my garage.
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G-d preserve me from schlepping heavy equipment to a basement.
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