Generally-speaking there is little or no point to making the statement [i]"..their cottage has no basement.."[/i] for the simple fact that cottages by their inherent design (or lack of it) are usually incapable of having a basement. This fact has clearly escaped you otherwise you wouldn't be attempting to score in the pathos stakes by mentioning it.
Y'see, a cottage, by definition is only one storey in height.
The higher a building goes up into the air, the more likely it is to topple and fall over in anything above a slight breeze. To counter this toppling probability, the construction has an equal balance built into it, [i]in much the same way as a ship will have liquid concrete poured into it's ballast section during construction of the hull - the weight below the waterline keeping the ship upright in rough seas,[/i] so the taller the building goes up into the sky, the deeper the foundations go down into the ground. [i]ERGO: Multi-storey office blocks can have underground car parks - these are formed around the vast steel-reinforced concrete pillars that are the foundations of the building and the counter-balance of the architectural structure above ground level.[/i]
Any domestic building that has a basement will also have at least a first floor above the ground floor [b]which of course a cottage doesn't have![/b] [i]If it DOES have upper storey windows they generally stick out of the roof, and you'll be standing inside the eves of the roof when you look out of those windows.[/i]
So in future, when you're telling the story of your poor grandparents, I reckon THEY would probably benefit if your account resembled something written by someone who actually knows what they're talking about, because trying to score points by telling folks that your grandparents' cottage doesn't have a basement, only tends to suggest that your grandparents' extended progeny ain't too smart. ;)
[i]For future reference you understand.[/i]
One storey in height requires little or no foundations to prevent it from falling over.
