I like our basement. Most people don’t, in fact I think the majority are scared of it: the long darkness wherein lurks Something.*
It is usually in summer that I am reminded of my fondness for the basement. I really do find anything over 70 to be too Hot and as for sun… The basement is always blessedly dark and cool. Even more so than the house, which is designed to be dark and cool. And there are those deep dark corners. But then, I like cities at 3 am too.
It has its oddments: the working guts of a big modern structure from pipes to wires. The five fuse boxes, genuine fuses mind, and the master switches. The remnants of the phone put in by the good Dr. Bell himself, the old furnace, the new furnace, the tires for some early Model T. The exterior window that leads nowhere…and hasn’t since 1874. The door that can’t be closed….because of the pipe for the plumbing put in 1913.** The water in the spring, that however is channelled neatly back out again (those old builders knew their job). The double foundations and crawl spaces. Clutter, lots, more than it should have, I am sure.
*The worst I have ever encountered is a snake and memorably a salamander. The cats keep the rodents down.
**Has anyone else noticed that that door is not in fact the old exterior door? It appears to have been attached to the southern addition when it was put in place. Why? And why with a window?
Acair Fearann 
Now that I’m 70+ I can agree that it’s a perfectly nice basement. But when I was 4+, and sent down there on some errand, and had to go the length of it in the gloom, past the monster furnace, and then was met with indulgent chuckles when I re-emerged terrified . . . no, I didn’t like it then!
It helped A Lot when those west windows were reopened.
And, I will admit, it took me years to not be creeped out by the old furnace, removing the duct work to extricate the cat reduced its air of looming menace quite a bit.