crawl space or slab

My mom bought a lab house when I was a teen. Oh how we hated that house! It was always cold and the floor was hard and uncomfortable, even with carpet installed. And it tended to leak in the corners in really wet stormy weather.

I've seen a couple different ways of doing the crawlspace thing. One is an open area underneath which will last for years if there is no wood in contact with the ground. The other is a vented crawlspace which also has to have no wood in contact with the ground. In both you have to insulate the floor. Give yourself plenty of working room if you decide to do the crawlspace.

Personally I would check into the cost and practicality of digging out a full size basement. Boulders can be broken down and dug out. Might not be as bad as you think. Besides, you would have a tornado shelter. Something to consider in tornado country.

If you cannot dig out the basement, you can always push dirt up around the walls and call it a basement I suppose