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Old 12-31-2008, 02:01 PM
 
Location: Kennebec County, Maine
87 posts, read 251,837 times
Reputation: 77

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Now that you know that you have a choice of : BASEMENT or NO BASEMENT, consider the cellar. The cellar, which was used for the root vegetables and storage of wood. Then came the basement, which was and is often poorly built, with all kinds of pipes buried in the cement, and with all kinds of mistakes made beyond that, such as no egress. Cellars always have a "rollway" door. Utility closets are the best for the furnaces and plumbing, but I have seen slabs in two different houses with the plumbing all sealed up. No door. Have to break down a wall to get at what should have been in a water closet. I have one neighbor in Kennebec County who built a slab, a gorgeous slab, and was so sorry about not having a cellar that he put one under his barn. PERFECT. Now all the rats and mice can go there. The water can go there. He can go there, as he has egress. And he can store his winter root vegetables in tin garbage cans. There.
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Old 12-31-2008, 02:20 PM
 
Location: Teton Valley Idaho
7,395 posts, read 13,098,129 times
Reputation: 5444
hmmm... I'm thinking the entire "basement" "cellar" definitions must be too refined for my 160+ IQ... here in the real world that is....
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Old 12-31-2008, 02:21 PM
 
Location: WV
1,325 posts, read 2,971,999 times
Reputation: 1395
Now, I'm really confused - I don't know if I have a basement or a cellar. In Eastport it has a heavy bulkhead door, not a roll type door to the outside or egress. Concrete floor and there are no pipes, furnace or water heater under the floor or walled up. I can get there from the kitchen or the outside.

Now, see, I thought a water closet was simply that - a toilet in a closet - so it's supposed to have the furnace and water heater in there too?

So, someone please clear up my confusion. Do I have a cellar or a basement and is my water closet really not a water closet?

I'm a pretty literal person so I need a literal answer please.
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Old 12-31-2008, 02:30 PM
 
Location: Forests of Maine
37,453 posts, read 61,366,570 times
Reputation: 30397
Quote:
Originally Posted by mollysmiles View Post
hmmm... I'm thinking the entire "basement" "cellar" definitions must be too refined for my 160+ IQ... here in the real world that is....
From what I have see a 'basement' is underneath a house.

A cellar is an underground storage room for storing tubers or explosives. Sometimes a basement could serve as a cellar. But often a cellar is dug into the side of a slope, with no house over it.
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Old 12-31-2008, 02:33 PM
 
Location: Forests of Maine
37,453 posts, read 61,366,570 times
Reputation: 30397
Quote:
Originally Posted by corgis View Post
... Now, see, I thought a water closet was simply that - a toilet in a closet - so it's supposed to have the furnace and water heater in there too?

So, someone please clear up my confusion. Do I have a cellar or a basement and is my water closet really not a water closet?

I'm a pretty literal person so I need a literal answer please.
Among plumbers a 'water closet' is the water tank that sits above a toilet. Either directly on top of the toilet or up above head height with a pipe connecting it to the toilet.
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Old 12-31-2008, 02:37 PM
 
Location: Teton Valley Idaho
7,395 posts, read 13,098,129 times
Reputation: 5444
lol.... corgis, you just proved my point! It's not really all black and white is it?

Now the house in Calais is a raised ranch, so the ? is finished... so is it a basement?? the house in Eastport has a ? like yours... no pipes in cement... there is an old toilet down there... no separate boiler room.... very old, um.... 180 years or so....

so, no sense splitting hairs.
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Old 12-31-2008, 03:55 PM
 
Location: Maine
6,631 posts, read 13,538,229 times
Reputation: 7381
I'll add to the confusion. We have a cellar under the old farm house portion of the house. We do use it to store vegetables. The floor is dirt. The walls are typical field stone gathered when new landowners were clearing land for farming. The stones were used for cellar walls and rock walls. You enter our cellar through the door on the back porch floor. You can walk through the cellar into the foundation under the new portion of the house - the basement. It's a common enclosed foundation basement. Next?
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Old 12-31-2008, 06:47 PM
 
Location: augusta
124 posts, read 279,897 times
Reputation: 195
Our house was built in 1893. It once had a dirt floor, then at sometime a cement floor was poured, so now we have a cellment or a basellar ?? What would be the correct term for my 99.99% dry underground dwelling where nothing of mine is allowed to enter and ruin the perfect manlyness.
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Old 12-31-2008, 07:21 PM
 
Location: Hidin' out on the Mexican border;about to move to the Canadian border
732 posts, read 1,340,619 times
Reputation: 305
You can walk through the cellar into the foundation under the new portion of the house

You walk into the foundation? That must hurt.
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Old 12-31-2008, 07:29 PM
 
Location: Teton Valley Idaho
7,395 posts, read 13,098,129 times
Reputation: 5444
MW Casper's worried about you!
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