What is a cellar vs. basement to you

Basements and cellars are very different spaces and have different legal uses. A basement is a story of a building partly below curb level but with at least one-half of its height above the curb level. A cellar is an enclosed space having more than one-half of its height below curb level.
 
Cellars and basements are rarities here. Even with two and three story homes, the lowest floor in most homes nearly always street level.

When I lived in NY/NJ, the terms basement and cellar were generally used interchangeably, even within a household. Sort of like saying "upstairs" or "on the second floor" would be.
 

My house has two central HVAC zones. One is a combined HVAC unit on the roof (serves the bedrooms) the other serves the rest of the house and is split between a large AC outside and an about 3' X 3' X 5' heating unit in an indoor closet that was built specifically for that unit.
 
StarSong said:
Cellars and basements are rarities here. Even with two and three story homes, the lowest floor in most homes nearly always street level.

When I lived in NY/NJ, the terms basement and cellar were generally used interchangeably, even within a household. Sort of like saying "upstairs" or "on the second floor" would be.
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Same here in Massachusetts. Terms used interchangeably.
 
My former home had a root cellar which was used for storing produce when it was built in 1850. There was a large wooden bin attached to the ceiling so if the floor was ever flooded there were no wooden legs to rot. Back then, the cellar window was opened a little at night to allow cool air inside. In the morning, the cellar window was closed before it warmed up outside and the pantry door was opened a bit so the cool air could cool the pantry during the day. I used this system since I did not have refrigeration for a number of years.

The wood bin was for storing produce, most likely apples since there were a lot of trees here.
wooden_bin.jpg
 
I grew up in California. Here, a cellar is where you store food, garden veg like potatoes and onions, and food in cans and jars. It's a large pantry, really.

Lots of houses in Cali have basements but they're just big rooms. People use them for a game room or party room, or a second family room. In most high-end homes, the basement is a fully self-sufficient apartment.
 
debodun said:
How are homes without cellars or basements heated? Every house I've lived in had a furnace in the cellar/basement.
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They have "service closets." In newer homes they're usually inside the house or in the attached garage. In older homes they are usually in a lean-to outside the house or in the attached garage.
 
To me a cellar has always been separate from a house, used for storing homemade canned foods and veggies due to its constant cool temp and also used for safety during a threat of a tornado. A basement is below a home or building.
 
I didn't realize those two words referred to different things! Wow - I learned something today! Our house has been here a LOooooong time so I always refer to it as the "creepy basement." Locally we would call it "down cellah" but either way, we try to keep very little down there among the damp and spider webs. A dehumidifier runs all summer and a bulkhead door with stairs opens to the outside for easy access to the furnace, electrical panel and water treatment system for repair people.
 
Here in south (Ms) some homes have basements in case of tornadoes (we don't) some are old and dingy and some or very livable with central air and heat. A cellar is for storing food you canned and fresh veggies you grow as it is cooled by the earth as far as I know and stays a certain temperature year round .
 
I didn't realize until this thread that there were legal definitions. My own private definition would be that a basement has climate-control and a cellar does not. The only cellars in my life were my great-grandmother's which was under her little house and had dirt walls (probably floor too but I don't remember the floor, I remember the walls because one had caved in, the place was creepy. It had ancient canned food.), the other cellar in my life was the coal cellar in an old house we lived in for a few years (room was no longer used, unlike the basement proper).
 
CallMeKate said:
And here... I know that the proper definitions are different, but both are used for the same area of the house.
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Myquest55 said:
I didn't realize those two words referred to different things! Wow - I learned something today! Our house has been here a LOooooong time so I always refer to it as the "creepy basement." Locally we would call it "down cellah" but either way, we try to keep very little down there among the damp and spider webs. A dehumidifier runs all summer and a bulkhead door with stairs opens to the outside for easy access to the furnace, electrical panel and water treatment system for repair people.
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According to Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com, the primary definitions are the same and they're synonyms for one another.
What a person calls it probably mostly depends on what their parents, neighbors and friends called it.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/basement

I never heard of a "front room" before moving to Los Angeles. We had a living room, unless you talked to my grandmother, who had a parlor. A lot of people here have front rooms.

I grew up understanding that porches were big wooden veranda type structures. The few brick or concrete steps to get into a house were known as stoops. No stoops in Los Angeles, they're front or back porches. Potato - potahto, tomato - tomahto.
 

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