Turns out - it was something we had not even thought of

 

We were under the impression they didn’t exist in Florida.  Fact is, just under two hours ago I discovered we have a basement.  I was looking for my old but favorite shirt.  It was made by Moose Creek, it is lined and very, very comfortable.  Yes, it is a bit tattered, but I can’t just toss it out.  We have a history.

Anyway, because I haven’t seen it in a while, I thought it might be in the guest bedroom closet.  That room is on the opposite side of the house from our bedroom, so I wasn’t worried about waking anyone else up by snapping the light on.  Opening the closet door, the first thing I saw were a stack of plastic tubs, with lids.  They are the ones left over from our move here.  I knew they would slide easily on the carpet, so I gently pulled them out into the room.  The overhead shelves were piled with winter blankets and extra pillows.  I smiled at the thought of Florida winter blankets.

Then, what at first I thought was a thin split in the paint at the far end of the closet, turned out to actually be more of an architecturally induced division. In other words, this looked intentional.  I couldn’t believe we had not noticed this before, but the guest room closet was never our focus.  Two cardboard boxes were stacked behind where the tubs had been, so I slid those out into the room and then flipped on the light inside the closet.  Once I pulled the carpet back a little along the baseboard, I could see the small lip on what was obviously a pull-up door.

I bent down and gently pulled it up.  It seemed to operate on a system of weights, sort of like the trap door in the garage ceiling that leads up into the attic.  I could hear the system groan, most likely from inactivity.

Anyway, as I lifted the door, I could see little flex of paint chip off from around the edge of the doorway.  It must have been painted over.  When it was about halfway open, I noticed a string attached to a clip on the back, or underside of the door.  The string was getting pulled as the door opened and then, just as the door seemed like it was as open as it was going to get, a light in the basement snapped on.  How cool is that?

The wooden stairs leading down looked relatively new.  There was a handrail along the right side of the stairs, but something told me to get a flashlight before I headed down.  I didn’t want to trust some rarely used lightbulb as my only source of light once I was down there.  Beside the light coming on, the second thing I noticed was the air temp.  It felt like much cooler air than the temperature of the guestroom.

Now I was wondering if there was yet another door down there leading outside.  The slight breeze had to be coming from somewhere.  I went back out to the kitchen and got a small flashlight from the junk drawer.  As I turned to head back to the guest bedroom, Claudia came walking out from the master.

“Oh good, are you making coffee?”

Well, actually I’m headed downstairs.

“What are you talking about.  What downstairs?”

I discovered we have a basement.  The door is in the guestroom closet.  I just came out here for this flashlight.

“I think you were dreaming.  We live in Florida, this house doesn’t have a basement.”

Follow me and see for yourself.

At that point she followed me back into the guestroom.  Her first comments were about the plastic tubs I had dragged out into the room.

Just wait, you’ll see.  It’s right in here.

No sooner did we enter the guestroom, she commented on the musty feel to the air. 

That is coming up from the basement.

I slipped the small flashlight into my pocket and started down the steps.  Claudia was right behind me.  I could feel her hanging onto my shirt.

We were surprised to see a dirt floor.  It was not a finished basement, as I had hoped, but rather a collection of stray lumber and general construction materials.  I looked back to make sure she was wearing her slippers. 

“What?”

There may be nails or staples around, I just wanted to make sure you were wearing shoes or slippers.

The light from the bulb overhead only went so far, so I got my flashlight out and slowly pointed it around into the shadows.

There wasn’t much of anything down there, but I did see another door on the far wall.

“Look at all this storage.”

Yes, but look over here.  This seems to lead outside.  If we are facing the direction I think we are, the lake should be out this way.

Our house sets on a cliff, and about 35 feet down is North Lake.  I was getting excited to pull this door open and see where it was taking us.

There was a latch on the door, but no lock.  I lifted the latch, but before pulling or pushing on the door, I told Claudia to get ready to head back towards the stairs.  It is altogether possible there could be alligators curled up sleeping just on the other side.  If there are, the opening of this door will startle them, and we shouldn’t be the first thing they see.

If this door opens up at the base of the cliff, we could maybe build a small boat launch, or a pier.

"Be careful.  If there are alligators on the other side of the door, then they have already heard us talking."