You can see the stairs coming down from the first floor. This is the long view of one side of the basement. This is the miniaturist's craftroom and the furnace area. The black "thing" sitting behind the water heater is an oil conversion tank. I wouldn't let my husband put a coal bin in the basement, so he said we would just HAVE to have an oil conversion system. Because I wanted a basement in this house, my husband suggested we keep the area under the front and back yards for storage. These areas are covered with paper mache and painted gray to simulate rock. You can see how the sides are then carved away to explose the sides of the basement for viewing.
Cleaning supplies are in the little cubby hole in front of the storage area holding the large transformer that operates the electricity in the dollhouse. The "electrical service box" on the wall is actually a handle that allows access to the storage area. The pantry area under the stairs holds a Coke machine music box that my husband received when he was a child. It was a gift from a friend who worked for Coca Cola. The minute I saw it, I knew it was going in my dollhouse someday. The miniaturist of the house is busy creating a roombox. The scene in the flower pot was a round table at the National in Kansas City.
These three pictures show the miniaturist's craft room and her supply of roomboxes and works in progress. The copper-top table was made in a workshop and the little roomboxes and dollhouses were gifts and round tables at a Missouri State Day several years ago. The Christmas scene in the dome was made by Kay O'Brien. The "I 'Heart' Minis" bag holds Chrysnbon kits ready to complete.
This is the other side of the basement which has the laundry room and the workshop.
Close up of laundry room. I made the clothespins hanging on the line out of toothpicks (there are also some in the metal laundry tub, but you can't see them. The shelf on the right holds laundry detergent and cleaning supplies and even light bulbs. My husband made the all the shelving units in the basement and the base for the laundry sink. The folding clothes rack is by Lucy Iducovich. I knitted the sweater from supplies and pattern by Amy Doucette, Handworks.
Two views of the workshop. The shopvac was made from a film canister turned upside down. My husband "turned" the top for the motor and shaped a piece of wood for the vacuum wand. The hose is a piece of nylon cord painted black. The shopvac has an electrical cord and plug. The rolltop desk is in the process of being refinished by the "man of the house." The desk has significance because for many years we had one in our real basement waiting to be refinished.
My huband built the table saw, modeled after his own. It has a cord and a plug. All the electrical tools in the workshop have plugs.
The gardening area is in the cubby hole on the other side of the storage area. See the little red hand sprayer sitting on the ledge of the basement wall?
The furnace room holds my husbands inventions. The furnace and the hot water heater were made from PVC pipe. The doors were cut from another piece of pipe and glued on. He then put nails in to look like rivets and painted the whole thing silver. The little pipe connecting to the water heater is a bendable straw painted silver. The pipes run the length and width of the basement in the rafters. The shelving unit on the left wall is filled with dog food, cat food, bird seed and there is a kitty litter box (complete with kitty) on the floor to the right of the water heater (not seen in picture). The bags on the floor are kitty litter.
