Very little is known about the basement at #2825 Saratoga Trail. It doesn’t feature in any Facebook Live videos. Apparently it was still a “work in progress”.
In photos of other model homes and in the descriptions for model MLS®# 1846125 provision is clearly made for a “Man Cave”.
…head to the basement for an incredible Man Cave entertainment area, complete with a pool table, wet bar with bar stools, home theater room with 120 HD screen, stadium seating and dimmer lighting!…
The fully kitted out Man Cave is supposed to look like this:
In the Scott Peterson case, Laci’s body was likely “processed” in Peterson’s Man Cave – his warehouse located a few minute’s drive from the Peterson’s home on Covena Avenue.
At this point, we have no way of knowing exactly what was in the basement at #2825, but there’s some evidence it was a play area for the children and a storage area for toys, and perhaps other things too. A Mickey Mouse curtain or window cover supports this notion as does a remark made by Shan’ann in one of her Live videos [see below].
https://youtu.be/ENTPDOw0TQ8?t=117
At 1:57 in the clip Shan’ann’s boasting about her daily spring cleaning efforts, and how the children’s clothes are sequestrated and given to others, or packed “in the basement.”
Bella’s clothes, according to Shan’ann, are packed in a container in the basement.
If the Watts basement was still unfinished – like in the Ramsey home – then besides toys, containers and clothes, it may have been used to store sports equipment, Christmas decorations, items of furniture, Chris Watts’ work tools and perhaps chemicals and engine parks too.
A windowless sanctum intended as a home cinema would be an ideal soundproof area to make noise without being heard or seen at night. It could also be used to leave Deeter temporarily, for the same reason.
I don’t want to go in the basement. 🙁
I went to the actual listing for the above-referenced house with the tricked-out man cave basement. It’s the most well furnished room in the entire house. All of the other rooms are sparsely furnished. It’s remarkable how people buy large houses without having the resources to make them home or the time to maintain them. No wonder these houses are typically sold about five years after their initial purchase.
Several years ago there was a movement spearheaded by an architect to return to building human-scale smaller homes that better utilize space and that include architectural details, such as nooks and crannies, that make a house a home. It seems this architect’s call for a return to affordable, livable homes has gone unheeded in favor of large vacuous homes that produce even larger profits for builders and still more stress for hapless homeowners. In the Watts’ case, it appears the house was fairly well furnished, but the resources it took to accomplish that likely contributed to overextending their finances. Maintaining the house also took time and a lot of energy, as Shan’ann discusses in the video. Although she credits Thrive with providing Chris and herself with the energy to work, maintain the home, and still have the capacity to enjoy each other, the house, including the unfinished basement, exists as a vortex sucking all of their resources—time and money—into its cavernous structure. In this sense, the house, along with its unfinished basement, is complicit in imposing the stresses and strains that likely contributed to this family’s tragedy. Therefore, In answer to the question posed here—“what was in the basement”?—unfinished misplaced dreams.
The Not-So-Big House architect? Very cool.
What was in the basement may have been the two girls, awaiting processing, before delivery into the back of the truck.