Well, Grandma said it wasn't a cellar because Grandad had finished it some and had a bed and a tv down there, and because he kept it too warm down there in the wintertime to keep produce in. They called the one at my uncle's place in Plainview a cellar because it stayed the right temperature to keep food in most of the year. You wouldn't want to spend the night in there unless you were adventurous.

You're right though. No one I know has a cellar up in Washington. It's either a basement or a crawlspace.