So, I'm sitting here writing a big dramatic scene that involves Buffy breaking down her basement door while still in the kitchen; and it occurs to me... is the basement door even IN the kitchen? Every single fic I've written has made this assumption, but I'm starting to think it might be past the kitchen, around towards the back door (in/near that little sunroom Buffy walked through when her Mom died, maybe?).

I can't do much about it now that I've placed it in the kitchen in so many previous chapters, but now I really want to know if I've been wrong all this time.

Which leads to my next question -- does it drive you crazy when something is logistically off like that in a fic? Or does it not bother you at all?

Good question, and if I weren't so lazy, I'd grab some dvds and try to find out. LOL  I have a mental image of Buffy entering the kitchen in season V (when Joyce had just come home from the hospital and the whatever-it-was was creeping around the house) to find Spike coming out of the basement.  I'm pretty sure they were in the kitchen because he grabbed a kitchen knife and tossed it to Buffy so she could kill the creature.

I guess we all have our own mental images of the Summer's house, Spike's crypt, etc. and, yeah, I think it would throw me a bit if something was wildly off - but I don't think a minor shift would bother me.

Oh, man.

See, there's something you have to know about Buffy's house. It's magic. It grows and sheds rooms, doors, and hallways like most of us change clothes.

I think at some point, the basement door *was* in the kitchen, but it may not have always been there. That sunroom Buffy walked through definitely doesn't exist in some episodes, but the door could be in there when it does exist...

I'm pretty sure I have an approximate floor plan saved somewhere on my computer (because, yes, it DOES drive me crazy, but way more in my own fics than in other people's). If I find it, I'll see what it says about the basement.

I'm pretty sure it's in the kitchen--I don't feel like pulling out my s6 dvds right now, but the ep "Flooded" is the best place to figure it out.  Buffy yells for Spike to open the basement door, and throws that lizard looking demon down the steps before going off about the "No copper repipe" thing.

Well, I think the floor plan was a casualty of switching computers... doesn't seem to be saved on the new one.

I'm gonna go with it's in the kitchen - check out "Listening to Fear" (the ep Slaymesoftly mentioned). Buffy's standing in the kitchen (with the island clearly visible behind her) and Spike comes out of the basement door right in front of her.

I'm not going to go through all the DVDs, but a few other episodes with basement scenes that might show the door, if you really want to know for sure - "What's My Line pt. 2" (Cordelia and Xander running from the bug guy), "Dead Man's Party" (Buffy goes down to get the good plates and finds a dead cat), "Flooded," "Normal Again," or any season 7 episode when Spike was living down there.

Yeah, "Listening to Fear..." I'd say it's across from the counter with the kitchen sink--

Kitchen sink, backdoor center, then basement door (I think).

There are blueprints of the sets on the Season 2 DVD's.  I believe it's in the special features section of the last disk.  I was just looking at them a few weeks ago (good god, I have to get a life), and to the best of my slowly declining memory, the basement door can be seen from the kitchen, but it is in that little sunroom where Buffy threw up in "The Body."  If you think about, it makes sense.  The stairs to the basement would have to be directly under the staircase to the second floor if the building is structurally sound.  The downstairs hallway runs alongside of the second-floor staircase, and then there's a door to the little sunroom, as seen in "Older and Far Away" when Buffy is blowing out Spike's candle.  So, due to the doorway to the sunroom, the staircases would be slightly off center of the sunroom.  Therefore, I deduct with reasonable certainty that, if you are in the sunroom and facing the two doors, the basement door is just to the left of the sunroom doorway.  Again, I'm waaaaaay too obsessed with this stuff. :-P

To answer your question, Nauti, yes, it bothers the crap out of me when there are logistical errors in stories.  It throws off the realness of the story to me.  BUT, as we've indicated here, every little detail cannot possibly be deciphered when the walls of the sets move around like a funhouse :-P  If it's a good story, a logistical error certainly doesn't ruin it.  I'm not THAT obsessive ;-)

Jeebus, IB, make the rest of us look less devoted to the floor plans, why don'tcha?   :P

Jeebus, IB, make the rest of us look less devoted to the floor plans, why don'tcha? :P

Okay, I'll admit, I really AM that obsessive...

LMAO, IB -- and I thought I was OCD! But that was my hunch too -- that it was actually parallel to the main staircase, in the back room. Thanks for the clarification.

I've also written about a zillion fics in which I assumed that Giles' 2nd floor bedroom has four walls and a door. It wasn't until the last one that a beta pointed out to me that it was in fact, a loft. No walls, no doors. I was like, well crap. How could Spike and Buffy have all that sex up there, then?

Ah, well. Good to know I'm not the only one confused. And uh... if you decide to read any of my fic, do me a favor and forget everything IB (and I) just said. ;)

*jedi minds you*

in "Listening To Fear" the door to the basement is in the kitchen area probably just next to it.  When Spike throws the knife to her, the kitchen is shown behind him -

S5 when buffys crying and doing the dishes, i could have SWORN the door's in the kitchen behind her to the left

http://www.answers.com/topic/buffy-s-residence

Basement

The house contained a full basement in which laundry facilities and the hot water tank were located along the back wall and a flight of stairs in the wall to the right led to the outside. The stairs to the basement were entered from the kitchen.

I seem to remember in Flooded that Buffy and Spike fought the demon into the kitchen and then Buffy opened a door to take it to the basement.  Seems like in S7 Spike always popped up in the kitchen from a doorway evidently leading to the basement. 

Kathleen

thanks for the link - great resource site - it was fun seeing some of the locations that I used to visit - I lived in the Santa Monica-Venice Beach area and I also lived close to Torrence while living with my mom.  Of course I have also been to the Ennis House -

Yes, great link, JoJo, thanks for that! At least I know my placement is correct in terms of the actual house.

What I was wrong about: turns out Buffy's room faces the *front* lawn, not the back. (Which makes perfect sense, now that I remember Spike staring up at her bedroom, and Tara being shot from the back yard. noooooo taaraaa) But man, the number of scenes I've written with Buffy seeing something in the back yard from her bedroom window.... Oy vey. I give up.

I think it's ok if a fic doesn't get every physical detail right with locations.  I mean, joy of fiction and all that, right?  Especially when it seems like the foyer and the living room grows and grows and grows during the 7th season.  And doesn't the bathroom seem to have gotten bigger between season 3 and season 6, too?  I wish my house did that!