Where did everyone sleep?"......and, I think the best answer to that would probably be anywhere they could! There were trundle beds, beds that let down from the wall and then were hooked back during the day, box beds, but the luxury of a bed probably would have been reserved for Mom and Dad, if anyone had one. So, pallets on the floor would probably have been the most likely. Privacy was a commodity that came only to those who had the money to provide it, and wasn't the expected norm for most people of that era, and later. Privacy had to be paid for by the folk could afford it. The majority could not, I'd imagine. As far as building on to an existing structure, it would not have been difficult, and could have been accomplished in a good many ways...One, it could have been left as is and been added onto by adding a door to the new structure on one side of the cabin....the cabin could have been in the middle, with new structures on either side and doors into the original cabin, the roof removed from the existing structure and a new second floor built onto both new and the old, incorporated structure.The new structure could have been behind or in front of the original cabin, and made an L on the new structure, etc, etc, etc. Lots of ways of doing this. But cabins of this early type, by their very nature of being erected quickly, NEVER had a basement. Most all probably had dirt floors...after all, shelter was first on the list of needs, and speed was a must. No one would have dug a basement...that would have been unheard of in a frontier cabin. The more substantial homes of the time, no matter where they were in the eastern colonies, might well have had one, but not a cabin, no matter if it were in NC or PA. A basement was another of those luxuries that came with a better, more substantial building. There are many documented cases where the new immigrants in PA lived in caves which were really holes that were dug out of a bank , where families lived till they built their permanent dwellings. Also, don't "buy" anything unless it comes with the documentation that proves it's so! This is the watchword of all genealogists.... documentation ......and the absolute only way we can know something is so! We can make educated guesses about some things, based on what was the norm was in certain areas, how certain religions influenced the members, and things of this sort. But, it all finally comes down to proof, doesn't it. S.