Back in 2012, when we first moved into our house, the basement was completely unfinished. We piled up our holiday decorations, the furniture that didn't fit upstairs, and all our old moving boxes and made a maze on the cement floor, then tried to encourage the kids to have some fun zooming in and out of the piles on their scooters.

Of course, the kids (then aged 8, 11 and 14) pronounced the basement "too creepy" to play in (since there was only one tiny window), so it became a sad and lonely space fit only for spiders and the occasional foray searching for the elusive Easter baskets.

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See the exciting Before and After progression of this unloved space into a cozy and popular reading nook!