Fortify

To adults, the space under the stairs was a place to store christmas ornaments and other seasonal stuff. It had to be kept relatively clean, because that is where the water main entered the house. Just a crawl space behind a closet with a sloping ceiling, nothing interesting at all. But to a child, it was a fort. He put down linoleum that was left over from the kitchen, hung up his father's Boy Scout paraphenalia, and put a stack of Hardy Boys mystery books next to a musty sleeping bag. There was a bare sixty watt light bulb, but this child preferred a flashlight. When they moved away from that house, the little crawlspace reverted back to storage.