Utah basketball player Riley Battin describes his childhood in suburban Los Angeles as a pleasant existence in “a little bubble.”
The storage facility, placed in the family’s backyard and renovated with insulation, drywall, a closet and a portable heater and air conditioner, became Riley’s Room throughout high school. His makeshift housing facilitated the move from Ohio of his grandmother, now 98, into the three-bedroom home with Battin’s parents and younger sister in Westlake Village, Calif.
Friends kidded him about preparing for college, moving 15 feet from the backdoor, while having to come inside to eat and use the bathroom (“We knew we'd see him,” said his father, Lee).