I've been digging for "before" pictures. Below is all I can find right now. The walls were urine yellow and sloppily patched all over. The carpet was nasty stained, and was full of cat pee smell. You aren't seeing things, that is in fact door molding used as base board trim. The lighting was horrible. Notice on the wall near the return air grill that there is a neat little array of outlets and connections in the new pictures. Those were randomly all over that wall before at all heights and angles!
That monstrosity of a fireplace was where the hearth stone is in the other pic. When we first toured the house, we thought it was a real fireplace.

It is being replaced with a nice little corner fireplace that will go in the corner beside the door to the garage.
The original windows were aluminum and single pane glass. They were drafty and let in all kinds of bugs. They didn't even open because the finished drywall overlaps the outer frame. That basement hadn't had ventilation in probably more than 20 years. Since we put in new windows in the fall, there hasn't been a single bug or spider web. The tax credit was nice too!