When we moved into our house last summer, we had several ideas for this small, extra room off of our basement: possibly an office, possibly a music room for Chad's drums and guitars, or perhaps a small gym? A year later, we had still done nothing with the room, but we had a strong inkling that there was mold behind the wall, so at the bare minimum, we had to rip out the drywall and insulation and scrape/clean any mold we found. And boy, did we find mold:
After cleaning up the insulation and ridding the room of all mold, this is what it looked like. We left it with all the ceiling tiles and drywall still in the floor, unmotivated to do anything else with the room once we at least knew that it was mold-free.
Then, almost out of the blue, Chad decided to jump on my dream of having a home gym. While I had always wanted some workout equipemnt for the house, I knew the chances of me using it often would be slim--I exercise at work Mon-Fri and I like the save the weekends for runs/walks with Charlie. But, Chad realized that if the equipment was available at home, he would be more likely to use it and workout hard, plus we could cancel his membership at LA Fitness, saving that money. Once he had the idea, we moved quickly. In 2 hours, the room went from the above picture to this one, all cleaned and swept:
Then, thanks to a whole day of devoted work and equipment-purchasing by Chad and our friend Drew, this is what the room became less than 24 hours later!
All I had to do was add my finishing touches to the "ambience" of the room, and it was set! It turned into my perfect idea of creating a small, industrial-looking space into a gym with everything you need for a great workout!
The only con of a home gym is that my husband now thinks it's acceptable to workout in an undershirt, paint-stained shorts, and tall black socks..... :)
