Our Gym Finally Made it Home!

About a year ago I got free tickets to the Kansas City Auto Show at the convention center downtown. Being a 9+ year Subaru owner, I guess I get some perks. They wanted me to come see the latest model of the Forrester. So, rather than ask me to come to the dealership, they gave me two tickets to the show! Julianne was excited about going to the show...I had never been to one, so we went! It was a cold gray day last winter so it was nice to get to spend it indoors.

What does any of this have to do with a home gym you ask? Well, while walking around the car displays we ran across a little Blue Cross Blue Sheild "wellness" booth. They wanted passers by to sign up for wellness information and a chance to win a pair of shoes or the grand prize of a $1000 gift certificate to a store called Fitness Showcase. We thought, what the heck...they already have our info anyway since we use BCBS for our insurance. So I asked them if we won the shoes if we would have to take the demo shoes from the table or if we could get ones that were the right size?! :) They didnt get my joke. (Heck, I don't get my joke!)

About a week later I got a phone call at my office announcing that I had won the grand prize! I thought Julianne had gotten a friend to call as a joke. I didnt remember exactly what the prize was. Along with the prize I was getting my photo taken with some BCBS big wigs at their corporate gym. The photo has been flashing on their website since last March! (I made sure to dress up in my most "artsy" blazer and tie...knowing full well I wouldnt fit their standard profile!)

Once I got the certificate we planned a trip down to Hwy 435 and State Line Rd (quite a hike from the Northeast where we lived). We met with the salesman who had arranged the prize and he showed us the models of home gyms we could afford with our gift certificate. Let's just say they all cost more than $1000 and the things that were less just didnt look as good as the others. We decided that we would think about the options (knowing that we would probably pay a little more and get a good basic system with some bells and whistles). When we lived in the old house in the city, there really wasnt a place to put a 400lb home gym. Even the basement didnt seem like a good place. Upstairs worried us as the living room ceiling was already cracked. So, we decided to put it all on hold until we got the basement cleaned out or decided to move. Well, we moved!

When we first looked at 1300 County Road B there was one room that we just couldnt quite figure out what to do with. We called it the "dog room" because it was clear that when the previous owners lived here they kept their big dog caged in there (the cage was there when we first looked, but there was also a very hairy papasan chair in there too!) The room is about 9' x 10'. This picture was from the day we looked at the house...not our stuff in the room...(we have better taste! Although they left the papasan...fur and all!)
The floor of the room was black floor tile with pink flecks...the really old kind that you see in church basements or grandma's kitchen floor (probably 1940's vintage and more likely than not...full of asbestos!) We discovered early on that all of the floors in the old part of the house have this flooring under the carpet (ugh...no pretty hardwoods here!) So, what do we do with the "dog room?" We considered moving the laundry room there. I thought we could move the basement stairs back there and make the dining room bigger. We considered making it a library or an office (but it has no window to the outside...the window looks into the laundry/furnace room on the new side of the house!) One day it hit me...it could be the home gym! Finally we have a room with a solid floor (it is concrete under that tile) and it is just big enough to use for that purpose! So we made some plans. Actually, there is a bigger renovation involved that I'll blog about another day that will be taking the weird closet out of the dining room and giving that space back to the Gym room (but that will come later!).

Last week we went to Fitness Showcase and talked with our salesman and ended up paying for the upgrade and scheduled a delivery for the same week! As we drove away we got to thinking...If they set up that 400lb piece of equipment, we'll never replace that flooring! SO, thus the long story to get to the renovation project! We decided to put down flooring in the room BEFORE the system was delivered! We only had 2 days (of course the busy last few days before classes started up again and Julianne had 3 projects going for Keen Bee!) We went to Costco in Midtown KC to look at some click together wood/bamboo flooring we had seen. Then we went next door to Home Depot to compare prices. We ended up getting some of the wood flooring at Costco that looks really nice. So, we came home and step one (after sweeping up years of black dog hair) I sealed the asbestos tile with Kilz paint. (notice the window...that is the one to the laundy room- weird!)

The next day we laid down the moisture barrier (not that we really needed it...the floor is not on the basement level) and I measured for the first cut. The room is not entirely square (few rooms really are...especially in older homes). As I laid out the first few boards my suspicions were confirmed that I needed to rip the first set of boards to the curvature of the wall. Fortunately I had a square grid of floor tiles to base my first cuts from. The exterior wall had a significant slope... almost an entire inch difference from one corner to the other. Once I got that cut (so convenient having a table saw 1 mile away at the college!) it was easy to just click the pieces together. When you get to the end of a row, you cut a board to fit the remaining gap, then the scrap from that piece begins the next row. It is really a neat process. It made me think about the awesome quartersawn oak floors at the old house...I miss all that wood!!!

It actuall was a two night process. I got tired (knees got tired) the first night, then Julianne jumped in and helped me finish the next night. She was really good at the clicking part. I had less patience and wanted to bang them together with the "tapping block."

I finished up the night before delivery of the gym and left the last row unfinished so that when I knock out the closet, we can pick up on flooring installation where we left off. (I want to do that sooner than later, but we are both so busy right now, it will just have to wait!) Eventually, we'll repaint, add some nice thick base board and trim around the window. When we make the room bigger, I plan to put in a salvaged door (15 lite glass door) I found when we lived in the Northeast. I also want to mount a tv to the wall so we can watch our "Sweatin' to the Oldies" VHS tapes. (that last part is a lie!)

So the gym was delivered! It looks really cool. It even came with a poster. We just happened to have a poster frame that fit it exactly (it was left in the guest room when we moved in!)

So, now we just have to get motivated to get in there and use the thing...I'll be buff by Christmas! 6 pack, here I come! See? I'm already on my way!