A little sidetracked... Garage Gym Edition

No matter how much we want to finish the kitchen, we have other distractions- I mean projects- ongoing.  I could walk around our house and point out at least a half dozen things we’re about to start on or have started working on, but remain unfinished because something else takes priority.  This was one of them.

 I was psyched for this space... then I remembered my fitness equipment consisted of a couple dumbbells and running sneakers.  Whoops.

We love where we live, but there are drawbacks to living miles away from grocery stores and shopping centers.  Luckily we can easily drop by the grocery store and most places on our way home from work, but one thing we’ve had trouble with working back in is the gym.  Our old condo had a few gyms within a couple miles, but now we have one small gym 10 minutes away that costs twice as much.  Throw in a kid and crazy schedules and you know there’s no way we’ve made the time to get there.  

We’re lucky in that we have an awesome trail for walking, biking and walking right behind our house but we’ve been itching for a closer place to get our sweat on without having to plan for childcare.  When we found our house, one of the past owners was a fitness trainer and converted half the garage into a gym.  Score!  We didn’t have any equipment to put in it when we moved, so like most large, unused spaces in a home, it turned into random storage.

No matter how hard you try, after a couple years, any empty space becomes a dumping ground of sorts.

That is, until now.

Earlier this year, we got a Bowflex.  Our thought was we could use it in the basement until we had time to fix up the garage.  As soon as it arrived I couldn’t wait to open up all the boxes. There are 17 steps to assemble a Bowflex.  On step 16, I found out that the height needed for assembly is greater than the height the box said it needed to function.  I couldn’t finish putting it together.  No amount of measuring beforehand led me to believe this would happen.  I was bummed, and frankly a bit mad I spent so long putting it together with nothing to show for it.   

Naturally, the first thing I did was start figuring a plan to fix up the garage as soon as possible. The flooring was VCT, vinyl composition tile, aka the same stuff they use in schools and hospitals and a practically everywhere else.  It’s cheap, extremely durable and easy to clean.  Well, when it’s done right.  Which if you couldn’t guess, was not the case for the garage gym.  The floor wasn’t leveled before it was laid and there are water problems, so the tiles were pretty much laying on top of the adhesive, which itself was barely attached to the floor underneath.  

At least that makes it easier to remove, right?

(Not quite. But I'll talk about that later.)

Here’s the rundown of what we’re doing to make this into a usable gym, a process we have already started.

First, we’re going to try to stop water from coming in the garage.  The back of the building and one side is built into the slope of our property so any heavy rain brings in water.  Starting with the easiest solution first, we’re going to try putting extra mulch sloping away from the building to draw the water away.  Hopefully that solves the problem so we don’t need to do something more involved.  

Then we’re going to address the floor. (Hello, floor!)  We’ll rip out the old flooring and refinish the floor with epoxy.  

Last step will be to fix and paint the walls.  One wall has a lot of old adhesive on it that will need to be scraped away, and there is some water damage to fix at the bottom.  

All in all, after a couple weekends of work it should be functional.  That is, if we don't get distracted again!