The New Gym

We are three weeks into the New Year and I’ve still not written about an important development that took place over the holidays.

I mentioned last fall that we were looking to convert part of our unfinished basement into a workout room. S had an appropriately bougie plan that would fit the rest of our home’s design. We brought in a contractor that had done good work for some friends. It took a few weeks but eventually we got a quote that was reasonable. We were waiting for an opening in his schedule, but it looked like he would be able to start by Halloween, at the latest, and would be finished before Thanksgiving.

Then we hit a snag. Or rather, our he did. After Halloween passed without work beginning he admitted that while he was serious about the project, his framing/drywall guys viewed it as a quick job that wouldn’t make them much money. So they kept pushing bigger, more lucrative jobs ahead of ours. Three different times he gave us a start date. Each time it came and went with no work begun.

A week before Christmas we got sick of waiting and pulled the plug. It was a bummer but at least we hadn’t paid him a dime yet.[1] Plus I could just keep going to the Y to workout.

A couple days later we made a Costco run and found some foam floor tiles on display. While we had hoped for heavy duty wood flooring, these would be perfect for a gym. And be way less expensive than the high-end product in our original plan. We measured our space and the next day I returned to Costco and literally filled my car with floor tiles. $350 well spent!

When we installed them they were a nearly perfect fit! We ordered an exercise bike and weight rack. While waiting on those to ship we moved our 25 year old treadmill from the extra bedroom into our new exercise room. The new equipment trickled in slowly, but a couple days after Christmas everything was set up. Once we hung a TV on the wall we were in business.

It isn’t as bougie as S had hoped, but it’s functional as hell!

Not framing in the walls saved us some space. It would have felt a lot tighter had it been built as we hoped. Lots of gyms have an “industrial” feel with exposed ductwork, so the lack of a finished ceiling matches that vibe.[2] We don’t have enough power outlets or lighting, something that would have been corrected by licensed contractors. For the meantime we have a heavy duty extension cord and lamp that fulfill our needs. At some point we will see if any of our friends with electrical skills can assist in adding some lighting.

I admit it has been nice on very cold days to just walk downstairs without having to get bundled up for the two minute walk to the Y. With a generic rack it takes a little more work on my part to go from exercise to exercise, but that’s a minor complaint. I still need to do some research to replace a few elements of my workout plan on the different equipment, but for the time being I can get 80–90% of my Old Man Plan in. I’ve worked out 19 of the first 22 days of the year, so a better start than I had in 2025.

L is excited about it, as she will be able to workout at home once she’s not taking weight lifting at school anymore. And S is integrating working out into her schedule. If only it was possible to swim in our pool during the winter I’d have just about the perfect setup for my exercise needs.[3]