I hate being cold.
But since I live in North Carolina I have to deal with it every winter.
A few weeks ago our first winter forecast called for low temps in the single digits. I thought about how cold I’d be walking the dogs. I thought about how I’d be shivering for hours while I was working out in my unheated garage. I dreaded it.
As much as I enjoy working out at home, whenever the temperatures outside drop below freezing, I cannot stay warm in my garage.
It’s times like this when I think about moving back to Florida.
But, as I’ve written before, I’m not going anywhere. My days of relocating every few years are over.
One morning as I ruminated about the upcoming cold snap I thought:
I wish I could heat my garage the same way I heat my house. If it was well insulated and connected to the furnace, I could turn up the heat at a touch of the button on my thermostat. Too bad I could never afford the cost of doing a project like this, let alone the increased energy bills that would result.”
Then I had an epiphany:
I’ve got an entire house that is well insulated with central heat! Maybe I could work out in the house instead of the garage.
This led me to create a plan to convert my upstairs bedroom into my gym. I measured the floor space and ceiling height to determine if it was sufficient for my pull-up rig, rings and exercise requirements. It was tight, but doable.
Then I had another epiphany:
My living room is huge and has a cathedral ceiling. I wonder if I could workout there.
To make a long story short, that is exactly what I did.
Everything I use is stored out of sight when not being used except the pull-up bar mounted on the wall. At first I worried the pull-up bar would ruin the aesthetics of my living room. Then, I thought, who cares? The only person who lives in this house in me. I have had a total of 3 visitors in my home for a few hours during the past 7 years. I should do whatever I want to make my daily life more comfortable. I can always go back into the garage if I want to.
After a few days I already know I’m not going back to the garage. Working out in the living room is fantastic. It’s warm, open and spacious. I have beautiful floors, clean minimal furnishings and my new windows that provide a view of the dawn, the morning sunshine and the outside world. It’s like working out at a five-star resort spa or a celebrity’s multimillion dollar home gym – minus the expense.
My total cost for this project was about 4 hours of planning and 4 hours of work.
Note:
I should have done this years ago.
That should be the second line on my tombstone. The first line should be “This took longer and cost more than I expected“.