Working In

Currently Reading: Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface By Shirow Masamune

Yesterday we built a gym. The folks decided that it was time to convert that closet-like room in the back of the house into a room with a purpose. Up until now it was the default computer room, general gathering room for children who didn't want to watch what the grown-ups were watching, and all purpose storage of things we couldn't find a place for anywhere else in the house.

All of this was decided without me of course. I found out about the whole thing during the weekly grocery shopping trip. Apparently my mother had seen some sort of exercise machine at Costco that she wanted and also some flooring material. So, the first thing we did was head over to Costco and pick up that stuff.

Ok, now the room has a purpose, but it's still a closet. Next step, begin the transformation! Ok, really, next step was to move furniture. Had to move the computer out of there of course and find a home for it and generally make space for everything.

The flooring wasn't really all that hard. They sell this stuff in two foot by two foot slabs with edges like you'd find on a puzzle. You start in one corner and just attach it as you need it. It's about an inch to an inch and a half thick of foam with a rubber coating over it, designed to just be picked up and put down as you need it. There's no adhesive or anything. Took about an hour to lay it down but that included moving the exercise equipment from one side of the room to the other so I could lay the stuff down. No problem.

My part of the job was done pretty much at that point. I put the room in order, left plenty of space for the new machine and just let my father handle that. When it coems to those sorts of projects it's best just to get out of his way and let him handle it. He gets a bit barky if you try and help.

So, as of 8 pm or so last night, we have a gym. One treadmill (which is awaiting a part from the repair facility) one stationary bike and one multi-purpose exercise machine. Wonderful. Maybe some day I'll actually have the energy to go use it. For now though, I'm too stiff, sore and tired from moving all that stuff around yesterday :-)