Before & After- Well House/Gym

Wow- we took quite a bit of a blog break!

We've been busy the past few weeks with getting Well House turned Gym into shape!

Back last year, we had started to get it set up, but two weeks ago we decided to get in there with paint and really make it a space for the boys to work out in.

The first thing we had to do was get the electrician in to run the electric inside the walls, and then demo all of the old electrical tracking that was affixed throughout the room.

We also demo'd the little corner cabinet that contained an old breaker box, which was removed.  We decided to keep the shelves for some open storage.

The electrician also installed a ceiling fan (which you can kinda see in the after photo below...)

Then we painted the ceiling and walls.  Both have bead-board running horizontally- it was kinda a pain to get the paint in there!

For the walls, we used the same "Wet Pavement" gray that we used in the master bedroom.

We painted the well/pump "closet" gray, so that it would blend in better (that's the big brown paneled box in the left side of the before photo!).

And the built-in shelf got a fresh coat of white, with yellow along the back.

Here's a close up of the shelf:

We decided to decorate with the kids' wrestling trophies & medals.

For the medals, we painted and hung a board along one wall and used finishing nails to hang the medals from.  I spaced the nails evenly the whole way across, and split the Gold, Silver & Bronze medals into groups so that they can hopefully add more!

Here's the view looking in from the doorway:

I hope to add a mirror on the blank wall.

Here's a reversal of the room, looking back at the door:

We also framed & hung a photo of Team USA wrestler, James Green- a wrestler that the boys admire.

We still have some odds & ends to finish up, but we've already been out there getting our workouts in!  I think we'll get a tv to hang behind the weight bench, and we're also checking out thin wall radiators that can hang (since there's no heat in there for winter-time).

During my blogging break, I wasn't organizing my photos... so I'm going to get back in the habit of doing that and try to update with more that we've been working on in the past 10 months!  

I really do have to get back into the swing of it, since there were several times that I've come back here to check on things like when we bought our fridge (which is on the fritz!), or how high the water was in the bomb shelter when we moved in (there's a project underway with that!)  

So it's been great having the blog to go back and figure out these things!

Well House- Working it out

The well house has been used mostly for a play area and storage space since we moved in.  We have been tossing around ideas of how we want to update & use it for the long term.

With the boys getting older, and focusing on sports more, we decided to make it into a little gym.

Now that the kitchen renovation is done, we decided to start working on putting it together.

The first step was to clean it out...  a lot easier said than done!  

We've moved most of this stuff out to go for a yard sale or to donate.  

My gold antique loveseat was moved into the parlor (I will update photos of that room soon!)

The secretary desk has been moved into the living room, but we need to re-veneer the front of the three drawers.  That will be a winter project!

My antique Lincoln couch is still in the corner out there.  Not ideal, but it needs to be re-upholstered, and I want to keep it safe & dry (and it is too heavy & long to move to the attic).   

There will be more updates to come... 

We've picked out the paint colors, but this past week has been too hot to be painting out there.

The rug is in good shape (we peeked underneath to see if there were hardwood floors, but unfortunately, it's just plywood sub-flooring)

For now, we've moved the exercise equipment in:

The built in shelves will provide some good storage in there.

Here's a list of what still needs to be done:

-painting

-re-run the electric

-install heating

-decorating 

-adding equipment

Happily, the boys have been out there using it already!  I still go to the real gym to do my group classes, but this gives me another option to get a workout in.  It's a lot of fun to work out with the kids!