The only progress I made in the home gym this week was to get the room completely cleared out. That was a much bigger job than I had anticipated. I’ve started on clearing this room out several times this year, only to bring more stuff in later. And evidently, every time I brought more stuff into the room, it was the stuff that didn’t have a home anywhere else in the house. So as I took it out this time, I had absolutely no idea where to put it. Most of it can probably be thrown out or given away, but that’s an hours-long project for a later date. Right now, it’s all been divided between my little studio storage room and the sunroom where it will live until I’m finished with the home gym. And since the next project on my list is to finally finish the studio, those boxes and stacks of stuff will have to be dealt with at that time.
But for now, it’s out of my way at least for this project. And now with all of that out of the way, I can show you exactly what I’m working with, and the several challenges this room presents as I kick off this project.
The first challenge was a complete oversight on my part when I was having the new drywall installed and having the new wiring run for the lights. I completely forgot to put a light in this long entrance into the room, so this area is very dark.
So I might have to get into the attic and run some wiring over to this area so I can add another light. It’s hard to tell right now if that’s really needed, though, because right now the entire room is being lit by two light bulbs. I haven’t yet installed the recessed lights (there’s wiring for six right now), so really, the entire room looks pretty dark.
Another challenge is that this room has the scuttle hole for the crawl space beneath the house, as well as the attic access. And they’re both in this area that used to be a closet.
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The cover for the scuttle hole to the crawl space has the original flooring attached to it, and I don’t think I can get it off. So I’ll probably have to cut a new piece of plywood to cover the scuttle hole, measure exactly where it’s located from each wall, put it in place to install the new flooring, and then use my circular saw and jigsaw to cut through through the new flooring to free the scuttle hole cover. Did that make sense? That’s one of those projects that I’ve been dreading and putting off. Hopefully, it’ll be much easier than what I have built up in my mind.
Anyway, the flooring in the new extended entrance into this room is mostly installed, but I’m still missing about two pieces right where the hallway flooring and the flooring in this room meet. That’s another one of those projects I’ve been dreading and putting off.
Behind this piece of foam insulation is the future master bathroom, which is completely torn down to the floor joists, studs, and ceiling joists right now. So I have to keep the foam insulation board up so to keep the warm air from that area out of this room as much as possible. That project was put on hold due to our contractor’s schedule, but it looks like it should start soon.
From that long entrance into the room, this is the first wall that you see straight ahead. This is the wall where the Swedish ladder will go.
And it will look like this…
I decided to go with this design with the stripes in the middle. It was my favorite from the beginning, and I’ve decided to use faux wood blinds and continue the design right on the blinds. I don’t think I’ve used those faux wood blinds since our first house in Albany, Oregon, that we lived in for three years after we got married. I never thought I’d use those again (woven Roman shades have been my go-to window coverings since then), but after considering several different options to paint on, and imagining how the painted design would look when they’re open (Roman shades, roller shades, etc.), I think the faux wood blinds are the best options, and I feel very confident I can paint them fairly easily.
So I’ll have three windows that will have painted blinds on them — the two side windows, as well as this one that looks out towards the front yard.
Another challenge will be the electrical panel that’s located in this room. That area used to be a closet tucked away behind a closed door, but now it’s out in the open. My plan right now is to paint right over it. Since it’s metal, I’ll probably take the front cover off and take it outside and prime it with an oil-based primer. Then I’ll carry the wall design right over it.
This area used to be closet space for two rooms. The right half was the closet for this room, and the left half was a closet for the guest bedroom. I had the door into the closet from the guest bedroom removed and drywalled over, and then had the wall between the closets removed, and both sides opened up to this room.
I considered having the closet walls removed completely and just making the room one large, open rectangle, but I reconsidered. This way, if we ever want to turn this room into a regular bedroom, the closet walls are already there, and I’d just need to build a little separator in the middle of that wide opening, and add two sets of bi-fold doors. And voila! We’d have a big closet in this room.
And a final challenge in this room is that I have a rotting floor board. I have absolutely no idea what’s causing this, and it’s gotten worse since we bought the house, but this one floor board in the room is literally rotting away. Whatever is affecting it has no affect on the boards around it or on the subfloor. It’s very strange.
I noticed it before we bought the house, and I thought maybe it was termite damage. So we had the house inspected for termite damage, and there was no indication anywhere else of damage. But it has definitely gotten worse over the last 7.5 years since we’ve been here. There’s still no indication of termites, and the fact that the damage stops at the borders of this particular board and doesn’t affect anything around it tells me that we’re not dealing with bugs. This is something particular to this single floor board. Have y’all ever seen anything like this?
Anyway, I’m not really inclined to replace it since this whole floor will be covered completely with the foam gym flooring, but I do need to fill it in with something. If we ever want to use the room for something else in the future, I’ll replace the board at that time.
And then I have this subfloor issue in the closet area. Our house was built around 1948, and plywood wasn’t really widely used (at least not in this area) at that time for subfloors. So all of our original subfloors are 1″ x 10″ lumber. I’ve come across many knot holes in the subfloors over the years, and in fact, there are about five knot holes just in this closet area. Those don’t bother me. But this board also has a big area about 1.5″ x 10″ broken completely off. I’m not really sure how to handle this because new 1-inch lumber is thicker than this older stuff, which creates a little ridge where the two meet. It’s not a big deal, but it’s a problem I faced when replacing some of the subfloor boards in the kitchen.
Honestly, I may just leave it. Being in the closet area, and so close to the wall, I can’t imagine it ever causing a problem. So I may just put my barrier paper over it, install the new hardwood flooring over it, and not give it another thought. If it were in the middle of the floor in the room, I’d be more bothered about it.
So that’s the room as it stands right now. It’s ready for primer and paint, and it will start looking very different very soon. As in, today. And speaking of paint, I’ll end this post filled with ugly pictures with this beautiful sight. I headed to Home Depot yesterday afternoon and bought all of my beautiful paint colors for the striped walls.
I can’t wait to get those fifteen gorgeous colors on my walls!! I’ll give y’all the names of all of the colors when I get them on the walls and you can actually see them better. But I wanted to leave you with a taste of what’s to come. I’m excited!
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
I hope you’ll join me on my DIY and decorating journey! If you want to follow my projects and progress, you can subscribe below and have each new post delivered to your email inbox. That way you’ll never miss a thing!
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