Home Gyms and Kitchens

Despite all my years I still feel like a little boy inside. I have a difficult time looking in the mirror and seeing a fully realized mature man. You would have thought the delivery of my second child might have altered it, yet I still appear to be in self-denial of the aging process.

Speaking of aging — or rather putting it off — my wife and I moved into a new home and this house possesses enough room in the basement for a exercise room my dear wfe has always desired. I’m seeing dollar signs when I think about all the diverse things required, from the necessary but oft-forgotten weight-lifting benches and fitness mats to determining the best of the many stationary bicycles.

An exercise bike can be tricky now a days. Do I buy a recumbent or an upright bicycle? Should I select an analog or digital?

Of course, my dear wife seems determined to get one of those elliptical machines too. Yes you read that correctly. An exercise bike and an elliptical trainer — not only one or the other. My estimate is that the extra exercise equipment goes with the cream for stretch marks she started using after the birth of youngest daughter. I may regret that joke.

I must be deliberate with our budget because our new home is more of a fixer-upper. We required it to be this way, but we still must cautiously budget everything, even the cabinet knob (no joke). My wife has an ambitious kitchen cabinet remodeling project plotted, but must remind her the sink for the bathroom she wishes put in shall set us back a pretty penny, as well.

Gratefully, she and I both appreciate the rustic, natural look, so we’re furnishing our new home with unfinished furniture. Of course, it still involves some polishing off, but she and I can keep the expenses down and produce better furniture than we could buy anywhere anyways.

I recently uncovered a good table for coffee with some decent, natural knotting and a couple console tables in matching cherry wood. For our patio outside we’re researching an outdoor fireplace and we will go with a little budget furniture made with wicker to start.

Supplying a new home seem so mature, but I cannot help but feel like I am just playing house. The new furniture and exercise equipment merely feel as a new era of playthings.