“Fitness has always been important to me,” said AnneMarie, a Boston marketing director. “In fact, I met my husband Greg at the gym. We’ve always worked out together.” Now the couple has three children, who are also interested in a healthy lifestyle. There’s just one problem. “Have you looked at gym membership prices lately?” AnneMarie said. “It’s crazy. And then this winter, when I couldn’t deal with all this snow just to get everyone to the gym, you feel like the money’s wasted.”
The couple had thought about creating a home gym for years, but didn’t have the space. “There’s literally no space where we can add on to the house,” Greg explained, “and every room of the house already has a purpose. I didn’t want to deal with a treadmill in my living room!” Then a friend suggested they consider finishing the basement to create a home gym.
“At first I was against the idea because our basement was dark and kind of gross. I didn’t like being down there,” AnneMarie said. Reviewing the wide range of basement finishing systems available went a long way toward changing her mind. Converting what had been a dark, wasted space into a bright, family-friendly home gym involved having the basement finishing company address a moisture issue, cover what had been exposed concrete block walls, floor joists and wiring, install lighting and flooring and making the staircase by which the family accessed the space “much less terrifying” in AnneMarie’s words.
“Honestly, the hardest part of the process was figuring out how we wanted to arrange our workout equipment,” Greg said. “It was surprisingly to have our basement transformed into a home gym.” It was also more affordable than the Boston couple had anticipated. “Between saving the money on gym memberships and what we’d budgeted for the project, we actually had some money left over to buy a new elliptical machine!” Now the family can work out in comfort, no matter what the weather is. “It’s amazingly convenient. If a healthy lifestyle is important to you, I definitely recommend talking to a basement finishing company to see what you can have done in your home!”
