Wantoretire ~ Your exercise is different than mine at this time of year. Just don't do too much, if you know what I mean. How heavy is a snowblower? Yesterday it was pretty dang warm down here and I was sweating while I worked outside, up and down a ladder with my hand clippers trimming the inside of our front hedgerow. I started getting tired and 'tripping over a blade of grass' as DH laughingly said yesterday. That was almost the truth. I finished up what I was doing and came inside. I was hungry too and no wonder it was almost noon. I had been at it since 8. I need to mow, and there is more trimming around the property to do, but that will be another day. Down here it's never ending, a 365 day a year possibility of working in gardens. This morning it is COLD here, so I was racing around before leaving for work, covering a couple of garden areas because it is supposed to go down into the 30's tonight and feel like it's in the 20's. I did bring orchids and some other things indoors, some which are in the shower. : -) Gardening is really great exercise and even though it does wear me out at times I love it. The rewards are great! Happy gardening/exercising. FlowerLady

You would need some kind of amplification for these speakers. All depends on where you are getting your music from. Do you want to control it from that room - i.e. have a CD player, phone dock etc. right there - or just have extension speakers and control the program from somewhere else? If the former, you need a receiver of some kind in the room. Run all the speaker cables to a panel on the wall where you want to put the eqpt. If the latter, you could just have a volume control in the room and control your program from elsewhere. There are wireless options too. You might want to look at Crutchfield or Parts Express and see what kind of gear is available.

Scratching comes from movement. Denting comes from DROPPING something. Since the machine will be PLACED on the floor (no one is going to drop it from an upstairs balcony). Staining is something you may have to deal with. You may not. Yes the feet may have rubber on them...but the small amount is fine. If it does stain a little bit, you can be content in the knowledge that you can always hide it with an area rug AFTER the work out machines are gone. Trust me when I say this, rugs and mats and rubber stuff can cause WAY more problems to a hardwood floor that 4 rubberized feet (per machine). If you really are worried then remove the hardwood (nope, not kidding) and store it. Then install some cheap cork flooring in there and go for the works you want. When you are done with your fitness studio, you remove the cork flooring and reinstall the hardwood. There. No harm no foul. But you don't NEED to do anything but put the machines down and live your life. Wood is AWESOME at being a floor. That's why the world has been doing it for 10,000 years (probably more...but historical records are hard to find on the subject).

Thanks, y'all! I think we invested right at $250 in this room's "makeover" (including the paint, one mirror, the weight bench and mat), and it is an infinitely more pleasant place to be now, so that was money well spent. I also take pride in the fact that we used much of what we already owned. That lamp? It's not ideal, but it's a nice vintage lamp and it works just fine to shed more light on my activities in the room. The "art?" I made three of the pieces, and if you look closely, they do LOOK homemade, but I don't care. I find myself looking forward to being in the space (ok, so it's only been a couple of days since we painted and revamped, and the 'new' might wear off at some point), and even enjoyed the time I spent there this morning before the crack of dawn. I've just committed to a 5K that takes place in a mere two weeks. Luckily, it's billed as a run/walk, and it's so close to my house that if it absolutely sucks, I'll just walk home and call it a day. ;-) But it feels great to have signed up for something that motivates me even more, and is for a good cause (benefits our local animal shelter). I find myself very much looking forward to the days ahead, and time spent both outside when I can find the time (and temps allow), and in this formerly under-utilized little room at the back of the house.