We’re through
This week Dylan and I got to finally see with our own two eyes, and walk around with our own two feet, the full space in our house that is going to be our resistance training space The Living Room.
Our house is pretty old, most of it was built in 1915. Then an extension was added in the 1930s, and another in the 1950s or so before the whole building got a 1980s spruce up (see: fabulous wall paper and not so fabulous aluminium replacement window sashes throughout).
Our gym spans across two main rooms: One room is part of the original weatherboard house; and the second is part of the 1930s red brick addition. To bring The Living Room to life, we are opening the two rooms up with a wide, high walkway.
This plan has been a draft idea on paper for months and months, and we have finally literally pushed through the wall.
It was a surreal moment & it reminded me of being in a movie or something. We’d spent the past few weeks with the help of my dad, removing the lath and plaster from the wall, installing lots of new studs, a big new lintel and adding structural ply. At this point all that was left was to cut the opening through.
Dylan was out walking the dogs and I was overcome by the need to do this. I used the reciprocating saw, if you’ve ever used one you know its the least delicate tool in the tool box, and it kicks back at you a lot.
I sawed through the timbers and the lath, and slowly pushed the opening through.
The dimensions of this wall opening were discussed a lot. How tall will the opening be? How will the opening relate to the 1930s and the 1920s picture rails, given that both rails are at different heights? How will the opening relate to our equipment and machines that we’ve ordered? Will we get enough light? Will we get a sense of flow?
When I pushed through the opening I had that very good feeling strait away of knowing that we’d made the right choice. It feels epic, bright and intentional.
Just as soon as we were celebrating we realised we did in fact need to remove all the lath and plaster from the second side, AKA staring down lots more work.
Moving plans from pen and paper into the real world is so intense. Dylan and I were in our home garden this morning pottering, and I remember how the market garden gave my life a real sense of flow, because I knew almost exactly what to do all the time in the garden.
At this moment in time we dont have anything like that, which is ok but sometimes I really miss it. At the moment have this big fat limbo feeling where The Living Room isnt operating yet, and thats mixed with all the anticipation of knowing how much of a steep learning curve operating it will be.
So for now we’re doing our best to put as much on paper as we can: Mapping processes, flows and testing ideas. And renovating, lots of renovating.
