A little exercise nirvana tucked into the corner of our home…

Ah.

Exercise.

It’s kinda like, to me, Mambo No. 5!

One, two, three, four – gettin’ down on the floor.
Sometimes I really don’t wanna,
But a little space, like a nirvana
Makes it sweeter
A whole lot neater
Than truckin’ somewhere in my SUV-er (sorry about that rhyming attempt, folks!).

Jump up and down and move it all around
Shake your head to the sound, put your hand on the ground
Take one step left and one step right
One to the front and one to the side
Clap your hand once and clap your hands twice
And if it looks like this then you are doing it right.

A little bit of YOGA is all I need, a little bit CORE is what I see
A little bit of STRENGTH TRAINING in the sun, a little bit of ZUMBA all night long,
A little bit of ABS here I am, a little bit of exercise space makes me who I am!

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I’m training for the EnduraFit Eagleman 70.3, which means I must get out of my home to SWIM, BIKE & RUN.

And I love taking a good class here and there to learn new things and to socialize, too.

But lots of time I just love to get a nice little workout at home.

Enter DVDs.

And a little space.

A little space of nirvana.

At home.

Barry and I bought a little, early 1800’s, nooks & crannies, needs lots of work, cottage-y type home almost two years ago that we decided to live in before doing any major renovations. I’m thankful for our patience in just living in our home for awhile because we’ve discovered where we love to be, to sit, to read, to share, to eat, to move. We’ve discovered where the sun dances all day long and the moon makes so many of her journeys.

We’ve found the places we gravitate to.

And there is this ONE SPACE – one sunny, warm, welcoming little space – a space that so many people have offered so many suggestions for its use. Maybe another bathroom. An extension of one of the two bedrooms. A nice seating area.

A space we’ve decided is perfect for a little exercise nirvana.

To get there, you head up our front staircase (there’s another little staircase tucked in at the back of the house) and turn left at a small landing –

A little bookcase that we are still filling with children’s books for our grandkids (many boxes of books yet to be unpacked!) greets you at the top.

Turn left at the bookcase and there’s our granddaughters’ bedroom for overnights and whispering little secrets and life’s discoveries to each other. Taylor is 13, Maddie is almost 13 and their baby cousin Victoria is 6 months old. Taylor and Maddie want to visit Paris someday, so Pops and I have tried to add a touch of Paris here…

Turn right and there’s our sunny, warm, welcoming little space that’s become a collection area of sorts for all kinds of things. We’ve been told that this space was a dressing area at one time long ago, but now it’s going to be our exercise nirvana…

It has two beautiful, sun-filled windows. A built-in set of drawers that we originally wanted to discard. A slanted floor. Slanted ceiling. PERFECTION!

To the right is a hallway that connects to the back two bedrooms and a bathroom…

And another little right brings you to our grandsons’ bedroom; all 7 of them and one more little guy due in less than 3 weeks! In this room, we push all the beds together and the boys play. Wrestle. Laugh. Raucously. Run from here down the back staircase and up the front. Or vice versa. Or sleep. Or pretend they’re sleeping…

From the other end of the hallway, you can see that sunny little space from another perspective…

Sure, another bathroom would have been fun and convenient at this end of our home. Of course, we could have filled the space with bookshelves for sitting, reading, relaxing. Certainly, our grandsons’ room could have been expanded a bit.

Instead, we are painting this space – including the hallway – a warm, happy, golden Sherman Williams yellow called June Day. We love the color and the name…

I must tackle the sorting of the stuff. We’ve already purchased a new television. Our DVDs are ready and already being used…

The built-ins will be painted white and this is where I will store all of our exercise gear. I like the organization of this. The scalloped edging on top of the closet frames will be removed because we like linear, plain & simple. The two closets in this hallway are rather large, so storage of mats, weights, straps, etc. is all set. The light fixtures will be replaced with recessed lighting with dimmers. Gotta have the dimmers. OM. I have some window treatments in mind that will still allow visits from both the sun and the moon.

There’s something electric, yet so relaxing about this space that we KNOW will make a perfect place to add a little bit of Yoga, Core, Abs, Zumba, Strength Training to our lives AND I can even fit my indoor bike trainer in that space while catching up on all the good films I want to see.

Kinda like Mambo No. 5!

At home.

In the thick of things down there at that corner of our home in both quiet and perfect chaos.

Our lives are not quiet.

Neither, I guess, is our home.

Or our sense of exercise nirvana.

I’m so excited to share the finished product!