Homes
Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: The New Addition to Our Basement
Last month, I shared how we had hosted our first overnight guest — which also meant finally making use of our finished basement. Well, as we continue to look for ways to utilize the space (after our initial plan of putting our couch down there was scuttled), we recently started the process of turning it into a gym. Okay, “gym” is a bit generous as we really only intend to use this one machine — but we did purchase ourselves an elliptical.
Although an elliptical is technically something we probably could have had in an apartment, to me, it’s really an option that having a house of our own affords us. Plus, as I’ll explain, it works quite well in the basement. With that, here’s the story of our home “gym.”
The Backstory
In February, my wife and I finally got around to canceling our YMCA membership. While this subscription made sense when we lived right across the street from the location, we naturally stopped going the second we moved to our house (which, to be honest, is still only a couple of miles away). So, after far too long of paying the monthly fee, we canceled.
Nevertheless, wanting to try to be more active and knowing that the weather doesn’t always cooperate in terms of running outside, I asked my wife what single piece of equipment she might want for the house. Her responses gave me two options: a treadmill or an elliptical. Personally, I’m not really a fan of treadmills — but the latter sounded interesting. As I reasoned, it was kind of halfway between a treadmill and a stationary bike. And while it’s not quite like jogging, it’s not as though exercising on an elliptical would hurt in terms of training for runs.
With the idea now planted in my head, I set off researching elliptical machine options and pricing them out.
What and How We Purchased Our Elliptical
Since this is a personal finance site, I do feel compelled to break down my purchase and tell you how I managed to get (what I think is) a pretty good deal.
First, when I started looking into ellipticals, it seemed as though we’d likely need to spend $500 to $600 to get something decent. In that range, I came across the brand Sunny Health & Fitness. Specifically, I found a review of a model that was in that price range.
However, when I went to Amazon to see what else the brand offered, I found a different model that was around $380. What’s more, that was down from the reported list price of $800. Even though Amazon stated that this $380 figure was the lowest price in 30 days, I hit up the tracking site CamelCamelCamel to confirm. Sure enough, this was much lower than the item usually sold for. Alas, I couldn’t find a detailed review of this specific machine — but I figured that, at the price and given the brand’s overall reputation, it was worth a shot.
Although I initially saw the product and price on Amazon, I ended up buying on Walmart for a couple of reasons. First, my wife happened to have a $100 gift card for the retailer. Second, after initially looking at the listing and then closing the page, I got an email from Capital One Shopping a day or two later inviting me to earn 7% back on my purchase. Between those two factors, I figured it made sense to buy on Walmart.com.
With free shipping, our order came out to around $400 — so $300 out of pocket after the gift card we had on hand. Plus, I did indeed end up getting nearly $30 in rewards from Capital One Shopping.
Why the Basement Was the Perfect Place for the Machine
Before we get to the arrival of our elliptical, let me back up and explain why we chose the basement as its home location. First up, even if we had managed to get our couch downstairs (or if we even do find a solution for seating down there), we have plenty of free space in the finished basement. Sure, we have spots upstairs or on the main level as well… but not as much.
Second, the basement is by far the coolest (meaning in terms of temperature) room in the house. This is great for working out as, even when it’s cold, you warm up with a couple of minutes of activity. I’m sure trying to exercise upstairs in the summer would be way more intense — and that’s just not what I’m looking for.
Lastly, since it is fairly empty, we don’t end up using our basement for much else aside from laundry at the moment. Thus, it’s kind of nice to have a reason to go downstairs and utilize this part of the house.
Our Shipment and Set-Up Experience
Given the size of something like an elliptical, it may not surprise you to learn that it wasn’t delivered by the likes of USPS, UPS, or FedEx. Instead, it was shipped freight via Estes. It probably also doesn’t shock you to hear that Estes’s tracking info is not nearly as robust as those other options.
Although I was anticipating the machine to be delivered on a Wednesday, I went to take the dog out on a Tuesday morning to find the large elliptical box sitting in my driveway. So much for “front door” delivery. Anyway, knowing I wasn’t going to be able to move it on my own, I left it there until my wife got home (luckily it was a nice day weatherwise). Unfortunately, even between the two of us, getting the box into the house proved to be a challenge as it weighed nearly 200 pounds. So, at some point, we elected to open the box and carry the pieces in separately.
This separate part strategy continued as we brought everything down to the basement for setup. Once there, we opened the Sunny instructional booklet — which initially appeared pretty intimidating. However, after taking a closer look, it all made sense. Also, while it wasn’t exactly fun to have to unscrew bolts just to put them back in, I did like that the pieces I’d need were attached to the parts I’d be applying them to rather than having to dig through a bag of screws, bolts, etc.
In total, it probably took us about 40 minutes to get the machine set up. This was without hitting any major snags, other than the fact that my arms were already tired from even attempting to carry the box originally. With that, we were ready to take it for a spin.
How It’s Going
Since getting our elliptical, I’ve made it a point to use it each day. For my first usage, I decided to just do five minutes — and I was absolutely shocked at how tight and heavy my legs felt afterwards. Thankfully, things got much better from there, so I’m thinking the work of setting it up the day before contributed to this initial reaction.
One week later, I’ve now upped my routine to 10 minutes per day and intend to try 15 by next week. We’ve also experimented with how we go about using the machine. For example, while this model offered computerized resistance and built-in workouts, it can also be used while unplugged (in this case, it’ll just stick at whatever the last resistance level used was). So, I’ve been leaving it at a lower resistance, keeping it unplugged, and just using my Apple Watch to track my workout time. Overall, I think this has worked pretty well.
I’ll also note that I do love getting to spend time in the basement! As mentioned, it’s not only cooler down there but I’m also always surprised how quiet it is. And, although I’ve been opting to listen to music while doing my exercises, we do have a TV down there I could watch instead… but maybe that’s something for later as I start extending my workouts.
More than a year after we first moved into our house, it looks as though we’ve finally found a solid use of our finished basement space. While that might seem like a small win, when combined with the deal we got on our new elliptical and the money we’re saving by not having a YMCA membership, I’m pretty excited about this development — and it’s something that wouldn’t have happened if we were still in an apartment. So, while I don’t intend on really turning our basement into a full-fledged home gym, I’m glad to add this one workout option to our home.
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