The Sunroom Will Have To Stay (For Now)
I only have a week-and-a-half left in this year to get work done on the house, so I took a look at my 2025 Master List of Home Goals to see how well I did. Obviously, I won’t get through everything on that list. I never do. Those lists that I make at the beginning of every year are more like a general guide, a buffet table, if you will. And just like you don’t choose every single thing when going through a buffet line, I never get to every single thing on my lists for each year. But they’re a guide to help keep me focused for the year.
At the beginning of the year, one of the biggest things I had really hoped to accomplish this year was to get to the point where we could finally tear down the sunroom. We’ve lived with this room attached to the back of our house for twelve years now, and every time I walk in there, the only thing I can think about is the day that we finally get to tear it down and rebuild. It wasn’t built well. It has no HVAC, so it’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. The sloped ceiling, leaky back door, drafty aluminum windows, and paneling walls are just depressing. And it has the last and only remnants of any of the original carpet from when we moved in.
If you’ve been around for a while, you know that this room used to be where our “laundry room” was.
But I now have a beautiful new laundry area inside my large walk-in closet, so I no longer have to enter the sad, depressing sunroom to do laundry. (I need to get new photos now that I put curtains on the window.)
I can’t even express to you how much I’ve loved this new arrangement. If you’ve been considering a washer and dryer inside a large walk-in closet, all I can say is DO IT, especially if you’re an empty nester and don’t have to worry about kids or other family members needing to use the laundry area. I have loved the convenience of having the washer and dryer inside the walk-in closet so much that I can say it may be the best decision I’ve made so far in our house. If not THE best, it’s definitely in the top five.
Anyway, the last thing “permanent” item that remains in our sunroom that prevents it from being torn down is the hot water heater over in the left corner in the photo below.
The hot water heater will soon be moved into what is now the hallway bathroom, which will be turned into a storage room inside our master bedroom suite. Once that’s gone, the rest is just junk that I need to go through and give away or sell and my tools and DIY supplies that will be moved into my workshop as soon as I get that arranged.
But this morning, as I was sitting at my desk in my studio, dreaming about our finished bedroom and how that will free up our breakfast room to be used as a breakfast room or sitting room again, and getting excited about our house being put back in order when we finally have a proper bedroom, there was one glaring problem. We still don’t have a proper place for our workout equipment. We went from having a dedicated home gym…
…to having most of those items stored in a corner of the sunroom. I did make room for Matt’s Theracycle in my studio because he can’t go without it. He uses it almost every single day, so not having that available to him is not even an option. I also put my small treadmill in the studio, but I haven’t used it regularly because even though the room is very large, my work tables take up a huge amount of that floor space, and everything feels cramped. As I’ve been working on the draperies for the bedroom, I’ve had to stand on the treadmill to reach a portion of the work table. It’s in the way, and I really want it out of my studio. I also tried bringing my rebounder into the studio so I could use it, but it’s way too big, and I’m out of floor space for it. So it is now leaned up against my desk.
You can see where this is going, right? I need this stuff out of my studio so that I can actually use my studio to work on projects and have full unfettered access to my work tables. And this morning, it dawned on me that the huge sunroom, once it’s all cleared out, is actually a great space for a temporary home gym.
I both loathe the idea of spending time in that room, and at the same time, I’m excited about the possibility of having a dedicated space again for all of our exercise equipment. But I can’t make myself feel excited about actually spending time in that room as long as it looks like it does now.
So I’ve decided that the near future goal is no longer to get the room to the point where we can tear it down. Instead, the near future goal is to get the room to the point where I can set up our exercise equipment turn it into a space that I’ll actually feel motivated to spend an hour or so in there every day actually putting it to use.
Obviously, I don’t want to put much money into this. I mean, I don’t want to put ANY money into it, if I’m being honest. But if it looks like this once it’s cleared out, I will feel no motivation at all to go into this room. This is the picture I took of the empty room when we moved in 12 year ago. I don’t have any pictures of the empty room since then because it’s never been empty since then. So you can add 12 years of wear and tear to this as well.
So I need to figure out the absolute cheapest way to make the room look somewhat presentable. At the least, I’m thinking a coat of white paint on everything will go a long way. I also want to pull up all of the carpet. I think there might be concrete underneath it, and I’d much rather look at concrete than old green carpet. And then maybe I can find some very cheap curtains or sheers or something to cover the windows because it gets very bright (and very hot in the summer) when the sunlight pours through that whole wall of windows.
This won’t be a fun project because there won’t be a huge payoff at the end with a beautiful or impressive before and after. It’ll be strictly utilitarian, and most of all, it will be a temporary fix to an immediate problem until we can get to our long-term plans. But I think this is the best option for now.
It’s a bit disappointing. I can’t even tell you how often I daydream about tearing this room down so I don’t have to look at it anymore. But sometimes we have to work within our limitations on budget, space, and time. This is one of those times for us, so for now, the room has to stay. I’ll try my hardest to make the most of it.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
Kristi — The thing that concerns me–and has always concerned me–about using that room is the mold factor. It’s surely loaded with it, given its water intrusion history, and, with it attached to the rest of your house, it’s 100% certain that it’s spread throughout your entire home. (I hope that you gave your washer and dryer a good going over before you moved them into your beautiful clothes closet. . . and will do the same for the water heater.) I’m sorry there’s going to be more delay in getting that space demolished. I write this not to totally depress you, but as someone who is very mold sensitive and knows first-hand how devastating exposure to it can be for one’s health. And with Matt dealing with auto-immune issues, it particularly concerns me. Spending a few minutes in there is one thing; but extended time in there exercising, drawing air deep into your lungs, is another. I wish you had a way to set your equipment up to use elsewhere!
Kristi, what a great idea! It seems to me using the room for that purpose will serve you well for the time you need to use it. Do you have a large area rug hanging out somewhere, which you have stored, to put down (or buy a super cheapie?) Or, at least, consider painting the concrete floor. It ain’t too cute as it is. And then choose a coordinating wall color. An easy fix. (White doesn’t seem like you.) Window coverings are easy peasy.
It might make being in that space more than tolerable to be in and isn’t that something important to you? Whatever you choose to do solves a big problem. Getting all that exercise equipment in one place would be great. I am glad the idea occurred to you.
I was just wondering?…couldn’t you move the equipment in the dining/current bedroom area after you move into your new bedroom? It just seems like such a shame to give time and energy to that space. I know exercise is important. Maybe, that could be a temporary solution, until you get it all figured out. It’s also understandable if you rather live with a little more order for a while.
Your idea could make use of what’s really “dead” space. One thing, if it’s “hot in the summer and cold in the winter,” will you really want to be out there, even just to exercise? Will you put in a wall-mounted heater/cooler or something?
Does the window a/c work? How will you keep it cool in there?
Instead of white, get vibrant mistake paints, or round up all of your leftover paints, and color block or random stripe the room. On the cheap, the dreaded Temu has inexpensive semi sheer curtains. I have bought the rainbow striped ones (soft, blended pastels, not bold sharp stripes), and currently have the rainbow colored cloud ones in my craft room concealing a wide closet. They bring a smile in a room crammed with crap, and reduce the crap induced stress. And did I mention they were cheap? If you still have your rejected flooring from the exercise room and the sunroom floor is concrete, reuse those in there for the time being.
I had an old single-pane sliding glass door that made it really hot in that bedroom. I got these thermal curtains from Amazon and they not only kept the room at a comfortable temperature but cut my electric bill as well. They aren’t decorative but they are good enough quality to hang as plain white curtains and I didn’t mind that they were black on the outside because like you, it was facing my backyard. I now use them with decorative panels as blackouts in my bedroom and turned them so the white was facing out. They’ve been washed several times and still look good.
https://www.amazon.com/NICETOWN-Insulated-Curtains-Heavy-Duty-Treatment/dp/B09SLL3PGT/
I would worry abt Matt being in there for any time. I seem to remember that his health is pretty temperature dependent. How would he be able to use the room given the temp limitations?
Can you share with us when you are planning to tear down the sunroom and proceed with your remodel?
Like other readers here, I would be greatly concerned with you using that lean-to sunroom for an exercise room, meaning breathing in the moldy air, wasting money to spruce it up, and still not remediating the terrible condition issues.
In addition to using your breakfast room a temporary exercise room, you could also consider using your new workshop. It is clean and sealed and with the addition of a minisplit, could be kept at a comfortable temperature. And this is money you would spend eventually for it anyway.
Good thinking 99!! Great idea to use the workshop as temporary exercise space … it does seem a shame to spend ANY time or money on a room that will eventually be demolished.
Can you put that equipment on the far end of the music room, allowing just enough room for Matt to go by? Does he really use that area?
I think what some dont realize, is that breakfast room isnt that big. It won’t hold all your equipment without being right on top of each other. Imho. If it even would hold all of it. Thats my two cents worth. 😁😁
Ummm, can you do any of the work in your new work space yet? If you could get your electric run in there, (along with a space heater) you could work out there on projects, and at least temporarily move the worktables out there. Then you can have more of your workout things in the studio. It seems a shame to have that building sitting empty and unusable all this time. Why did you rush to buy it if it wasn’t going to get finished out? I see no point in waiting until you can set it up for a workspace, just do the least to get it functional, like electric and maybe a workbench, then later down the road, do the things you’d planned.
We’ve used those portable a/c units in the past & you can often fine gently used ones on FB Marketplace. I think that you will make that room very cool for your temporary needs. In fact, you should make it a $100 challenge! I can’t wait to see what you come up with, your ideas are always so inspiring.☺️
Marketplace is also a great source for cheap overstock carpet tiles.
Would you show pictures of what your home looks like with the current setup of bedroom in breakfast room, and gym in studio? I love the in-betweens and seeing how people make it work during renovations.
If you have direct sun over that part of your house perhaps a solar-powered mini split would help with the temp in that room, making it more comfortable for exercise most of the year.
Your conundrum is kind of like “if you give a mouse a cookie”! There are lots of good comments and perhaps one or more will work for you. I have no doubt you will work it out. If not perfectly, and it doesn’t need to be as a temporary solution, then reasonably and functionally.
First, find a portable AC- because it’s versatile for HVAC emergencies. If you can find something you can wheel from house, to sunroom, to workshop that would best.
I feel you should evaluate sunroom vs workshop. Fixing the sunroom floors, or establishing power to the workshop. Does the workshop hold temp better or worse than the sunroom. That workshop space is better for your health than the sunroom. The amount of space does vary. Improving the workshop completes an overall need. Improving the sunroom has a short reward.
If you have power, you can use a portable ac in there. I remember you talked about investigating the sunroom floor earlier, and thinking there was bad mold/leak at a point. Today you seem to have an improved perspective.
Did you keep the pads from the floor in the bedroom gym? They’d be great on a cement floor i think. Yep might as well make good use of that room until you’re ready to redo it all. I love it when I redo something and my stuff all starts fitting and being organized in a wonderful way. Slowly thats happening at my house and it makes me glad I’m not afraid to keep moving things around until they make sense.
oh my gosh, when you said the line about 12 years my mouth dropped. Seriously has it been that long, and yet longer that i have been following. that time has just flown by so quickly. but keep it up, i love all that you do, you do inspire me so much, though i personally can’t do a lot, i live vicariously through you.
Can you utilize the workshop instead?
No, I’m hoping to get my workshop set up early next year, so I don’t want to add anything else to that space. I need to empty it out so I can set up my workshop.