It all started with one simple question, or so she thought. “Robert, why do you have three gym memberships? And why are you spending $300 a month on them? You should just build your own.” Of course jokingly said.

And it began. Early year 2013 we started throwing around an idea. By mid-year we had done enough market research that we decided it was a viable idea to open and run our own gym. We attempted to purchase an existing facility but were not able to put the numbers together. A small defeat but we kept looking. Buying an already running facility would have been a much less stressful undertaking. But we decided to explore purchasing a building and up-fitting from scratch.

After a few months of real estate let downs and buildings slipping thru our hands, we had all but given up. We kept driving by an empty building on 3rd street. Every time we passed I would say to Mandy, “How about that building?” She would dismiss the idea saying it was too old. One day after almost tossing the whole idea, we drove by this same building and I once again said, “How about that building??” She said to pull in, and we did. We made a deal by week’s end, and the Barbell started to come to reality.

October 2013 we vacationed in Jamaica with the excitement of a new adventure ahead. We had spent only a few minutes in the new building before leaving, but we knew what we had to do. Gut the building and build locker rooms. We only need to build locker rooms and a counter. How hard can it be??? That will be a question that haunts us both for the rest of our lives. Neither of us would trade the experience, but it was much more than a couple of locker rooms and a counter.

After returning from vacation mid October, we spent our first day back on a Sunday in the new building assessing the situation. We had a small white table and two chairs in a hug
e dirty empty space that seemed enormous. We started making notes and planning. Monday morning I went back to my car job and Mandy went to the soon-to-be gym and started cleaning. The first weekend we demoed the interior. Gutted the whole place.
The next few weeks Mandy painted the interior getting ready for the floor plan design. Creating the floor plan was an adventure in itself, after all, it’s just a couple of locker rooms. How hard can it be?? Ha! We soon found out. Mandy drew out what we designed on the floor with chalk. It wasn’t big enough. She mopped it up and started again the next day. Not big enough. This went on for a few days until we felt as though we had utilized our space as efficiently as possible.

The next thing was to cut the floor and put in drains for all the plumbing. Nope, it wasn’t already there. Rental Solutions dropped off a concrete cutter and a jack hammer on Friday. Saturday we cut 65 feet of concrete and dug out the trench for the pipes. The next week we started laying in the plumbing. Dry fitting everything at first, then after initial building inspection, we glued it all together. Then the concrete to fill in the floor. Hand mixed and poured with a wheel barrow.

The next weekend the framing began. Whitaker Builders dropped us a load of material and off we went. Walls started to form. Showers started to be recognizable. The vision was becoming reality. We were almost done!! But unknown to us, we had a long way to go. A very very long way to go. Weeks and weeks of every available moment.

Framing and doing plumbing and hanging Sheetrock and more Sheetrock and still more Sheetrock… Mandy shopped for deals and found materials all over Atlanta for great prices to keep our outgoing cash to a minimum. When we weren’t building we were shopping for or picking up supplies. The folks at Home Depot started knowing us by name and started asking questions, wondering why we needed all these supplies. Building a house? A boat? A bomb shelter? Nope, just a couple of locker rooms, how hard can it be?

We picked up rubber flooring, carpet, toilets, paint, tile, you name it. Not one piece purchased at a retail dollar. We found it all climbing thru warehouses in down town Atlanta. Going in full of steam, coming out covered in dirt and grime and dead tired, but with awesome treasures to take home and ready for use. We were tired but excited. It was January 2014 and we were almost there. The place was actually coming together.

We bickered about style. Not fighting, but bickering as some couples or business partners do. And since we were both, we did it often. Some say if you can build a house together you can make it thru anything. Well I have news for you, if you can up fit a 5000 square foot building with your spouse and not kill each other before opening day, you’re golden.
The locker rooms and counter area were recognizable by now. Finishing touches like tile and paint were being done. Mandy labored over 6,000 square feet of tile for floors and showers. Carpet and rubber floor were installed. All the details were attended to.

Time for equipment.
We purchased from multiple resources from Florida to New Jersey. Even right in McDonough and Atlanta we found the things we wanted to bring in. Eventually all the equipment was situated on the floor. You can only imagine the ordeal that was. Trying to decide were every single item should live.

March 2014, people were watching and waiting. Stopping in once in a while to check out the new gym in town. The day we put our name on the building was the day I think that it really sank in that we really did it. We built this! Every bit of it. From scratch using our own imaginations and our own two hands.

We built it for you.

Opening day was a Tuesday. We hadn’t slept for weeks. Working 18 hours a day to get it done. That morning we were there early. Vacuuming and dusting and cleaning windows, wondering how would it go? Would anyone actually come join? At about 8:30 am we turned on the open sign. We figured it would be late afternoon before anything would happen. By noon we were flooded with eager gym goers possibly as excited as we were about this new place. A place named Jackson Barbell Company.