Stronghold Blog: What used to be Pink & Checkered....

What used to be Pink & Checkered....
By: Raquel Cusi

It really seems like yesterday that Mike, Ray, myself and a bunch of our friends and family were working on a 2,700 square foot pink and checkered building and transforming it into the massive gray Stronghold you now see today. Pink and checkered you ask? Yes, we thought the same thing. Before we moved into our business home in Point Loma, it was operated by a neighborhood-known ladies' resale shop, "Girls from the Park." Did I mention cheetah print walls as well?

What at first seemed like a very daunting task, turned out not to be as bad as we thought. Thankfully we had a lot of friends and family come and lend helping hands to tackle the job. Armed with paint rollers, drills, putty knifes and face masks, The Stronghold team worked on turning Hot Pink into Stronghold Gray. We also had 15 foot walls in our planned mat area and the outside building painted pink, but thanks to Ray's professional painter friend, Sean, those areas were finished in a matter of a few hours or so. All I know now is that paint guns are the way to go! Imagine if we had to roll those all ourselves. Yikes.

Big holes being patched up, floor tiles removed by a crowbar, and smashing out walls equaled a lot of sweat and mess. Overall it was a great week of hard labor, and which is what we're used to anyway (we are a gym). Looking back it just reminds me that big efforts are always worth it no matter how hard it seems at the time.

Enjoy the photos of our crazy transformation...