Ok it's been a while, but I've been busy. I want to say first, this I'm not the first to build a lifting rack for weights out of wood. There are a lot of wonderful sites out there to help out if you want to take this project on. 

My Goal

Make a home lifting system that can replace the lifts I did at the gym. Needs to be adjustable for different lifts (deadlift, squat, bench press and incline bench press). Stores easily (I like in Brooklyn). Safe (I'd be lifting alone) and Cheap (initially to test).

Supplies

50' of 2x4 (can vary slightly with your height and preference)

100 screws (depending on quality of wood, I went with deck weathered screws)

4 8x4 metal plates (forgot what they were used for)

3 5 gallon buckets (you can do it with 2, but three makes life easier)

60 - 80 lbs of concrete (depends on bag size, I had some left over from counter top project)

usual tools: drill, circular saw, table, clamps, level, measurer, sweat, time

Now you can see I also invested in some floor padding, an adjustable bench, two saw horses (rated 1200lbs), and of course weights & barbell. Over time I added to this set up. It's an investment but I'll cover all my cost with 4-6 months of gym membership and some of these items have multiple uses (saw horses, padding, and bench). All of this can be thrown in the back of a van or truck and taken wherever easily (when using a hand truck :) )

Results

Here is use the saw horses as catches, they are rated at 1200lbs and definitely saved my ass more than once. They are adjustable from 30" to 38" in height.

Once all packed away, it takes up 8' by 4' in the closet.

Here I use the saw horses for catches when I do squats. Just bump them up in height and they're perfect for it.

And some pictures of the process along the way. Just setting it up, pouring the cement and trying to level it and an unlevel building.

Joined a meetup group for a grass fed meat share. Basically you buy in bulk from a farmer upstate, meet at a specified time and location, pick up, cook an enjoy.

I decided on option B ( from 3 options ).
Which included ground beef, ground pork, ribs, porkchops, liver, heart, feet, and a bunch more. So pumped.

New bake mix. The bacon adds a great savory salty addition to the cookies. It's hard to make out the bacon from the pics but There's bacon in those tiny hills!

2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 unsalted butter
Dash salt
2 cups chocolate chips
6 bacon strips broken up
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon Vanilla
1 egg
1 yolk
1 tablespoon cinnamon
Dash cloves
Dash nutmeg

Preheat 325
Mix / sift dry
Beat eggs and liquids, nice and creamy.
Combine it all and mix chips and bacon together by hand.

Cook for 15ish. Enjoy.

My buddy was kind enough to let me mess around with his arc welder. It's a completely different feel from mig or torch. This was just messing around getting comfortable in a tight space or the arc. Can be a pain and a butt though. Damn thing would stick all the time but for the first day, not bad.

With rum. +1 for Brooklyn

Cheerwine, great soda that now has distribution in brooklyn. One of the great things from NC. Of course the best thing out of NC would be yours truly. ;)

Working from home today. This is my little home office. iMac, sun on my face, glass of wine, making games. What a good Friday.

This was near stuyvesant park around 26th I think. Very intense playground. But actually beautiful. Sort of reminded me of a Tim Burton design with a real world modern twist.

I think I would enjoy running around this as a young boy.. Metal and hard edges. The church was more typical. But the street was surreal. One of the quietest blocks I've ever walked on in manhattan. Another hidden gem.

Picked up one of everything. Going to try to eat all by end of the day. My insulin won't know what hit it. #bestworstidea

Three recipes.

Chocolate walnut oatmeal cookies, gluten free chocolate brownie muffins ( with dark chocolate chips), and Nutella bacon strudels.

I wanted to get back to baking. It's been a while and I had some ideas I wanted to work out.

Some notes. Orange zest in the cookie batter added a great flavor to the cookies. Also a pinch of sea salt over the brownies and cookies was a nice touch. Very little is needed though. And one last note, the Nutella and bacon was surprisingly good, the Nutella is like hot lava though. Its super gooey at a high temperature.

I like the strudels as a median, next time I'll try some fruits, peanut butter or some duck meat. The muffins were average. Should have tried stuffing something in the center. Cookies are just cookies. Nothing new.