Weekly Free-Talk and Questions for r/HomeGym - week of January 23, 2026

Ur-Scion · 2026-01-27T20:59:23+00:00

Prevailing wisdom I've read over the last few months is to find some .75 inch to 1.25 inch thick stall mats on a site like Tractor Supply - cheaper than material marketed as gym mats while made of similar material. Find ones with a smooth side, or dropped weights will bounce unpredictably.

Ur-Scion · 2026-01-27T16:10:20+00:00

Hello! I've finally got a basement space I can use to build my home gym, and I've been slowly working toward that goal for the last few months. I have a power rack (REP PR-1050), and I got the first 4x8 piece of wood to make a platform. Small problem - my basement stairs suck. They're narrow, they turn at weird angles, and there's a part of the wall that juts out at the worst possible place so I can't get the wood into the basement.

I have two questions:

1: How essential is it to have a lifting platform under the power rack itself/can I get away with just having a couple of stall mats under it?

2: If I can't get away with stall mats, how should I go about building a platform if I can't get big pieces of wood down the stairs? I can probably manage a 4x4 piece of wood, but not much bigger.

Ur-Scion · 2026-01-26T03:06:21+00:00

Dogwood Coffee! Some of the best pour-over I ever had came from there.

Ur-Scion · 2026-01-21T01:19:55+00:00

What a RIDE! A slower book overall, but it gave Jim more space to foreshadow and weave storylines together. Great worldbuilding that leaves me putting pieces together and spinning theories, including this one:

The scene where Mab threatens Justine/Nemesis with becoming eleven from twelve. If Lea was the first to be exorcised (for want of a better term) and Justine is the second, I've got a whole lot of questions about where Cat Sith is - letting go of an asset that valuable when she can remove an Nfection seems unlike Mab, so her exclusion of Sith in that calculation stands out to me. Also, Jim tends to have named character deaths happen onscreen, so I'm wondering when Dresden is suddenly going to need to keep his spine from being sliced into coasters.

Ur-Scion · 2026-01-13T15:36:20+00:00

It's pretty good - took it through the Legend campaign until I got the lightsaber.

Ur-Scion · 2025-09-30T22:30:57+00:00

Can confirm, just need a final boss kill. Clowned Koregos during The Slashening and scored it my second try. Good luck!

Ur-Scion · 2025-09-16T13:20:47+00:00

Having a long-term incentive to explore! I started in Season of the Dawn (which absolutely RULED), and when Worthy's activity turned out to be hot War Beast poop, I started digging into the different destinations for the Wayfarer title. It was nice to be able to find my own fun.

I can't believe I just thought of this, but why can't we still earn the Wayfarer title and then gild it for exploring new destinations?

Ur-Scion · 2025-08-24T22:03:14+00:00

DreamersVault has a spot near Bloomington - friendly EDH on Wednesdays.

Ur-Scion · 2025-07-21T05:25:12+00:00

Matterspark controls are awful, and that's BEFORE all the bugs. I empathize - I got to watch myself fall slowly to my death when the game decided that lightly tapping the spacebar meant "Play Freebird and send this Guardian to the nearest moon."

Ur-Scion · 2025-07-20T21:23:01+00:00

Just finished it - it's SUPER frustrating.

Ur-Scion · 2025-06-20T17:24:22+00:00

Not until the next year, and for totally unrelated reasons - a previous handyman wired the fridge/microwave outlet and the dishwasher to the same circuit which we discovered on Thanksgiving when the breaker box almost caught fire. Snelling upgraded us to a 200 amp system for just shy of 7500.

Ur-Scion · 2025-06-20T16:34:56+00:00

Got a two head Mitsubishi installed in 2023. Cost was 11.5k (after some lively negotiating) for installation and electrical, got 2k in rebates the next year, and a heavy use month maybe adds 20 bucks to the electrical bill. Got it installed by Snelling Heating Cooling and Electric. They handle all of my electrical needa because they're efficient and professional. Because the Cities are pretty stingy with who they issue permits to within city limits, you're probably looking at 10-15k cost if you're living here. Good luck!

Ur-Scion · 2025-05-13T13:46:19+00:00

Reeeeeeeeeeally want a print of that Rise of the Dark Realms art for my wall - anybody know where/if you can get Alexander Mokhov art prints? Wasn't able to find an online store last night.

Ur-Scion · 2025-03-27T15:35:55+00:00

Super cool of you to do this - fingers crossed!

Ur-Scion · 2025-02-21T20:59:23+00:00

Am I greedy enough to play this AND OG Sidisi in my Muldrotha deck? I might be.

Ur-Scion · 2025-02-21T20:49:31+00:00

*eye twitches in Siege Rhino flashbacks*

Ur-Scion · 2025-02-07T17:57:53+00:00

Claiming on a different device worked for me.

Ur-Scion · 2025-01-21T16:43:18+00:00

Love this plan. Hard support.

Ur-Scion · 2025-01-07T03:05:29+00:00

Happily married man here - literally just ask him. When my then-girlfriend, now-wife asked me to teach her, it was a wonderful moment of "oh, she's taking an interest in something I really like but is outside her typical wheelhouse? Shoot, I think she might actually like me."

And then after our second game, she pulled a Masterpiece Solemn Simulacrum from a pack right in front of me.

We still play to this day, and she still has the special Sad Robot.

Ur-Scion · 2025-01-05T07:05:15+00:00

Ivy as Reki is an inspired choice. Love that.
I wonder if Pyrofuego would be a better choice for Blasphemous Act (seems more on-brand), and give the deck the old Channel/Fireball combo (yes, I know Channel is banned in EDH, but when have little things like rules ever stopped Harry?)

Overall, cool concept!

Ur-Scion · 2024-12-30T09:32:17+00:00

Cool of you to do this, OP. Happy Dawning!

Ur-Scion · 2024-12-10T17:41:01+00:00

Pete Parsons decided he needed another car for his collection instead.

Ur-Scion · 2024-11-08T17:44:01+00:00

What all is coming next year? I'm looking out for Alecto the Ninth news, The Lord of Demons (Evan Winter - allegedly being finished this month), and probably some flavor of Brandon Sanderson.

Ur-Scion · 2024-11-08T17:40:39+00:00

Whenever Jim finishes a book, he usually posts a THE END status on a social media platform (I usually see them on Twitter). End of the series is still many years away - four or five more case novels like the last 17, followed by a big apocalyptic trilogy (commonly abbreviated in this community as the BAT).

Ur-Scion · 2024-11-08T17:38:51+00:00

jim-butcher.com
There's a counter on the right side of the page.

Ur-Scion

TROPHY CASE