A Man's Home is His ... Cave
by Doug Gillett
Halfway through the buddy comedy
“I Love You, Man,” Sydney Fife
(played by Jason Segel) introduces
his new friend Peter Klaven (Paul
Rudd) to his “Temple of Doom” — a
converted garage outfitted with wellbroken-
in furniture, multiple TV sets, a
Heineken-stocked mini-fridge and a setup
for a full rock band (which they later use to
exhaustively recreate the highlights of the
Rush catalog). When Peter asks Sydney if
he ever takes women back there, Sydney
scoffingly replies, “Pete, this is the ‘man
cave.’ There’s no women allowed in here.”
“Not all such “caves” are governed by
rules quite that strict, but the man cave
(or “manctuary”) is certainly more than
just a den or rumpus room. It’s a minifortress
of solitude where men can entertain
themselves with all the things the
women in their lives either don’t understand
or just don’t want to bother with —
anything from card games and favorite
ball clubs to comic books or old records.
The obscure hobbies, sports-related outbursts,
and miscellaneous male bonding
that don’t fit in with our quaint notions of
“polite company” — whatever that is —
always have a home in the man cave.
And man caves themselves are finding
a home in more and more, well, homes, as
a variety of industries, both traditionally
male-identified and unisex, have stepped
up to embrace the trend. Many higherend
homebuilders and interior designers
now include such rooms on their checklist
when working with male clients. As for
the guys converting garages, basements or
other existing spaces, media outlets ranging
from Maxim, Esquire and Playboy to
Forbes and the Washington Post style section
offer advice and suggestions on how
to outfit the perfect cave.
Electronics and housewares manufacturers
have caught on, too, as have the
sports leagues that are the focal point of a
huge portion of man-cave activity. Every
team in every major league in America
(plus quite a few NASCAR teams) now
allows you to outfit your entire cave with
themed decor, with offerings ranging from
the unique to the just plain ridiculous.
(Are you a big enough fan of, say, the
Dallas Cowboys that you’ll really pay $700
for a blue-and-silver velour sofa with the
Cowboys’ star embroidered on it?)
With products like that on the market,
it’s reasonable for women to get nervous
about the amounts of money their husbands
or boyfriends potentially could sink
into their ideal man cave. However, they
don’t need to automatically assume that
these men are about to disappear completely
into black holes of beer, video
games and HD-rendered sporting events.
While some guys set up their caves as a
means to escape, others are simply trying
to create a more inviting environment to
entertain their (primarily male) guests.
Think of it as being like your trips to Pottery
Barn and Bed Bath & Beyond, only
with less candles and more football.
“I wanted this area instead of hanging
out in the backyard,” said Shaun Estes,
manager of Bi-City Body Works in Coumbus,
who has been converting his garage into a man cave over the last couple of years. “It seemed like anytime
someone came over, we’d just hang out on the back porch.
Wasn’t a whole lot of fun.”
Now, however, his garage has an acetate floor, a 37-inch Sony
flat-panel TV with surround sound, a pinball machine, dartboard
and pool and foosball tables. The cave has stadium seating for
the big games — Estes says his circle of friends is mostly made up
of Georgia and Auburn fans, and they all follow the Braves as
well — and it’s fully outfitted with track lighting, heat and air
conditioning.
And before you ask, yes, Estes’s wife, Carmen, gave full consent
for the conversion. “The way our driveway curves into the
garage, it’s really not feasible to use,” he said. “And since I’ve got
a truck and she has a Suburban, we couldn’t park both our vehicles
in it anyway.”
Some guys have to get the wife’s stamp of approval before moving
forward with a man-cave project; others have to get Mom’s. But
that didn’t stop Brandon Laska from turning his parents’ Phenix City
garage into a man cave of his own — even though he doesn’t quite
meet the “man” part of the equation just yet: Brandon is 12 years
old and attends Smiths Station Intermediate School.
Brandon’s cave has all the essentials — TV, radio, DVD player
and a fridge full of soft drinks — but to truly represent Brandon and
his interests, it needed to be skateboard-friendly. So the setup includes
a pair of quarter-pipes that Brandon and his friends can be
found on a few hours each week. “It kind of started with him putting
some skateboard stuff out there, and the next thing we know, we
ended up with a half-pipe in the garage,” said Brandon’s father, Larry.
As unique as each man cave is — they’re all reflections of their
owners’ personalities, after all — they also share some common themes. Just like Estes, Brandon had some vehicular considerations
to keep in mind when setting up his cave, i.e. his mom’s
minivan. The van sits between the quarter-pipes at night and is
backed out into the driveway by Brandon’s obliging mother,
Janet, when it’s time to skate.
And Brandon’s cave, like Shaun’s, exemplifies one of the most
important aspects of the man cave in a conceptual sense: No cave
is ever truly finished, and there are always improvements to be made.
Brandon is constantly tweaking his skateboarding ramps and plans
to swap out the DVD player with his PlayStation 2. Shaun, meanwhile,
says his next step is to find some signs to put on the walls
.In the longer term, Shaun’s cave will also become the venue
for a project he’s dreamed about for a long time now: designing
and building his own chopper. He’s been working on it for the
past three months and expects the whole project to take two
years. “I’m not much of a rider myself, but it’s something I’ve always
wanted to do,” he said. “And I’ve got room for it in there.
I’m not going to do any of the big welding in there, but it’s kind
of cool — it’s just the frame and the tank right now, but when you
go in there, you’ve got a chopper staring back at you.”
Estes says he hopes the project will be a teaching opportunity
for him with his son, who is now six years old. To some, that might
be a great bonding opportunity. Sydney Fife, on the other hand,
might say that inviting in the rest of the family violates one of the
cardinal rules of the man cave to begin with. But that’s kind of the
central paradox of the man cave: You make it too much fun, and
eventually everybody’s going to want to hang out there.
To see this story complete with photos, pick up the latest issue of Columbus and the Valley at a retail outlet near you, or click here to subscribe online so you’ll never miss a word.
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