Author Topic: Your man cave???  (Read 782 times)

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Offline no guns here

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Your man cave???
« on: April 16, 2008, 04:05:54 AM »
Now that I can see the light at the end of the AF tunnel in just about three years... I'm starting to dream.  I just have to have a "man cave".  You know, a place for me.  I'm thinking I'll start off with a shed, but not a little one.  I'm going to have to have some room in there.  Pretty much just an extension of the house I guess.  A/C will be a MUST depending on where we live as will be a wood burning stove.  I want a nice desk area (for surfin' GBO dontcha know).  I'll have to have a reloading bench, a work bench and fairly secure storage room for ammo and supplies.  My dream would be to have a couple of firing points out the side or end so I could shoot without having to go out in the heat/cold.  Since I'm a Sooner fan I'll have to put up some crimson wainscoating and white walls.  A couch, recliner, mini-kitchen and maybe a projecter for the tv would be great.  Yeah I know it'll take a while but think of all the space in the house it will save.  My wife would LOVE to get a bunch of my stuff out of the closets and rooms.  Shoot while I'm dreaming I might as well put in a loft or maybe one of those fold down beds for when I get in trouble.  If you have a man cave or ideas, dreams or pictures let me know!

ngh
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Offline Hairtrigger

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Re: Your man cave???
« Reply #1 on: April 16, 2008, 05:21:40 AM »
My wife and I bought an old farm house. The first thing we did was had the house lifted and dug out the old 5' basement and made it a new 9' deep basement with heated floors. I have a gun room in the basement that has all four concrete walls as well as the ceiling. I got a old bank vault door and made it my gun room


The gun room is 16' by 6' ... here are some pics before I put the camo netting on the ceiling and lighting in.


Offline beemanbeme

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Re: Your man cave???
« Reply #2 on: April 16, 2008, 06:30:41 AM »
Make it too fancy and it will get invaded!  You can be sure.  Too fancy and the wife wants to horn in and bring her friends out. Kinda nice and your friends will sniff it out and be over every night to watch the game and drink up all the free beer or to get away from their wives.  Makes no matter that you'd planned on reloading or kicking back and reading a book.  Been there, done that.

If the shop is attached to the house, your wife will use it as a dumping grounds for anything she doesn't want in the house or doesn't know what to do with.  This means every time you walk into your space, you'll trip over or walk around a pile of crap that has to be dealt with before you can do whatever it is you want to do. Been there, done that.

I'll tell you what I have now and maybe you can use some of it and throw the rest away. It's similar to what I had in Oklahoma. 16'x24' free standing building. A/C. Wired for 220.  No phone. Cell phones don't work in my little holler and since I'm now a widower, I only get calls from old women looking for a husband and telemarketers anyway. No windows because they take up too much storage space and why let the robbers in?  I do have sky lights in the roof for natural lights.  Sturdy work benches, shelves, and peg board around most of the walls.  Plug ins at every stanchion of the work bench. Under bench storage.  I have things like grinders, chain saw sharpeners, and such that I only need occasionally mounted on boards and stored under the benches so I can take them out and bolt or clamp them to the benches only when I need them.  Fluorescent lighting over the benches.  A couple of mounted vises. I've got a small micro wave and a Mr Coffee. I have a dorm sized fridge with a few pop and a jug of water since I don't have running water. No beer since I don't like to use drink and use power tools or reload.  In the center of the room, I have a pedestal gun cleaning station.  It's was some sort of roll around kitchen work station that I took the wheels off. I have a gun cradle on top; I put my cleaning supplies in the drawers and hang my cleaning rods down the side in a gizzie I fastened there.  It has a fourcent light over it also.  Having a dedicated gun cleaning station or gun working-on station is the greatest thing since bottled beer. Especially one that you can walk all the way around. The work station is big enough that you can sit things around the cradle and not worry about them falling off and such. Its wired for electricity and also has an overhead plug in. If I glass bed a rifle in the winter, I can plug in a heat lamp and hang it over head as I heat the shop with wood.

At one end of the shop, I have a wood stove with a heatalator fan.  An easy chair, foot stool, and a reading lamp.  One straight back chair.  If I have more guest than that, they sit on up-turned 5 gallon buckets or milk crates.

At the other end of the shop, I have a loft that I use for storage. Under that I've boxed in a room that is used for reloading. Nothing else.  Separating the reloading room from the rest of the shop, I've hung clear curtains that I can close if I'm doing anything in the shop that might create dust.  I have two reloading stations  on a very sturdy reloading table. Both presses are mounted on 1" plywood which is mounted on the reloading table with carriage bolts and wing nuts. They are mounted so they overhang the edge of the table by about 2". The bolt patterns are so they can be changed about. One is set up for small rifle and one for large rifle --I don't reload pistol. I have another, same bolt pattern, that I use for my target ammo.  I guess I could mount it also but IMO that would make things too strung out. My other stuff, like case trimmers and such, I mount on boards and clamp them to the bench when I need them and put them on the shelf when I don't.  I like a uncluttered work space. My powder measure is mounted on the wall at one end of the bench and I would set up my Ohaus 10/10 in front of it. I use a Lyman 1200 now. All of them go on the shelves when not in use. I have two gun safes and a large metal cabinet. I keep shells, bullets, random stuff in the cabinet and valuable stuff in the safes. I have a comfortable roll-around chair that I sit in to reload. If someone wants to watch me reload, they can bring in the straight back chair or sit on a up-turned 5 gallon bucket.

I have motion detector lights around the outside and three 1/4"x3" straps acrost the substantial door with substantial locks with ONE key.  And that key is in my pocket.

If the guys want to come over and drink beer and watch the game, we go in the house.

My late wife didn't put too fine a point on it: the first time we got crosswise and I went to the shed, she started calling it "John's pouting place". :D

Sorry to run so long.  One thing a I would suggest, start you a folder and every time you get an idea, write it down and drop it in the folder.  Somewhere along the line, get you a pad of graph paper and start drawing some of it up incorporating the ideas you have.  




Offline PartsMan

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Re: Your man cave???
« Reply #3 on: April 16, 2008, 07:02:42 AM »
If the shop is attached to the house, your wife will use it as a dumping grounds for anything she doesn't want in the house or doesn't know what to do with.  This means every time you walk into your space, you'll trip over or walk around a pile of crap that has to be dealt with before you can do whatever it is you want to do. Been there, done that.

I can vouch for that. I took over the garage when we bought the house.
It is set up more as a shop than a "man cave".
Every other weekend I have to clean it out and shove all the toys/junk up in the attic.

It is important to have a spot of your own.
Lots of guys just use the extra bedroom.
Don't fall for that one. You will end up loosing it to her or the kids.

Offline Sourdough

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Re: Your man cave???
« Reply #4 on: April 16, 2008, 07:57:49 AM »
I got a small building 12X20 and placed it against the back of the house.  I removed the buildings back door and placed the building so the door frame and the door to the back of the garage match up.  I sealed around the building so it and the back of the house are air tite.  I have a door on the side of the building and a roll-up garage door on the end.  I have sealed the roll-up door to keep in the heat.  I put my reloading bench in there and a work bench on the opposite wall.  Leaving the door open to the garage heats the room up enough to make it usable in the winter, without putting a heater in it.  Wife don't like it because it's too cold for her.  Being on the north side of the garage, it's the coolest place during the summer.  Last summer caught the wife and son moving a TV and sofa out there where they could watch TV where it was cool.  We don't have A/C and when the temp gets into the 80s they are very uncomfortable in the house. 


My Mom and Dad built a new house a few years back.  As they were moving in, Dad was carrying a load of boxes in his arms into the house.  Mom snatched his pipe out of his mouth, jerking his teeth out as well, and threw the pipe out into the drive.  She said in a very loud and belligerent voice, "There will be no smoking in this house Mr".  Dad quietly went and picked up his teeth, then his pipe, got into his truck and left.  Dad returned a couple of hours later, with a load of lumber.  Dad proceeded to box in the huge deck on the back of the house.  Dad put lots of windows in, and since the deck was on the south side he knew it would get a lot of sunshine.  When Mom asked him what he was doing, he replied "Building me a smoking room".  Dad left the windows in place, separating the kitchen and den from his room.  Dad furnished his room almost identical to the Den and Kitchen in the rest of the house.  He put in his own kitchen sink and microwave, TV, stereo, and a small wood stove.  He placed a small A/C unit in one wall.  During the winter he heats with his stove, during the summer he lets the sun do it's thing and heat up his room, this along with the pipe smoke, keeps Mom out. 

Mom hates the house, she says she never sees Dad anymore, except when he comes in to go to the bathroom, get something to eat, or to go to bed.  Mom won't go out there because Dad keeps it too hot for her, and the pipe smoke.  Dad is slender and very athletic, Mom is a huge fat woman.  Dad likes the temp in the high 70s or low 80s.  Mom wants the temp in the mid 60s.  So now they both live in their own little worlds, not a new thing, Dad was a trucker and was always gone anyway before he retired.  Except for five boys they no longer have anything in common anyway. 
Where is old Joe when we really need him?  Alaska Independence    Calling Illegal Immigrants "Undocumented Aliens" is like calling Drug Dealers "Unlicensed Pharmacists"
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Offline Moss88hunter

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Re: Your man cave???
« Reply #5 on: April 16, 2008, 08:12:43 AM »
I made the garage at my house a man cave. I am still thinking about what all I am going to do though. Really the only big thing I have done is set up a 100 yd range with a bench inside shooting through a window. If you do this use ear protection even with .22's.

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Offline rex6666

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Re: Your man cave???
« Reply #6 on: April 16, 2008, 08:23:10 AM »
I am in the process of making about half my garage into more of a work place than man cave.
I was planning to make bench top out of 1"plywood, i was at sears other day and noticed they
have a bench "top" made from pvc 8'x2' and 11/2" thick for $79.00 am thinking about it anyone
seen this.
Rex
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Offline no guns here

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Re: Your man cave???
« Reply #7 on: April 16, 2008, 09:12:17 PM »
now see...  why try to re-invent the wheel?  We can all learn something here...  What I've learned so far is:

1.  Don't attach it to the house.  I'm thinking that it needs to be attached to a deck that is attached to the house.  That way I wouldn't have to walk through the grass, mud, snow to get there.
2.  Don't make it TOO nice although I had thought that if it was nice my friends might actually WANT to come over and it would be more of a "club room" for guys that like to hunt and shoot.
3.  Make it just foul enough that my wife will stay out.
4.  I had thought of a vault before but I intend to have a one story house only so I would have to remodel or add walls to have it concreted in.  Do-able but harder.
5.  It's going to have to be BIGGER than I originally thought.
6.  Keep a list of what I want to include.  Yep, I'll have to do that.  My brain's getting more confusticated all the time and I'll forget all about my man cave if I don't write it down.


Thanks y'all.
ngh
"I feared for my life!"

Offline oldandslow

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Re: Your man cave???
« Reply #8 on: April 17, 2008, 01:41:36 PM »
No guns here, didn't you read the fine print on your marriage license? It clearly states " Upon retirement the wife gets the house and the man gets the garage". So make damn sure you get a place that has a nice garage. I'm just joking but------- me and almost everyone I know that has retired has found this to be true. My wife got the spare bedroom but I couldn't get all my junk in it anyway so I was glad to take the garage. Besides when I want to clean it I can fire up the leaf blower and be done in just a couple of minutes.

Offline Hooker

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Re: Your man cave???
« Reply #9 on: April 17, 2008, 03:16:24 PM »






My cave known locally as the pit. Where all manner of things are built, drinks are optional. ;D

Pat
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Offline Sourdough

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Re: Your man cave???
« Reply #10 on: April 17, 2008, 07:19:37 PM »
Hooker is that the cowling off a Suzuki 4-wheeler in the middle picture?
Where is old Joe when we really need him?  Alaska Independence    Calling Illegal Immigrants "Undocumented Aliens" is like calling Drug Dealers "Unlicensed Pharmacists"
What Is A Veteran?
A 'Veteran' -- whether active duty, discharged, retired, or reserve -- is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to 'The United States of America,' for an amount of 'up to, and including his life.' That is honor, and there are way too many people in this country today who no longer understand that fact.

Offline GRIMJIM

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Re: Your man cave???
« Reply #11 on: April 18, 2008, 04:50:05 AM »
Here's my man cave (I wish)
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Offline singleVI

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Re: Your man cave???
« Reply #12 on: April 18, 2008, 05:11:13 AM »
GrimJim, is this what Heaven looks like? If so Ill have to develop a new Sunday routine. lol

Offline TribReady

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Re: Your man cave???
« Reply #13 on: April 18, 2008, 07:50:43 AM »
Do you know how many men are daydreaming every time they read this?  :)

I've got a small 8x12 room in the basement. 9 or so foot old counter top with a couple rows of shelves above. I store totes of hunting clothes below.  2 safes, some large book shelves ammo, supplies, etc, an old big old wood trunk for decoys and deer archery target.  It's usually pretty cluttered, but I like it that way

I definitely like the idea of an out building away from the house. Just nice enough to enjoy, but not too nice.  If you have the land, have a shooting table in the back and a large window and door to open up to a firing range.

 Even in my little space, if Christmas presents need to be hidden or something doesn't fit somewhere else, it gets stashed in my room.  I really should hide that key from my wife :)
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Offline BlkHawk73

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Re: Your man cave???
« Reply #14 on: April 19, 2008, 03:40:49 AM »
  When we built a garage we built a breezeway.  the back of that became the gunroom.  Realized after it was finiahed it was kinda small as id didn't really allow much growth later on.  That fix has since been figured out and quite doable when the ned arises.  Just think ahead! 













  Pretty close to this now.  Just quite a bit more ruger collectables added.  Need additional shelves and more handgun racks.  As I said...plan ahead!
"Never Surrender, Just Carry On."  - G.S.