What makes your cave "special"!? Give details of your most proud details of da cave!

Hey Guys,

I know, I am the newb, with no pics yet, but i can't wait! I gotta share with you guys! I am so proud of my Tiger Den and it is still a work in progress, but I wanted to share some details that makes my cave, a true "Man Cave"!

106" HD projector screen w/ Optoma HD projector
1000W Yamaha surround sound setup
full size fridge for da "Man drinks"
old kitchen cabinets that i converted in to nice, neat storage for odd and end "cave" stuff
fouton and folding chairs and folding tables
LSU purple and gold paint with "chair rail" molding dividing the 2 colors
epoxied the floor (it sux, I need to get some REAL flooring in there, like laminate or tile)
insulated my garage door to keep the heat out in the hot Texas summers, now, it's cold and seems to be keeping the warmth in, go figure!
had the attic insulated above the garage (cheap azz builders!!)

next:

getting floors (don't know what to do yet) I am open to ideas!
got a buddy that is going to install a Mr. Slim heating and cooling unit (I just need the $1200 to get that done)
need to figure out what furniture and tables to put in there to make it nicer for the social gatherings and game days
LIGHTING!! I gotta do some lighting trickery! I have some crazy ideas, but i need to work on that (may do that this weekend!).

I moved into this home a year ago and have been working on buidling the cave ever since (off and on as finances allow )

Hey there hilljammer. Most of the most memorable stuff in my cave was "acquired" during my tenure in the Navy. That is why there are no obvious pictures of it. The statute of limitations is up for most of it tho.

hilljammer wrote:it sux, I need to get some REAL flooring in there, like laminate or tile

Welcome to the group "HillJammer"

You mentioned flooring, with tons of floor systems out there, might i suggest this one... www.racedeck.com

I have their system in my Cave... a.k.a "The Earnhardt Room", it's affordable, very easy to install... no glue, no nails..... and you and a friend could easily install it in your garage in about a 12 Packs time.

There are many colors & styles to choose from and they are all compatable with each other. With your theme this system would really allow you to be creative by tying in your theme with the floor and still pull off a "Manly" look. The other benifit to this system is, since you don't glue or nail, if you ever moved or changed for whatever reason..... you can easily take it back up and take it with you.

When I close in my carport, I am using this same system again in there...... hands down.

What's in my Cave?

My cave came about to be known as “The Earnhardt Room” because of the extensive Dale Earnhardt & Dale Earnhardt Jr. diecast and memorabilia collection. Like most other things, it's started out as a small hobby but soon amassed into a very large collection. The room took on a life of its own after we remodeled it and started mounting the gel cases on the walls, installed the flooring and started putting things together. Next thing I know, I am looking at how can I expand… out or up?

I am an “out of the box” collector, which means everything comes out of the box or bubble pack and displayed. It’s a private collection and I would never dream of selling it so original packaging means nothing to me. When I visualized the room, I wanted to adopt a Hard Rock/NASCAR Café meets Joe’s Crab Shack meets Museum. What I ended up with is a perfect example of what happens when you give a Redneck a little money.

Here are some of the bigger details:

50” Samsung DLP HDTV
Yamaha Amp and DVD
PSB Image Series speakers (5) with a 12” sub
Wall to wall Diamond Plate Flooring by www.racedeck.com
Custom built 16ft 1/24 scale front stretch section of the Daytona Superspeedway.
(43) 1/24 diecast cars featuring legends of yesterday and famous paint schemes on the Daytona Track
(195) Dale Sr. and Dale Jr. 1/24 scale diecast, some custom paint schemes not available through manufactures
Converted Craftsmen Workbench into a bar (fits the motif)
Kegerator
Small Fridge to hold mixes, off brand beers and chilled liquor
6 Bottle Shot Steward (if you don’t have one, get one)
Race Fan Furniture
APX Home Security System

The room also has many, many pictures documenting their racing careers & lives; I even have Dale Sr.’s baby pictures. Ok, that may be a little over the top but I found them so why not.

Next trip home I plan on taking pics of some of the details not captured in the pictures already posted, to include some of the before & during remodel pics I took a while back.

Da^^^ I thought I was hardcore, you guys are just the ones I'm looking for when it comes to ideas. I've got a good cave started, but as a business owner, I'm more spending $$ on my people than me, and it hurts right now.

Anyway, I've got shelving enclosed with luan doors, a dry bar I just finished, 5 boxes w/5 upper cabs for storage, Luxman stereo that thumps with a nice sub, and for the moment epoxy floors soon to be converted to 3/8 urethane from sams. The really cool thing is many friends are contributing to the cave with pix, a humidor, etc that they value just to be a part of the construction of the cave. I need a kegerator for my Amber Bock. Bad.

Keep the comments coming, they're giving me ideas. And post some pics already!

to me a man cave is about you, what your interests or hobbys are, your sport or sports team, what makes you comfortable when your in it. some men need a 60 inch tv, others need a bar, keg, or music, watch the flooring, because you know spills happen. my man cave is nascar themed because i collect nascar diecast and everyone gives me more nascar stuff all the time, i cant even display all i have because of the space factor. the best thing about my cave has to be my checker board half wall, which i used 1/16 thick laminated abs sheets, that i made at work, it turned out better than i ever could have dreamed, its my own idea and the labor was also mine, thats why its so special to me ! good luck with yours !

We moved into our current house in April of 2008. My previous house had a detached garage that my wife would not use. It was about 550 sqft and was home to my art studio, my motorcycle, and my 12 speaker sound system. The new house doesn't allow any of those things. However, it does have one bedroom downstairs that was given to me by my wife in a baseball card style trade. It only cost me a master bathroom, kitchen, and living room. Yes, I would do it again! The room is approx 150 sqft. An obvious problem, but the room means more to me now than the entire garage at the other house. I have been able to fill it with gig posters, photos, 50" HD with XBOX360, PS2, PS3, and a Wii. I feel like the evolution of my mancave has helped me not only spend more time inside with my wife, but it has allowed me to mature without anyone being the wiser. Until recently my home has been the only art gallery to show my art work. Now all of that is changing so I am able to hang any paintings I currently hae at home before they go to one of three galleries. My mancave is kept cold and dark, but I have so much fun and laugh so much in my room. I am working on new photos to show some of the new improvements.


Thanks,
Cody

Cody, how's about a look at some of your art?

I'd have to say that my favorite element of my Man Cave has to be the Stage & Stripper Pole. She stage is 6' x 6' and outlined in rope lights I have a spotlight shining on the stage as well.

Whenever I'm asked why there's no feminine influence in the cave (duh, right?) I say "wait till saturday, she'll be over there on the stage we're building". I get a laugh from everyone but my wife. And you've really got one! Very cool.

The wife was really cool about it...I said "I think I am going to put a stripper pole in my Man Cave" And she says..."If you are putting one in you might as well do it right and put it on a stage"
Gotta love a wife like that

My wife is great but I think a stripper pole is where she would draw the line

My favorite element of my cave has to be the TV/Movie Screen and HiDef projector. I built the screen myself with about 10 dollars worth of lumber and an old projector screen from the local Marriott. The screen is about 15 feet diagonal and covers one whole wall of the cave...with a high def cable subscription it's like watching a twelve foot plasma tv......

I also tied in an apple tv and can currently stream about 400 movies from my computer instantly. So all of my DVD collection is at my fingertips. Tied in a surround system and an xbox360 also. It doesn't get any better!



all that said........a stripper pole is pretty cool!

Randy