Beast's Refuge
Every Beast needs a place he can retreat to when the the world stops making sense. I'm no different. When we moved into our current house about 15 years ago I had a unique opportunity to build a work shop nestled down in the back yard to my specs (this was back in the days when I had a little money to put into such projects).
I decided on a 31'x31' space with a 31'x10' loft to give me 30' inside dimensions. Simple slab floor, plenty of plugs on each wall taking into account for a workbench on one side, 4 floor plugs on 10' centers, each wall with its' own breaker and commercial grade florescent fixtures. Decided to heavily insulate the walls, finish out with drywall/tape/bed. Stopped short of texture to save money but had them primer to seal everything. And, of course, central heat and air. This room's so tight the AC only runs about 30 minutes a day total to keep it at 80 in the heat of summer. Had them build the outside to match the prevailing architecture in the neighborhood. A very nice start to an escape from this world. The Cave:
Unfortunately almost immediately the whole building turned into a place where other family members and friends decided to store their 'stuff' because they didn't have room for it at their own abode [George Carlin's definition of stuff: when it's your crap it's stuff, when it's someone else's stuff it's crap] so between their stuff and mine after about a year you couldn't hardly walk through the place. Finally this past summer my Beautiful Wife and I issued the warning that if they wanted it they'd better come & get it or it was going out. We started around the middle of July and finished about the first of September. Loads of now-crap-formerly-stuff went to the curb, walls and ceiling painted, floor etched and painted (Wife suggested peach and tan but I decided on true Man-Beast colors: Black and Gray) and now a cave to be proud of:
And yes, there is a black mini-fridge stocked with an assortment of tasty refreshing beverages. Just a few finishing touches: already have cable run so just need a TV mounted on the wall (Ahh! Now I know what to do with all those Best Buy gift cards I've been saving from Birthday/Father's Day/Christmas the last couple of years!), then just need to run Cat-5 from the house for Internet access and that will be about it for fixing up.
Next up, chronicling the fulfillment of a life-long dream and the real purpose for all that square footage.
I decided on a 31'x31' space with a 31'x10' loft to give me 30' inside dimensions. Simple slab floor, plenty of plugs on each wall taking into account for a workbench on one side, 4 floor plugs on 10' centers, each wall with its' own breaker and commercial grade florescent fixtures. Decided to heavily insulate the walls, finish out with drywall/tape/bed. Stopped short of texture to save money but had them primer to seal everything. And, of course, central heat and air. This room's so tight the AC only runs about 30 minutes a day total to keep it at 80 in the heat of summer. Had them build the outside to match the prevailing architecture in the neighborhood. A very nice start to an escape from this world. The Cave:
Unfortunately almost immediately the whole building turned into a place where other family members and friends decided to store their 'stuff' because they didn't have room for it at their own abode [George Carlin's definition of stuff: when it's your crap it's stuff, when it's someone else's stuff it's crap] so between their stuff and mine after about a year you couldn't hardly walk through the place. Finally this past summer my Beautiful Wife and I issued the warning that if they wanted it they'd better come & get it or it was going out. We started around the middle of July and finished about the first of September. Loads of now-crap-formerly-stuff went to the curb, walls and ceiling painted, floor etched and painted (Wife suggested peach and tan but I decided on true Man-Beast colors: Black and Gray) and now a cave to be proud of:
And yes, there is a black mini-fridge stocked with an assortment of tasty refreshing beverages. Just a few finishing touches: already have cable run so just need a TV mounted on the wall (Ahh! Now I know what to do with all those Best Buy gift cards I've been saving from Birthday/Father's Day/Christmas the last couple of years!), then just need to run Cat-5 from the house for Internet access and that will be about it for fixing up.
Next up, chronicling the fulfillment of a life-long dream and the real purpose for all that square footage.
Labels: Close to Home, Family, Fun Stuff
posted by Beast1624 at 4:42 PM
1 Comments:
The ultimate in ManCave.
Suh-weet.
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