re: Man Cave Budget

It's funny that you actually believe you will have a similar budget for your man cave.

All in, probably around $25,000. But the buildout of the room itself was pretty cheap. I just converted my garage. Put in floating wood flooring myself for under $1,500. Built the wall myself for around $1,000 in lumber and around $200 for a scrap piece of granite ( I had zero woodworking experience, and all of the tools I own fit on a shelf in my laundry room). Added a couple inexpensive light fixtures and base boards for a few hundred, and a window unit that is both AC & heat for around $400. So well under $4K for the room buildout. The work is easier than most think.

Added a decent pool table for around $3,500, and threw my old love seat in there when I got a new sofa. My guitar nook is up to around $10,000, but obviously that collection has been built up over the course of decades. Likewise, my memorabilia collection is somewhere between $8-10,000, but that has also been acquired over many years.

I started out with strictly Supercross/MX signed memorabilia, but eventually branched out into road racing, sports, and tv. Some of my favorites:

tv - a beaker from Walt's meth lab from "Breaking Bad"
- a tribal council seat from season 35 of "Survivor" (just added yesterday)

SX/MX: -signed jerseys from Kevin Windham, Chad Reed, Ryan Villopoto, David Vuillemin (still have to frame several of these)

roadracing/MotoGP: - signed knee puck and gloves from the late Nicky Hayden
- signed team shirt from the late Marco Simoncelli
- signed gloves from Ben Spies, Matt Mladin, Roger Hayden

Sports : - signed jerseys from Anthony Davis and Leonard Fournette (still have to frame LF7)

When I first got into collecting memorabilia, I quickly realized how expensive framing was, so I learned how to matte and frame stuff on my own. I buy all the materials from Hobby Lobby, and I can frame and matte something for around 25% of what a frame shop would charge.

quote:

---

My wife (pics online already) is about to spend 7k on the house for shite for her

---

Sounds meh for a she shed.

quote:

---

Definitely takes some getting used to, and patience

---

For sure. There’s a big learning curve initially. Most frame shops just punch a design into a computer and it is instantly die cut. Takes some real time to actually sketch out an elaborate matte design then hand cut it. And it always seems like if you make a bad cut, it’s on the last damn cut. All that wasted time and it goes straight into the trash.

I’ve done some really nice work in the past few years, but most of the stuff in my game room is my very basic early work. I really need to re-matte a lot of it, but I have so many new jerseys to frame that have been in my closet for literally years before I get around to re-dos.

quote:

---

18,000. I poured a slab and built a separate outdoor mancave building.

---

^ This is correct. You dont want your man space to be attached to the main living space. Most wives have claimed the main house to themselves and the kids so anything you attach to that structure becomes their space by default.

My man space is my detached garage, as it should be for every man. Sure it smells like acetone and oil most nights and the floor is full of wire insulation and metal shivers but its MY space and my wife and kids respect it as such. She wouldnt dare come into my garage and start moving shite around, throwing shite away or putting out my cigars like she does in our house.

NICE TOUCH!

no pun intended.

quote:

---

started out with strictly Supercross/MX signed memorabilia,

---

Man, I like the prints with Carmichael and Jeff Stanton. Windham would be a nice addition. I betting we might know each other.

quote:

---

Man, I like the prints with Carmichael and Jeff Stanton. Windham would be a nice addition. I betting we might know each other.

---

Thanks. If it's the set of 4 prints you're talking about, it's actually RC, McGrath, Stewart, and Pastrana. I absolutely love those and they were the first things that went on my walls. They were done by artist Michael Savage - originally done as pencil drawings, then around 200 prints of each were made, numbered and signed by the artist and the riders. They are just incredibly detailed for pencil work.



My only Windham item is a signed jersey, and I keep kicking myself in the arse for not framing it yet (along with Villopoto and a Reed retro-jersey from one of the Anaheim retro-night rounds), because I'm a huge KDub fan. I bought them after I switched from motocross to roadracing, so I was busy acquiring roadracing stuff and framing all of that and just lost my Supercross motivation. After I frame all of those I'll have to rearrange everything on the walls to make room.

McIntosh and Bowers & Wilkins = bad arse!!!

No way in hell thats only $50k. Those two front mains are halfway there. That McIntosh stuff would shove it way over.