Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2005

Man cave

For some guys a big TV, a recliner and cold beer are just the beginning

By JOE GUY COLLIER
Detroit Free Press

A chandelier hangs in the foyer of Robert and Michelle Hernandez’s Brownstown home south of Detroit. The front room has candles on the coffee table and flowers in the corner.

Walk downstairs, though, and the theme goes from Home & Garden to Hockeytown Cafe. Jerseys and pictures of sports figures line the wall. A big-screen TV dominates the front of the room. Two smaller TVs flank a glass-block bar in the back.

“It was truly a dream come true,” said Hernandez, the 40-year-old owner of a Detroit blueprint firm, standing in the midst of the TV sets and sports memorabilia. “This is everything and more of what I’ve ever wanted in a basement.”

With cold weather and prime sports seasons on the way, men across the nation are sharing the same dream. They disappear on hockey nights and football weekends to a place reserved for testosterone-driven pursuits.

Call it the Man Cave — a hideaway where the TV screen can never be too big, the beverages can never be too cold and the home team can never score too many points.

Some Man Caves have high-tech electronics and rare sports memorabilia. Others are simply odd collections of manly items picked up over the years. They are all designed with the express purpose of creating a comfort zone for their owners.

Creating their own Man Cave is a dream for many men, said Mick Mertz, owner of Custom Bars by Mick in Fraser. He’s built baseball-, football- and hockey-themed bars for customers in metro Detroit.

“People come in here even before the house is built, and the man is looking for a bar for the basement,” Mertz said. “He said, ‘This is my domain.’ ”

George Giovanini, a retired construction worker and driver, started carving out his little piece of paradise in January. Giovanini, 57, converted an old farmhouse behind his West Bloomfield, Mich., home into the ultimate guy’s hangout.

His Man Cave is far from fancy. The farmhouse has a bare concrete floor, cinderblock walls and a kerosene heater to warm the place in winter.

The cave started taking shape earlier this year when a neighbor donated an old pool table.

A big black fridge, clearly marked “ICE BEER” in yellow letters, now sits in the corner. He picked that up from an auto shop going out of business.

A friend gave him the a nappy brown plaid couch. A son had been using it at college.

Giovanini bought a TV for $25 from a Holiday Inn in Dearborn.

If there’s ever any doubt about who belongs in the Man Cave, the bathroom facilities consist of a stand-up urinal in the adjoining garage.

“That’s another Holiday Inn,” Giovanini said. “That was a freebie. They were just throwing them out.”

Some female visitors tell him he should add carpet, drapes and contemporary lamps. Giovanini said he likes the Man Cave the way it is.

“You don’t have to worry about spilling drinks,” he said.

Hernandez’s wife, Michelle, also has become a convert of the Man Cave in their Brownstown home.

The couple has three sons, Jonathan, 1 5, David, 13, and Jacob, 10, along with a Boston Terrier named Budd.

“Oh, I love it,” Michelle said about the Man Cave. “I don’t have a choice. I’m fully outnumbered in the house.”

The Hernandez basement is like a mini-sports museum. The walls have embedded display cases with jerseys for Ben Wallace, Barry Sanders, Steve Yzerman and Lance Parrish.

Replica stadium seats are along the back wall and a Golden Tee video machine is in the corner.

Hernandez started finishing the basement in the fall of 2001. He wanted a place to display the sports memorabilia he collected.

He also wanted a place to watch games. For the NBA Finals, he hosted more than 40 people to watch Pistons games.

“It’s a given now,” Hernandez said. “Whenever there’s a big game, everybody is here.”