For two years, I worked out of our garage day in and day out. We built out the garage so that it had a climbing wall, home office, and a TV with an Xbox. When we started looking for a new place to live, one of the requirements was that my new home office have heating, air conditioning, and a window. In our new house, my wife graciously let me take over the bonus room. Because the old room was such a hit, I decided to essentially copy what I had done at the old place, doubled in size and taken up a few notches from the old garage.

And so, the Man Room was born. Part home office, part home theater, part climbing wall, part Xbox arena, and generally a fun place to be. I'll give you more info with each of the pictures so you know what you're looking at.

When you first walk into the Man Room, this is what you see. The window is (love the wood blinds). The black leather Berkline home theater seats are awesome, and perfect for long hours of Xbox or movies. They each are equipped with Buttkickers, which are physical subwoofers that shake the chairs when there is, say, an explosion or some other deep sound. When guests want to see it I usually recommend the first five minutes of Toy Story 2 where Buzz Lightyear faces off with Zurg. The projector is nestled in the wall, and there's a decent surround sound system to back it up. Seriously, sometimes I think if I ran the Buttkickers at full power the Man Room would end up in the garage below.
Looking to the wall on the right, you can see the climbing wall. My wife said to go for the wood holds, which give the room a great warm feeling, better than the usual assortment of rainbow-colored holds at the local climbing gym. All my holds are made by Metolius, and they are awesome. The section at the top hides the projector screen (see the picture below). It keeps the screen safe while kids are climbing the walls. There are also hooks in the ceiling where I can hang trapeze, rings & swings.
My office is located in the other side of the room. I've got a big opening so I can look into the climbing wall area. I left an opening so that I can recess cellular shades if I want to visually screen off the office from the climbing wall area, particularly useful if you're playing head to head Xbox and someone has a habit of peeking at the other screen. Looking down the hall, there is a crawlspace above for the kids to play around in. If you start from one end and crawl around, you can go about 50' along the wall. Hidden in the walls is some DVD and video storage, as well as my electronic dart board.
Looking back at the door you can see how the climbing wall wraps around and goes down the hallway. There is lots of storage hidden behind the climbing wall, and a crawlspace above it where the kids can climb out and see the whole room. The cats haven't yet started hanging out there. On the wall you can see the Man Land plaque. At the end of March 2007 HGTV came by to film my room for their upcoming show called Man Land. It seemed to be very well received, and if all goes well the show should air sometime in October 2007.
The office space is awesome. I've got my desk (with four and one half feet clear space so I don't bang my knees getting in and out). The drafting table is great for special projects or friends visiting with their laptop computers. I've got built-in spaces for lots of books & Legos, printers, files, speakers & such. The cabinet to the left of the desk holds all the stereos, DVDs, Xboxes, etc., and is vented by a fan. It really keeps down the noise of my computer fan as well. The best part is I can open a secret door in the back and get at all my AV stuff to wire everything up without having to pull anything out. Oh, and my two cats nap on the two cushions on the divider during the day.
I just replaced my A/V cabinet doors with Cardinal Cast Glass doors. These are totally awesome.
On the back wall of the office I've got a comfy chair for visiting family members & cats. Also, the second Xbox is set up so that I can have two groups of guys go head to head. And, of course, the office frig is nestled in, holding days worth of caffinated beverages, the current favorite being Mr. Pibb. After the first summer, a small air conditioning unit was installed, and makes all the difference in the world on a hot summer day. You can't tell, but the chair is also sitting on one of the secret entrances to the crawlspace below the office floor.
Many thanks to Jim, David, Sharon & all the others who helped make this dream a reality. You guys ROCK!

If you'd like to have something this cool in your house, feel free to e-mail me. I love coming up with fun ideas. If you want me to help you build it, think again. Once is enough. Have I mentioned I'm planning on never moving again (God willing).