It’s an “Alcove”

There's so much more room for activities...

There’s so much more room for activities…

     A few months back, I was sorting through various categories of “stuff” (or “crap” if you listen to my wife).  I had the hide-a-bed pulled out since it makes for more comfy movie viewing at night.  Between that and the T.V. cart, there was hardly room to move around.  Then, I needed something out of the closet. You may recall way back when I said moving the T.V. cart out of the way was easy? Well, not so much. And I certainly wasn’t going to be moving it anywhere with piles of comics, magazines, and other stuff in the way.  I had a log jam.

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Designing the Nerd Cave–Home Theater

     Maybe “home theater” is a bit of an overstatement.  I’ve never been one of those guys who needs to have the surround sound speakers finely tuned to the acoustic profile of a room and the windows shaking.  If I can understand the dialogue, I’m usually good.

      I actually had contemplated NOT having a TV in the new nerd cave.  But that feeling passed after about 10 seconds.  Let’s face it, no self-respecting nerd would voluntarily exclude a TV from his or her den.  My problem was that I had nowhere to put the TV.  My wife suggested mounting it up high in the corner but that would’ve meant a pretty small screen and I’d have felt like I was sitting in a doctor’s office waiting room watching the Weather Channel.

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Designing the Nerd Cave or How my foray Into the world of unconventional sandbox design taught me to ALWAYS have a plan

     I’m a planner.  Sometimes that can be a bad thing.  I frequently succumb to what’s known as “paralysis by analysis.”  G.I. Joe claims “knowing is half the battle.”  For me, knowing I have this problem doesn’t always keep me from falling victim.  But in the case of my new Nerd Cave, I made a conscious & disciplined effort to keep that side of me down.  It’s not every day a guy’s wife tells him to take a whole room and do with it what he will (except, of course for hanging model airplanes) and I didn’t intend to squander the opportunity.

     A couple of weeks after my wife gave me carte blanche, we sold the headboard and mattress.  The room was empty.  It was time to start making the “making it happen” part happen. I sat down with a pen and paper.

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