The Wonder of A Windowless Room

The mancave is back. I’ve got my space back.

We have an extra room in our house, and we also have a half-room that is built into the garage. When we moved in, I was bequeathed the room in the garage as my mancave. My wife, Amy, set up the extra room upstairs as her art room, for her painting and collage projects; but when Piper was born, we turned it into a playroom. Amy wanted to try and share the space, but too many sharp pencils and scissors didn’t seem like a good idea with the kid running around. Thus having lost her precious art room, Amy moved her stuff into the mancave downstairs. And so began the great experiment of sharing our creative space. It was fun at first. I would work on music projects or write for Game Rant, and Amy would paint. But as we both found out, it’s just not the same as having your own dedicated space.  

Since it’s built into the garage, the mancave has no windows. I love the wonder of this windowless room. No sunshine means less distraction, at least to me. This may seem a little ironic, since we have multiple game consoles set up in there, but I usually have enough discipline to resist and stay on task. Also, inside it looks the same any time day or night. That makes it easier to focus on whatever projects I am working on, whenever I have time to work on them.  Another big plus is that the previous owner worked from home recording video game music scores, so the room is set up with foam padding on the walls and ceiling. It’s not sound proof, but it’s quite sound resistant, so it helps when the little one is screaming upstairs for some reason or another. And I don’t have to be self-conscious when I am rocking out.

Amy didn’t appreciate the windowless room, however. Without the sun, there’s not enough light to paint by. We bought another floor lamp, but it’s still not enough. So this last weekend, Amy hauled her stuff upstairs and set up a space in our bedroom.

So yes, I have the mancave back, and it feels good. It’s important to have your own space. When you spend all day every day putting someone else’s needs above yours, sometimes you just need a place to go to sort yourself out. And it’s always nice to have a dedicated space to put all your stuff. When I was growing up, my dad was a mechanic. He used to spend all of his time in the garage working on our family vehicles. It seemed like a lot of time. Looking back, however, now I suppose that he just wanted time to himself. So here everyone has a space in the house to call their own. Although it’s nice for Piper to have a place to put all her toys, it’s as important for the adults to have their own creative space. Because sometimes you just need to get away from it all, even in a windowless room.

Besides, I get enough sun and fresh air doing yardwork, which will be a lot this summer. What’s that I hear? My windowless room is calling …