I'm a man, that's what I am.....

One of the unexpected benefits of getting the loft converted is that I'm apparently now going to get a proper man space in the house. I've had a cave since we first moved in: home to the bulk of my CDs, my separates stereo, a pile of my books, my desk, an old telly and one of my computers. The walls are covered with pictures of Andrew Flintoff, The Beatles, Muhammad Ali, Han Solo and Morrissey/Marr. There's even a beer fridge in there. It's meant to be a proper man space, but sadly for me, it hasn't really worked out like that. The room has served as our main spare room, and although the futon in there spends most of its life folded up as a sofa and not rolled out as a bed, it effectively blocks access to the CD racks and the stereo; there's no real signal on the tv and the beer fridge is sadly empty and unplugged most of the time. Since I've had a laptop and no longer need to sit at the desk, I don't really spend much time in there at all.

The addition of a new room in the house has now moved the goalposts: the room in the loft is now very much our guest room. It has a double-bed and an en-suite bathroom. This means, so I was informed this evening, that we don't need to keep a futon in my cave any more, and we can get a chair, put in some more book and CD shelves, shift the stereo and speakers somewhere more central to the room for optimal listening, perhaps get a decent telly, another sky box and a DVD player.... the world is suddenly my oyster.

What I really want, and all I really need, is a room where I will be happy to spend some time: somewhere I can sit in a chair and listen to music, watch some telly and to read some books. But can I really leave it there? As a man, do I not have some kind of obligation to pack the room full of all kinds of other stuff?

I throw the question open to the floor: what else should go in that room? What else does any self-respecting man room need? A drumkit? A moose head? A gun cabinet? A fully functioning casino? A full-size snooker table? A grotto with lake and a cascading waterfall?

You tell me......