fam cave: 1. Large area in house — often in basement — with range of audio and video equipment, exercise machines, kitchen appliances and table games. 2. Where Dad, Mom and their kids can escape, even (gasp!) together.
To understand the emergence of the fam cave, you have to dig a little deeper, back to an earlier era: the dawn of the man cave.
That’s when Dad carved out a bit of the basement for his own poker retreat and furnished it with a Barcalounger and a TV for football games. By the time large flat screens and Nintendo came along, the man cave was in its prime.
It looked so good that Mom wanted a piece of the cave action. And so, on top of the multiple stereo speakers and beer taps came the Pilates Reformer and yoga mat. Next, the espresso machine and the mini-fridge.
The kids were not to be left out. They whined until they got the Wii player and the built-in stage where they could let it rip with the new karaoke machine, all the while texting on cellphones and surfing on laptops.
And the fam cave, that all-encompassing hide-out and shrine to home entertainment, evolved. Don’t forget the popcorn maker.
“We have a family rule,” said Randy Composanto, whose Greenwood Village basement boasts a plush theater designed by ListenUp. “No media of any kind on the second or third floor.” When the family isn’t in the basement enjoying TV or a movie, they’re focused on other things. “Like homework.”
Driving the trend to new heights is the appeal of 3-D television, the electronics industry’s biggest innovation since the DVR and high-def. Home entertainment, a seemingly recession-proof industry, is thriving.
The theme of the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was 3-D TV — without the old cardboard red-and- green glasses. The new sets are one reason that spending on household electronics is up 12 percent, even in a down economy, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.
And it’s a family affair. Historically, men have outspent women on electronics, but women are catching up, a study last month found. Women spent, on average, $631 on consumer electronics over the previous 12 months, up $73 from the year before, while men spent $969, up $67.
Don’t think of it as indulgent. Consider it family bonding and what electronics companies call “future proofing.” Families don’t want to be left out when an expected influx of 3-D videos arrives later this year.
“People want to get something for their money, as opposed to going to Disney World,” said Jim Pearse, president of Thornton-based Ultimate Electronics. “Three-D is becoming a bigger and bigger deal.”
The popular theatrical movie “Avatar” fed the 3-D trend last year. Now it’s the World Cup in 3-D on TV, soon to be followed by NASCAR.
Somewhere between 4 million and 7 million 3-D TVs — at about $2,000 apiece — are expected to be sold this year.
“Wives have a huge part of the buying process. Kids, too,” Pearse said. Now that gaming on the big screen occupies almost as much time as movie-watching, the whole family has a say in the project.
Call it the digital campfire.
Sean O’Connor has such a playland in his Greenwood Village home. “TVs were a priority for me,” he said. His basement hide-out boasts three flat-panel TVs: a 55-inch screen flanked by two 42-inch sets. Behind the TVs are a pool table, bar, 350-bottle wine cellar, humidor, steam shower, workout room and videogame room for the kids. “It was a family decision,” he said.
He spent $140,000 — perhaps 20 percent of the value of the home — mostly to watch sports and movies. “They tell you 80 percent of the money is recaptured when you go to resell.”
In Park Hill, a couch trembles with each earth-shaking step of the T-rex in “Jurassic Park,” thanks to a “transducer” attached to the seats completing the surround-sound movie experience in Mike Nelson and Gail Martz-Nelson’s family home.
Spine-tingling effect
The ButtKicker wireless home theater kit, which sends spine-tingling bass notes directly to your seat, sells for $300.
These days, fam caves range from the “theater in a box” setups for a few hundred dollars to the temples to ego and recreation that run a quarter of a million dollars.
Early adopter Jim Carter, an industrial designer, built his own. A wall of his Denver family home is filled with a huge projection TV measuring 8 1/2 feet across.
“It’s hard for me to go to a movie theater,” he said. “The experience is not as good.”
Todd Sheppard, founder/owner of FutureLink, an electronic systems contractor in Denver, says his clients increasingly don’t want to leave home. “People want to spend time together,” he said. “They’re working harder, making less money and are more stressed out. They want a space where the wife or the significant other, the kids and the dog pile up, circle around.”
Sheppard’s specialty is spaces that integrate audio and video equipment and make huge, ugly black boxes disappear.
ListenUp, a local expert in high-end audio and video since 1972, designed and installed the whole-house electronics system for Russel Cranswick and Sheila Black and their daughter, Bryn. Their Lowry basement home theater includes a wooden stage jutting from under the screen for karaoke performances.
Consolidating remote
Chris Havekost, manager at ListenUp’s Denver store, said that lately customers have wanted to consolidate the multiple remote controls floating around the coffee table. For one-remote systems, Havekost said, “you have to be good at electronic linguistics to get the pieces to play well together.”
ListenUp targets “people who want something nicer than theater-in-a-box.” The company’s custom-home division caters specifically to architects and builders.
To be sure, the man cave is not extinct. Cable’s long-running how-to series “Man Caves,” which airs Fridays on DIY Network, chronicles the transformation of mere underground storage space into downtime getaways.
Patrick Condon, founder/ owner of Colorado’s Finished Basement Co., has been building man caves for more than 13 years, but he says the trend is toward having an “adult playland” now.
“Originally, people were envisioning a bar, poker table and cigars,” he said. “We’re still doing poker rooms, but now it has become a whole entertainment space for the entire family.”
For now, specially built spaces for women — babe caves and mom caves — are less common.
“The women caves are spas,” Condon said. Envision areas dedicated to Pilates/yoga, zen spaces, hotel-quality steam rooms with teak inlays and classy tile work. Women also like a calming water feature.
“I hate to generalize,” Condon said, “but it really is true.”
