Category: Living Spaces

“In the upward progress of the human race certain spots favorable to its activities become the center of accounts more or less accurate, more or less mythical, of these primeval struggles. Such a spot is this.” — Dr. B.F. Turner at the dedication of the De Soto Memorial, May 1919

Just south of the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge, the bluff-top area in downtown Memphis that today includes Chickasaw Heritage Park and the National Ornamental Metal Museum has had many tenants over the centuries: Paleo-Indians left mounds here; it was a fortress of Chickasaw chief Chisca; it was the French Fort Assumption in the 1700s; the U.S. established Fort Adams and then Fort Pickering on the site just after 1800; it was a point of Southern consternation during the Civil War; a Marine Hospital was built there in 1884 and upgraded beginning in 1937; it was the entertainment district Jackson Mound Park for Memphians beginning in 1887; DeSoto Park was dedicated in 1919; a residential subdivision called French Fort has been there since the 1960s; the 330th Army Reserve hospital unit began treating soldiers there in the latter 20th century; and the National Ornamental Metal Museum opened its doors in 1979.

It’s the place that Memphis park commissioner Dr. B.F. Turner called the most historic spot on the Mississippi River (The Commercial Appeal, June 8, 1935). When Turner said that about the site, he was doing so partly according to the conventional wisdom of the time: that this was the location where Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto first saw the Mississippi River. Historians have since refuted that, but there’s no denying that there’s something about this spot that made it so important to so many people over so many centuries.

Now the area is preparing for its next act, and if developer Lauren Crews has his way, what’s next for the French Fort area will be worthy of its storied past. Crews’ DeSoto Project looks to keep the site connected to its history, reconnected to the downtown core, and developed with a new element of luxurious living that would have left soldiers barracked there under General Zachary “Old Rough and Ready” Taylor more than a little envious.

by Greg Taylor

The nurses’ quarters and Marine Hospital are the focus of the DeSoto Project.

Crews purchased the old Marine Hospital, nurses’ quarters, and maintenance building — all sitting on 3.17 acres — about four years ago. His DeSoto Project vision is, in part, to turn the Marine Hospital buildings into an upscale condominium community. He plans on renovating each of the buildings, restoring them to their bygone glory. The developer, whose previous projects have included historic homes and grocery stores, says, laughing, “It’s another restoration. It just happens to be 10 times bigger. It’s a very unique place. There’s nothing like it in the world.”

The main Marine Hospital building was built in 1937 under an act of the Works Progress Administration. (The original Marine Hospital was torn down to make way for the upgrade.) The Georgian-style building has slate roofing, a copper cupola on pedestals, and large limestone columns, capitals, and gutters. Crews calls the workmanship and materials “the best imaginable during that era and all eras.” It’s no surprise that the sturdy federal building doubled as a fall-out shelter. Visitors touring the abandoned hospital may feel a slight chill induced by watching too many late-night horror movies, but as Crews insists, “There are no ghosts in the place. You can slip up on a scary cat, though.”

by Lauren Crews

The nurses’ quarters was built in 1878 and moved a hundred feet in the 1930s when the new Marine Hospital was built. It’s brick with metal roofing and a wrap-around porch with columns and other woodwork. Its walls are about 13 inches thick. The two-story brick maintenance building was erected in 1940 and has high ceilings and cypress windows on the front.

Crews’ DeSoto Project envisions 45 units all told, each of them 2,000-plus square feet. Broken down, it looks like this: phase one with 29 units in the three-floor Marine Hospital and three units in the nurses’ quarters; and phase two with six units in the maintenance building and seven more in a new construction. Prices are tentatively ranged from $320,000 to right under $700,000.

The grounds will be landscaped with an “elegant” pool, a New Orleans-style courtyard, and other amenities. One bonus for Crews: the mature trees that cover the grounds. Another: The Mississippi River is 800 feet away. Twelve units will have true views of the river. According to Crews, “With its historic integrity, under a canopy of trees, surrounded by parks, on the river bluff, overlooking the river, one mile from Tom Lee Park, and the arts with the Metal Museum in the backyard, it has the makings of a great place.”

by Greg Taylor

With Wall Street giving investors a case of whiplash and the downtown Memphis condo market sluggish, one may fairly wonder, why now? “People may think this is not the best of times to be thinking about doing a development,” Crews says. “But I think it is the best of times. I admit I’m in the minority.”

Crews points out that, for starters, the DeSoto Project is relatively inexpensive to start up. He plans on building a model unit in the Marine Hospital, which will have the rare benefit of being a unit in the actual building that prospective buyers can experience rather than just visualize. Pre-sales will be made off of the model before the main thrust of construction begins. “We’re going to keep our investment to a minimum until we have the pre-sales,” Crews says.

He also points to the perpetual cycle of real estate product glut followed by scarcity in the market. Though there’s a glut right now, what about in several years when the DeSoto Project would come online? Commodities markets such as raw construction materials and oil are down right now, too — they’ll be back up after the economy rebounds, so it’s cheaper to take advantage of building on the front end of the curve.

The bottom line for Crews is the unique property itself: “I also point out that I might not feel exactly the same way if I was talking about your typical condo project in the downtown area.”

Crews also owns an old motel around the corner from the Marine Hospital, right at the gateway to Memphis as drivers come over the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge. He’s planning an adaptive reuse of the property, but it’s too soon to say what that will be.

One of the main developments in this unfolding story will be which plan the Tennessee Department of Transportation chooses in redesigning the fly-by exchange between Crump, Riverside Drive, and I-55. Which way TDOT jumps will go a long way toward what will happen to the motel property and the French Fort area in general. Crews says, “For the community, we need to do what we can to reconnect this area back to the downtown core rather than do something that further disconnects it.”

On the whole, it’s an effort that Crews compares to the famed revitalization of the Pearl District in Portland, Oregon. “I see in the area urban revitalization at its very best,” Crews says. “I see roads that are three times as wide as they need to be — we can add median strips. I see parks that are totally underutilized. I see an area that is disconnected from the downtown core, with the potential for reconnecting with the River Walk, with sidewalks, with alternate transportation potentially, and changes in the road system.

“I see a bigger picture. But first things first, and that is the development of the Marine Hospital property. I see that as the catalyst for other development.” ■

Ladies and gentlemen, I have seen the future: dual flush toilets.

Forget those bygone days when you used the same amount of water to flush away whatever business needed to go bye-bye. Ye olde toilet presented a Catch-22: A low-flush commode conserved water but sometimes led to clogging issues. A high-volume toilet would swallow a set of car keys, but it made Mother Nature cry.

So, how brilliant yet simple the dual flush, which has two buttons: one for easy jobs, using only 0.8 gallons a flush, and another for number two, using 1.6 gallons of water.

The dual flush toilet is a standard feature at the new condo development Madison 19 — just one of many green amenities available there. (Madison 19’s tag line says that it was “designed with the environment in mind.”) The development is the latest offering from Phil Woodard, whose resume includes the downtown Memphis condos 2 West and GE5.

Woodard has seen the future, too. He says that the construction industry has come a long way toward greener materials. “Two years ago, it was hard to find,” Woodard says. “In three years, it’s going to be the norm. The industry is catching up. It’s not costing any more to build green.”

Madison 19 is a case in point. During construction, Woodard used blown-in cellulose insulation made of ground-up newspapers and blue jeans (no joke). With soundboard on both sides of the insulation, the walls provide excellent soundproofing from neighbors: Its Sound Transmission Class is rated at about 64 — normal is in the low-to-mid 50s. And, yes, the color of the insulation is “Levi’s blue.”

by Terry Woodard

Located near the trolley line at 670 Madison, Madison 19 offers stylish interiors and environmentally conscious construction.

Other earth-friendly features include energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs throughout; Technistone quartz countertops that are made with 35 percent recycled material; locally built cabinetry made of maple, a replenishable wood (from Memphis’ S&S Custom Cabinets); paint that’s water-based, formaldehyde-free, and low-VOC (an organic gas, a bad thing); and commercial-grade, high-insulation, low-E (low-emissivity, a good thing) casement windows, which allow for cross-ventilation. Woodard says electric bills on the model unit have been around $63 a month.

A resident’s carbon footprint need not be extravagant, considering the trolley running right outside the front door and the many restaurants, attractions, and employers within walking or biking distance. Madison 19 will have four community bicycles for resident use.

Many of the decisions behind Madison 19 have to do with keeping it low-maintenance. In addition to the long-lasting fluorescent lights, the exterior of the building is pre-finished concrete board and corrugated aluminum panels. The landscaping is drought-tolerant, with drip irrigation and hardy nandinas. All this keeps homeowners’ monthly association fees down. “There’s no trim, nothing to paint,” Woodard says. “Six years from now, the homeowners’ association won’t have to collect 20 grand to paint the building. And in seven or eight, you’ll have to change a light bulb.”

by Terry Woodard

Madison 19 is in the heart of the Medical Center and is being marketed particularly to that area’s professionals and students. Woodard is excited by the direction the district is heading, with new restaurants and businesses opening and the burgeoning bioscience community about to explode.

Madison 19 is next in the line of what is becoming the Woodard Properties trademark: low maintenance and environmentally friendly. It employs many of the same strategies as 2 West, and it adds new features, such as cellulose insulation. “It’s a graduation of what I’ve done before,” Woodard says. “As I keep building, I want to keep doing that. We’ll take the same version and keep tweaking — we’ll keep getting better. We’ll keep refining and going deeper into it.”

Woodard does research in libraries and online to see what developers are doing across the country, and he has his eye on the next project and how it may build on what Madison 19 has done.

by Terry Woodard

“On the next job, I’ll do rainwater-capturing and solar. I’ll do the same thing [as Madison 19] except add some of that, to where the heating and air conditioning and water heaters are solar,” he says. “We don’t do instantaneous heaters [at Madison 19], because it’s hard on electric. Maybe solar can do that. I don’t know. So that’ll be the next step. That’ll be my next project, and I’ll have fun doing it. It’s a process of learning.” ■

Madison 19, 670 Madison

For more information, call Martin Group Realty at 881-6052 or go to madison19.com.

The first leg of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad was built from downtown Memphis to Buntyn Station. In addition to commuters, it brought produce and dairy products from the country into the city. The area that Clarence Saunders bought in the 1920s — north of the Memphis Country Club between Central and Poplar — had supplied many of these early dairy products and was known as Buttermilk Town.

Saunders intended to one-up the Memphis Country Club by building his very own golf course on the grounds of his new, pink Georgia-marble mansion, started in 1922 on Central. The pink marble commemorated the mascots of his self-service grocery stores that had grown into a chain of 1,200 stores called — as we all know — Piggly Wiggly. But before the house was completed, Saunders was beset by financial reverses.

Developers bought his 160 acres and gave the house that he had never moved into and 10 acres to the city to be used as a natural history museum. The remaining 150 acres, which Saunders intended to be his golf course, were subdivided in 1926 as a residential development called Chickasaw Gardens. The subdivision was laid out around a lake, with rambling streets meant to evoke rural English lanes.

This house, built in 1932, was one of the model homes built to entice prospective purchasers and was designed by George Albert Chandler of the local architectural firm Knapp and Chandler. It is faced in brick and limestone and is a variant on the Tudor Revival style, with medieval touches, such as eccentrically placed windows and a meandering roofline, meant to look like it has had additions made over the centuries.

The current owners have been in residence a very busy 11 years. First, they tackled a bad 1970s ground-floor family room addition, turning it into a sumptuous master suite. Its ceiling is vaulted and finished with planks and beams. Rough-cut limestone was used to reface the fireplace to great effect. Triple glass doors look out to the rear, with a long view across a sunken terrace to a lawn terminated by a dolphin fountain enveloped in greenery.

Three additional bedrooms are upstairs, each with its own bath — unusual in 1932, but then this was a model of modern living! The kitchen was recently redone with red sunset granite counters over painted cabinets and a pale cork floor. A few steps down from the kitchen is a most inviting sunroom with a tall, vaulted ceiling and slate floor.

The latest project converted the original garage and storage room into a media/family room with an office behind. Antique cypress doors from New Orleans continue the rustic touch. A heavy-timbered carport was built at the same time, with a covered walk leading around a large parking court to a welcoming porch at the house. The parking court is enclosed with evergreen hedges on two sides and a tall brick wall on the street side. A sunny corner near the kitchen door is bedded with herbs. This model home, based originally on some medieval precepts, has been exquisitely updated for modern living.

3008 Iroquois, 4,000 square feet

4 bedrooms, 4 baths, 2 half-baths $825,000

Jenny Grehan, Coleman-Etter, Fontaine, 767-4100

Linda Sowell, Sowell & Co., 278-4380

A building constructed in the 1920s is back in prominence in 2008. The Residences at the Greenstone, at the corner of Poplar Avenue and North Waldran Boulevard, has been renovated as a condo development after eight decades as an apartment building.

The Greenstone has an elder sibling that you may have heard of: the Pink Palace Mansion. Both the Greenstone and the Pink Palace were built by architect Hubert T. McGee.

The Greenstone was erected in 1927. It gets its name, naturally, from the color of the stone it was built of. In the book Memphis: An Architectural Guide, by Eugene J. Johnson and Robert D. Russell Jr., it is noted, “The stone, quarried in Ohio, had been used in a large house built on the site in 1890. There was enough of this unusual material to cover the street facades of the new apartments.”

Blackstar Capital Partners bought the Greenstone apartments a year ago. Principals Tobey Price Hubbard and Steven Alan Weisman say they made retaining the history of the building the guiding principle in their project. Apart from keeping the exterior stone, of course, features include the original doors and door hardware, “wavy” glass in the windows, and 18-inch-deep cast-iron soaking tubs. The pièce de résistance may be the Greenstone’s main entryway, which restores the chandelier and magnificent carved mahogany staircase. The staircase dates back over a century, to the mansion that preceded the apartments on the property.

The vision of the 1920s is carried throughout the Greenstone with touches that hearken back to the spirit of the time, even if they actually date to our own age. Large kitchens have been appointed with open cabinetry with glass-front doors and ball-leg supports. Counters are marble slab rather than the currently in vogue granite, because that’s what Jay Gatsby’s contemporaries did. Faucets are bridge-style. Windows can be raised from the bottom and lowered from the top, a common feature before central heat and air rendered it charming but obsolete.

That’s not to say technological advances aren’t put to good use in the Greenstone. The building has been fitted with all the cables and wires this modern age stipulates. Appliances are stainless steel, of course. Units have front-loading washer/dryers. All lights are on dimmer switches. Hey, Gatsby would’ve done the same if those things were around back then. He would’ve cranked up Duke Ellington on his iPod, if given the chance.

Courtesy of Blackstar Capital Partners

Again from Memphis: An Architectural Guide: “The apartments themselves provided quite spacious living quarters with remarkably ample storage, in an area that had been dominated by large single-family houses.” Rooms in the Greenstone are huge. They were built when furniture was massive. The master bedrooms can comfortably accommodate an armoire, king-size bed, and dresser. Living rooms are ready for whatever couches, chairs, tables, bookcases, and entertainment centers you want to throw in them.

The Greenstone is composed of three three-story buildings, with six units in each. No unit shares a sidewall with neighbors; because of that, there’s a lot of natural light coming in from windows on three of the four walls. High ceilings (up to 10 feet) give all that light some room.

“We didn’t have to do much to the outside, so we were able to spend our money on the inside,” Hubbard says. “We were able to focus on the details.”

Hubbard and Weisman are the Greenstone’s owners, developers, and general contractors. The decided everything — from how they philosophically and financially approached the project to paint color, flooring, and landscaping.

The Greenstone was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, and Blackstar worked with Memphis Heritage to ensure that the building was restored properly. Materials from the historic building were recycled, such as slate tiles from the old roof repurposed as flooring in a sunroom. About 25 mature oak and pine trees — some of them 80 feet tall — have been preserved on the grounds. From the luxury skylights in the penthouse units, you’re right in the trees.

The neighborhood drew Hubbard and Weisman to the building. Sitting at the imaginary crossroads between downtown, Midtown, and the Medical District, the Greenstone is in the middle of a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on.

Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center is in the midst of a $327 million expansion project two blocks away. (The economic impact of the expansion alone is estimated to be $1.2 billion.) Add the developments at University Place, Legends Park, FedEx Family House, and UT-Baptist Research Park to the Cleveland/Poplar mixed-use project, and you’ve got over $1 billion invested in a one-mile radius.

Units at the Greenstone are selling now, and the entire project will be substantially complete in two to three months, Hubbard says. Prices range from $165,000 for two-bedroom, one-bath units to $335,000 for the three-bedroom, two-bath, one-sunroom penthouse. The Greenstone’s being offered by Downtown Condo Connection (399-8500) and Kendall Haney Realty Group (725-1968). ■

Residences at the Greenstone

1116-1118 Poplar Avenue and

200 N. Waldran Blvd.

All right, you renters who assume you will never own a home, here’s your chance, so don’t blow it. This is a solid brick and stucco bungalow in a well-maintained Midtown neighborhood. And it’s priced right!

Glenview is an early suburb developed just after the parkway system was laid out in 1904. The majority of houses in this historic district were built between 1910 and 1940 …

Read the rest of John Griffin’s “Hot Properties” column.

After more than a decade of prosperous ruckus, the Memphis real-estate market has gone relatively quiet in the last year or so. It’s not a situation unique to the city: Everybody everywhere is feeling the crunch. The real-estate market is holding its collective breath, and everybody’s watching for when it’s safe to exhale. It’ll probably sound like a giant sigh of relief.

Thankfully, for most downtown Memphis real-estate developers, though times aren’t in boom right now, they aren’t in bust either. In the fourth quarter 2007, 50 units were purchased in downtown’s 38103 zip code, according to figures from Chandler Reports. In the first quarter 2008, 64 units were purchased in the same zip code. Though these numbers are down from the same quarters from the previous year, they still indicate that stock is moving, albeit at a slower pace.

Tony Bologna is principal of Bologna Consultants and an all-around downtown real-estate maven. He sees potential buyers who are fence-straddling right now. Bologna says, “[There are] a lot of people waiting and seeing — if the interest rate goes down a little bit more or prices drop a little bit more before they do something.

“People that were marginal-type buyers, because of the credit crunch and everything else, can’t get into a home now, where they might have been able to a year ago,” he says.

The decrease in condo-sales rates has led some developers to change their strategies mid-stream. The Glenmary at Evergreen was a major condominium conversion project from the Gintz Group out of Tacoma, Washington. Formerly the Woodmont Towers apartments, the 11-story, 169-unit building was set to tower above North Parkway in Midtown with the kind of amenities and sight lines not normally associated with Midtown condo living.

Until it wasn’t. In early 2008, the Gintz Group switched gears, though well into production. Because of sluggish sales and the promise for success out of the senior-living sector, Gintz sold the building to National Health Properties and then leased it back — all to the end of converting the conversion back to apartments, this time suited for assisted-living occupancy.

Other developers are using creative marketing to get people to keep buying. Case in point: Woodard Properties owner Phil Woodard. Woodard’s downtown building 2 West (at 2 W. G.E. Patterson, natch) has featured for-sale-only condo units until recently, when Woodard made the decision to offer a rent-to-own option.

“I was trying to make it more comfortable to purchase,” Woodard says. “If someone calls up and says they want to rent, I send them down to South Main [where Woodard owns a number of rental properties]. We’re not looking for renters, per se. [At 2 West] I’m looking for potential buyers.”

Under Woodard’s plan, all of the rent from the first 12 months goes toward potential purchase. Residents can continue to rent after that, but a cap is put on that initial-year $6,000 accrual. It’s like money in escrow.

The Glenmary at Evergreen

Woodard sees a lot of people coming in from out of town who want to live downtown but who aren’t necessarily ready to commit to ownership — even though they could afford it. “We screen them,” Woodard says. “They still have to have a good credit rating. They’ve got to be able to afford to purchase something within 12 months.”

It appears the downtown real-estate market is a waiting game. Buy too soon and feel some anxiety while your money is where your mouth is. Tarry too long and miss out on the bargain.

Woodard says, “People are starting to look, but with all of the negative press, they are still waiting. They’re waiting for the market to bottom — but when it does, that means it’s going to start going back up. When do they want to play that game? I’m pretty flexible right now, but when I see four or five or six serious people looking on the weekends, then I’m going to go back up [on prices].

“I don’t think the dollar per square foot is going to get much lower than it already is,” Woodard says. “Especially when this downturn goes back, it’s really going to go up.” At that time, Woodard says he’ll go back to for-sale-only units.

Bologna sees that same philosophy at work elsewhere, too. “If someone went into a project as a condo [development] and they’re renting right now, it would be a temporary step to keep the project going and generate cash flow while they wait for the market to turn around,” he says. “And it’s going to turn around, it’s just when.”

There’s one great upside to the for-sale/for-rent question developers have to answer. For-sale not working out for you? “You’ve got a fall-back position,” Bologna says.

“It’s just a transition,” Woodard says. “I’ve had six great years, so no complaints. The only difference is that my balance sheet is going to look a little different. It’ll pass.” ■

A version of this story originally appeared in the Summer issue of Memphis Business Quarterly.

Lest you think condominiums in Memphis are synonymous with downtown, there are actually a number of high-profile developments across the city and county.

One such complex is the Monarch, located at 5400 Park Avenue. Many Memphians are familiar with the place, if not its new name and fresh face. For years, it was the Park Palace apartments, known for its street-side fountains and great location near Estate Drive.

In 2005, Bristol Development Group, out of Franklin, Tennessee, purchased the property and began an extensive conversion of the apartments into condo units. What has emerged from the makeover are luxury condos in the heart of East Memphis.

The Monarch’s units have been outfitted with new appliances, new vanities, new paint, and new flooring. Walls have been removed to open up floor plans; kitchens breath now, and sunlight floods interiors.

The details — and the amenities — are exceptional. The Monarch has appointed its units with premium materials, such as granite countertops, hardwood floors, new tile for bathrooms, and stainless-steel kitchen appliances. There’s a laundry room and washer and dryer in every unit, so no need to walk down the hall to clean your clothes.

The condos retain many original architectural holdovers, however. All units feature crown molding and nine-foot ceilings. Depending on the floor plan, some also have cabinetry that has been refurbished and put back into duty. Overall, the style is more urban and contemporary, but it’s still true to the original building.

One-bedroom units are 800 to just under 1,000 square feet, with prices starting in the $130,000s. For prices starting in the $230,000s, you can get two bedrooms and around 1,300 square feet.

Well-maintained exteriors include lush landscaping, covered parking, an outdoor heated swimming pool, tennis courts, and a poolside patio with rocking chairs, places to sun, and gas grills.

The Monarch has two towers, totaling 110 units, and it’s 75 percent sold. Among the big selling points: location — on Park near the Poplar corridor and I-240 — and security. There is gated access from the street and electronic-pass entry into the building. It’s ideal for lock-it-and-leave-it residents.

During a tour, I saw plenty of socializing. The complex offers many kinds of community space: a library, Courtesy Crye-Leike Realtors

computer station with Internet access, business center, 24-hour fitness center, den with flat-screen TV, fireplace, piano, hotel-type suite for guests, banquet room, and catering kitchen.

Residents I talked to were friendly. I saw some people putting puzzles together and others exercising in the fitness center. Croquet and horseshoe games indicated other outdoor activities. Potlucks are held on Thursdays. There’s even a concierge desk, and wake-up calls are offered.

Though it’s close to railroad tracks, the Monarch’s solid steel and concrete construction makes it virtually soundproof. No lie: A train passed while I was in the banquet room, and I didn’t hear it until I stepped outside. ■

Kitchens at the Monarch have been updated using premium materials

For more information on the Monarch, call Crye-Leike Realtors at 766-9004.

Ever toured “Film Row” in Memphis? It’s an unassuming stretch of South Second Street where Hollywood film companies had distribution centers and where the Memphis censors’ screening room was located. One of these warehouse buildings from the 1930s has been turned into a residence.

Read the rest of John Griffin’s Hot Properties column.

Like every other great idea, it started with Calvin and Hobbes, the comic strip by Bill Watterson. Eager to get away from little Susie Derkins and her ilk, youngster Calvin and his best friend, the stuffed tiger Hobbes, formed an exclusive club. G.R.O.S.S., they called it: “Get Rid Of Slimy girlS.”

And thus was born the current-day concept of a “man cave”: a room in the home set aside for men only. Decorated to suit the man’s desires. Furnished with whatever gadgets, electronics, games, game tables, pool tables, fridges, etc., that the man can dream up (and afford). Man cave: the boys’ club writ domestic. Four walls with one prerequisite: an XY chromosome.

From a recent Spring Creek, Tennessee, real estate listing: a home featuring a “Spacious bonus/man cave.”

Okay, I can’t cite evidence linking the idea of the man cave to Calvin and Hobbes. But, if it’s made its way to me and Spring Creek, the man cave has certainly seeped into the cultural lexicon.

(Of course, only a guy could come up with the idea that there needs to be a separate, private room for the man of the house — as if every other room in the household is the sole dominion of the woman.)

Thinking about making a man cave and need somewhere to start, or wanting to update your current one? There’s a lot more to it than a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door handle. Before you go spelunking, you may want to seek professional help.

Lesley Samuels Marks, co-owner, interior designer, and buyer at Samuels Furniture & Interiors, talks about all of the possibilities for a man cave: big-screen TV, theater seating or recliners that hook together, chairs with cupholders, stress-less chairs (Ekornes, from Norway) that aid circulation and digestion, poker tables, billiards tables, bar tables …

“The man may know what he wants, but he may not know all of the things that are available,” Samuels Marks says. “We’re here to guide people in the right direction. We want to know their wants and needs — but they may not know how to get there: floor planning, space planning, product, color coordination, where to find it, and how to put it together.”

The bottom line, Samuels Marks says: “It is their room, and it should reflect them and should be what they want.”

Someone else who knows his way around a man cave is Brad Parsley, co-owner of Audio Video Artistry, a company that provides entertainment and communications systems in a home. He’s someone who can integrate your video and audio distribution, HVAC, lighting, security systems, pool systems, and other devices. He’ll put you in a TV and home-theater system and organize it all so that you don’t see the strings.

When contemplating your man cave, “A real clear vision of what you want is important,” Parsley says. “So one of the first things for a guy planning a man cave is to come to a place like our design studio where you can literally see all of the options, put your hands on it, and experience it for yourself.

“There’s so many different variables to a man cave that it really starts with knowing what all those variables are, choosing for yourself, and having a good road map.”

A budget is one major variable to consider. Parsley jokes, “You’ve got to be careful with the words ‘blank check’ in my business.” Thankfully, he says, “You don’t have to spend a ton of money to get a satisfactory system.”

One thing Audio Video Artistry promises is simplifying what could otherwise be a mess of wires and components cluttering the place. With a video distribution system, TVs, home theater, and other components can be centrally located. In one spot, you’ll have satellite receivers, DVD or Blu-ray Disc players, and a video server that stores all of the movies that you buy.

These closet spaces can be pretty “tricked out,” Parsley says. “When you open the door, you’ve got two or three racks full of all this gear that’s meticulously wired. [The closets] get painted and trimmed out like every other room in the house. We put a lot into the wiring — it’s all neatly cut to the same length and tied off for exactly that reason. Those rooms are shown off.”

It sounds like a topic for another time: the man grotto. ■

This wonderful house stands in the Lenox subdivision between Cooper and East Parkway. The area has been developed for more than a century, with lots of Queen Anne cottages and a few other Victorians. This cottage seems more like the earlier, vernacular Victorian, with its center door and broad front porch. But it has lots of late-Victorian touches, such as turned porch columns, cedar shingles in the upper gables, and decoratively cut bargeboards under the eaves …

Read the rest of John Griffin’s Hot Properties column.