Do you fathers out there have spaces of your own where you can relax, work, just hang out? Daddy Brad interviews author Sam Martin about his book "Manspace." He shares his ideas for a clubhouse for guys. Whether it be in a bedroom, garage, shed, or basement, manspaces are great places for men. Can they help your marriage? Find out here. DIY Dads, this one is for you. Amazing models for man houses. DadLabs ep. 72 The Lounge.

Daddy Brad: Hello and welcome back to the dadlab lounge. I’m Daddy Brad and I’m here today with Sam Martin, the author of a cool, new book called Manspace. A primal guide to marking your territory. Sam welcome.

Sam: How you doing?

Daddy Brad: I’m good, I’m good. Thanks for coming.

Sam: Nice to be here.

Daddy Brad: Tell me, what is a manspace?

Well the essence of a manspace is, is that it’s a space that you as the guy control. You control what it looks like, and who comes in and that’s really the number one guideline.

Daddy Brad: Your clubhouse for the guys.

Sam: Clubhouse, but you know it can be anything. If you have a spare bedroom, a garage, a shed. One guy in the book has a closet that he keeps all his baseball memorabilia in. So it doesn’t have to be elaborate, it can be small, but it can be elaborate if you have the resources, then why not? Go for it.

Daddy Brad: Yea absolutely. There are a lot of cool spaces in here. What was the motivation around putting this book together?

Sam: Well, I write full time and I’ve got two small kids. When the second kid was coming along and I got this book deal, I decided there’s no way I can work in the house. So I built a place out back and it was all mine, it was just perfect. I had those long uninterrupted periods of silence you need as a writer. And then my buddies would come over and be like “Wow, this is really cool!”, “I wish I had a space like this!” And then they would tell me about other spaces, so I decided, wow that would be a great idea for a book. We organized the book into what a guy does. It’s the different chapters. We’ve got collecting, sporting, entertaining, working, and playing. And so, what a guy does is going to define what his manspace is.

Daddy Brad: Now you have kids?

Sam: I do.

Daddy Brad: Would you say, that manspaces help you be a better dad? Help your relationship with your wife/partner?

Sam: No question about it! Absolutely. It really does and most of the women I talked too, for the research for the book would agree. They really like the fact that, number one: their guy has an interest. Ya know?

Daddy Brad: Mmhmm

Sam: they’re not just going out there to take naps and watch football. Although, some guys are and that’s fantastic

Daddy Brad: And that’s ok

Sam: No that’s great, do it. Most of the guys are doing some hobby and they’re really into it and their wives are real supportive of that. For me, who is a work at home dad, I think there’s a lot of dads out there who do work at home these days, it was perfect for the family, because I’m not in their hair and they’re not in my hair. And I separate, the home is now home and my commute is about twenty steps and I get to work in the office. So it’s really perfect.

Daddy Brad: If guys wanna find out more about manspaces, where can they go?

Sam: Well they can go to my website, manspacesite.com. I’ve got a manblog going there, and I’m starting up a little community of manspaces. If you wanna send me some pictures and a lil story about it. You can go to manspacesite.com and check it out. I’ve also got some building plans there for a man house. If you’re having trouble getting started you can buy the plans and it’s an easy build.

Daddy Brad: Thank you very much. Good to see you.

Sam: Thank you very much.

Daddy Brad: Manspace, it’s a great book. And if you’d like to share your manspace, you can go to Sam’s site or you can also upload a video or a picture of your own manspace here at dadlabs.com thanks a lot. We’ll talk to you soon from the dadlabs lounge. I’m Daddy Brad.