First a wife, who loves me and makes our house into a warm and happy home is the most important thing to keep me happy.
“A well stocked refrigerator and pantry should be on the list as well.”
The only thing on the list I want/need is the grill. I got into grilling in the late 1950’s and used the fire place in our college apartment to grill steaks and other goodies.
I’m about as bad as Arlo in the comics re grilling. Even in our mild but wet California winters, the grill gets fired up several times a week unless we have one of those one week long storms. I use the grills so much that they wear out after 3-4 years. Both sons are great grillers, and the youngest one was a chef for years and gets invited to many grill outs by friends and us, his family members for his great food.
Our tv is a 23+ year old RCA. With Comcast, the picture is great and fact both Comcast guys said the picture was better than most HDs they connected to Comcast. I/we can’t understand the need for the home theatres and expensive large screens tvs. Even with Comcast, their On Demand and what seems like a zillion choices, we have nights last night where there was nothing on until after 10 pm that we wanted to watch. The DVR takes care of the late shows. There is no justification in our minds for a home theatre with the limited choices on tv. Last night our top choice was a hokey Jackie Chan movie before it went off and we went to bed.
TV/electronic games have never appealed to us. Card games like bridge, chess and just talking are our enjoyment outlets.
I have a small office for my computer, reference books and solitude if I need it.
Quickly after marriage, I realized that my wife was in control of the house, let me have my small office, my Lazy Boy in the family room with a couple of magazine/book racks near by and a small table, and the north end of the laundry room for organizing, cleaning and storing my fly fishing gear, and I am happy. In our 2750 square foot home, I use about 220 square feet. Outside storage is basically mine for fishing and kayaking stuff that can’t come inside.
The kitchen is my wife’s, and the only area I really claim/share is for our self grinding/auto coffee pot. When she fixes/preps meals, I stay out and vice versa. She leaves the charcoaling/grilling to me. She is a nice control freak, and has given up on trying to controll me at the grill. I let her run the timing on a couple of meals at the grill and the results were not great. I use our younger son’s reply when she pushes me about the timimg of whatever is on the grill. His reply is the whatever will be done when it is done, I don’t know the time.
That is, in fact, THE major reason in FAVOR of a "home theater"......with Netflix, you have available every movie ever made (or close to it) for eight bucks a month.