Some are them are moving through each room creating special living environments so unique it's difficult to choose where to roost.

And why not? A man's home is his castle.

That's an understatement for six active men who make time for interior design in their homes and several others who've created special rooms they can truly call their own.

Two upcoming Home and Garden Television programs celebrate Father's Day and the creative side of men with a tour inside the special homes and rooms they've created.

Produced last year "A Man's Castle" repeats this year on June 10 and features the work of six single men, celebrities reflecting their distinct lifestyles and personalities with everything from a custom-built home to a Mediterranean-style villa with an out door kitchen.

Who is from Venus?

The guys and the homes featured include:

• Todd Eldredge. An ice skating Olympian, Eldredge constructed his Detroit lakeside home to mesh with the natural surroundings and he's boosted window stock options to do so. Walls of glass bring the outdoors in where neutral color schemes contrast with touches of cherry and oak.

• Julian McMahon. From NBC's The Profiler series, McMahon transformed a 1960s-era Hollywood home in to a relax, informal residence with an open floor plan that includes a "tuck shop," an Australian-style snack shop to remind him of his Aussie beginnings.

• Charlie Lapson. The Positano label's head designer, Lapson used an international motif in his 1930s Mediterranean home -- sun-drenched colors, hardwood floors, a rosewood kitchen with pale sage-green kitchen walls all help frame his international memorabilia collection.

• Michel Benasra. It's really not fair to include Benasra who, as president of Guess Home Collection, has a head start on the other men. He's got an outdoor kitchen that can be used rain or shine, an open floor plan for easy entertaining and areas filled with kid-friendly stuff so guests with children will feel at ease.

• Real Andrews. General Hospital hunk, Andrews acquired a barn when he purchased his 1942 ranch-style mountain hideout. The barn has become a gym for his martial arts training needed to fight off female fans. His home is equipped with a screened-in porch fitted with a Jacuzzi and a collection of swap meet finds -- even the kitchen appliances.

• Desmond Child. Songwriter and producer, Child dubbed his deco-Mediterranean home "Four Palms," because it reminds him of his great-grandfather's home in pre-Revolutionary Cuba, and he decorated it with respect for that past. The living room feels like a 1920s hotel lobby, the moldings, marble floors are original. His recording studio looks like an English "gentleman's club " with state-of-the-art equipment.

Father's day

On June 17, HGTV premiers "Guys' Rooms," a one-hour "peek in the windows" of seven guy-designed rooms including Arizona Diamondback pitcher Curt Shilling's basement dedicated to baseball memorabilia. Shilling's 40 foot custom-made bat rack includes autographed bats from Joe Dimaggio and Roberto Clemente, among others.

The other rooms include:

• An 1800's barn transformed into a holding space for vintage sports cars and a workshop, along with a separate space for a WWII artifacts collection.

• A home-built brew pub complete with an oak bar, a cold box to store home-brewed beer, an authentic bar pool table and a saltwater aquarium built into the wall.

• A basement metamorphosed into a turn-of-the-century cafŝ, equipped with a gas fireplace and a safe salvaged from a WWII battleship.

On June 17, viers also can log onto HGTV.com for a Web cast of "Guys' Rooms and a Father's Day tribute featuring a trivia quiz, outdoor projects, recipes for the grill and creative gift ideas.

You know, guy stuff.

For more articles by Broderick Perkins, please press here.

Published: May 25, 2001

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.