A Residential Cigar Loft With Some Surprises

[JohnS]

If you've got a background or skills in HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning), perhaps you could design a loft like this one...

A Residential Cigar Loft With Some Surprises

In Pennsylvania, a clever DIYer builds a cigar hideaway that has an unexpected twist

Jun 28, 2024 - By Garrett Rutledge

As part of a complete home remodeling effort, Jason Naftzinger of Easton, Pennsylvania got to work to build his personal cigar lounge.

The complete home makeover, whether it be eagerly awaited or dreadfully put off, is an all-encompassing project that many homeowners eventually have to face. The remodeling process addresses problems and delivers much-needed upgrades, some you knew you needed and some you didn’t, but it also offers an opportunity to completely change the dynamic of your home. For Jason Naftzinger of Easton, Pennsylvania, it gave him a chance to fulfill his vision of putting in his very own cigar lounge above his garage—but it didn’t come without his own elbow grease. 

Back in September of 2020, Naftzinger and his wife Helen embarked on a renovation project that would ultimately extend until June of 2022. The nearly two-year journey touched almost every corner of their home, inside and out. Naftzinger brought in a contracting team to carry out most of the updates around the house, such as new siding, windows, garage doors and re-doing the back patio. Thankfully, this same group also helped to get the ball rolling on installing the second floor above the garage—a 450 square-foot space that was to be Naftzinger’s cigar lounge. Finishing the job, however, was up to him. 

Before (left) and after shots of Naftzinger's home. Note the added space above the garage, which is now his very own cigar lounge.

The contractors tore down the garage roof and got to work constructing the space, adding exterior wall framing, insulation, rough electrical wiring and drywall. Then, Naftzinger took the reins. With a background in HVAC, Naftzinger was more than capable of finishing off the job, including design, interior wall framing, plumbing, lighting, flooring, finishing electrical, building cabinets, adding trim and installing a custom exhaust and fresh air system. 

The remaining work, most of which was done in spare time, took Naftzinger over two months to finish once the drywall was complete. He was quick to point out that he couldn’t have done it without the help of his wife, who often joins him in his cigar hideout.

Naftzinger built the granite top island bar seen here in the kitchen, although it was no easy task. The granite piece was so heavy it had to be lifted to the second-floor loft via crane.

To understand the full depth of this space, you’ll have to retrain your eyes and explore beyond the mundane. “The coolest part is actually something you don’t see,” says Naftzinger. He’s referring to his Murphy Door or, more specifically, a hidden doorway behind bookcase located on the side closest to the rest of the home. What appears to be a plain white bookcase lined with cigar memorabilia is actually a fingerprint-controlled, hidden door that connects to the main house. On the other side of the door is the master bedroom closet, but he won’t have to work his way through a tangling of clothes to pass through. Naftzinger transformed the space into a cozy corridor that, after making a 90-degree turn, leads to bi-fold doors guarding the master bedroom. “I put a doorway through and basically narrowed the storage and added more storage to re-do the closet on the backside that juts out,” he says.

For now, Naftzinger is happy to have this labyrinth to go unnoticed. “If I have people in here, I don’t really even want them to know it’s there,” he says. Understandably, he’d like to keep his bedroom from serving as the thruway for guests meandering from the main house to the cigar lounge. On the other side, there’s an exterior door that visitors can reach via a set of stairs located outdoors along the side of the house. But for Naftzinger and his wife, the Murphy Door offers a practical, albeit covert, form of entry and exit. 

The alluring Murphy Door seen in action, turning this otherwise ordinary bookcase into Naftzinger's very own secret passage way.

Secret passages aside, amenities here range from a giant granite bar and full refrigerator, to a pair of televisions—one 60 inches, the other one, 70 inches— to leather reclining chairs and a custom-built hardwood table. Several windows are also spread across nearly every side of the room, so natural light isn’t hard to capture with a willing sun. 

Naftzinger’s HVAC background certainly came in handy when putting in the impressive ventilation system, which he did alongside another HVAC contractor. “No matter where you’re sitting, the smoke goes up and gets pulled out,” says Naftzinger. “So, one fan pulls everything out of the space and a second fan pulls it the full length of the house and dumps it out all the way at the other end where it can’t be a nuisance to us.” He installed a duct that ran the length of his house from the lounge attic to house attic so smoke wouldn’t get dumped out over his pool in the backyard. He also has a separate unit that pumps in temperature-controlled fresh air.

One would be hard-pressed to not find a comfortable place to enjoy a cigar in Naftzinger's room, which has more than enough seating for a visiting crowd.

An extensive cigar collection requires extensive storage space, and that’s exactly what Naftzinger just near the kitchen. Three large humidors take up real estate on the nearside next to the exterior door, two cabinets and one massive trunk. Both cabinet humidors are electrically controlled, with shelves filled to the brim with boxes. He estimates he has somewhere around 3,500 cigars in total. 

Like most cigar smokers, Naftzinger had a winding journey to get to the aficionado status he now holds. It started over 20 years ago when he was barely of legal age to smoke.  “A buddy of mine, we used to go fishing a lot and we would buy Muriel Sweet Coronas back then,” says Naftzinger. “Obviously when you’re young the sweeter stuff is kind of what you go towards. I’m very heavy into Nicaraguan stuff now, so a lot of Padrón, I have tons of Padrón and A.J. Fernandez stuff.” 

Naftzinger has no shortage of cigars, including a New World Oscuro box signed by A.J. Fernandez.

So how often does he use his room?  “Every single day, without a doubt,” says Naftzinger. “If I’m home, we're in here every single day, like I smoke cigars every day.”

Sometimes Naftzinger is alone, or just with his wife, but he isn’t shy about having cigar-loving buddies over either. Luckily for him, or perhaps unluckily at times, he has a pair of “avid cigar smokers” as neighbors, directly across and next to him, who he’ll have over quite a bit. The room has seating for 12, so comfortably hosting isn’t much of a challenge. 

After smoking cigars for two decades, Naftzinger finally has a place to call his own.

For Naftzinger, his personal cigar lounge was more than 20 years in the making. But for many years, he had to do what he could to manage, while still pursuing this passion. “A lot of my smoking time was driving which, as we know, is not always ideal,” he says, noting he had a job that required lots of time commuting around, plus a family. “I wanted my own space where I could just relax, be comfortable and smoke cigars,” says Naftzinger. “Sometimes when we’re just sitting in here it’s hard to believe. This is just a really nice space to have.”

Source: https://www.cigaraficionado.com/article/a-residential-cigar-loft-with-some-surprises