Bratwursts and Shillelaghs II

Just thought I'd share some pics of the "room". I am totally psyched, as this won't take near as much effort to make into a bar--considering it was already a bar/game room previously. My tentative plans right now are to make half of the room a football shrine, with a couch and some chairs on one half of the room, and then the other half of the room I will rip the carpet out and put down some faux hardwood laminate and make it like a bar area, complete with bar and kegerator taps. Work will commence in November and estimated completion date will be next March. Shooting for a St. Paddy's Day 2007 grand opening.

Here are some pics and a few comments along the way.

This is looking at the left of the room from the doorway of the kitchen. I'm standing at the top of 3 steps, which you'll see in a moment. Notice the pisser in the left corner.


This is looking back towards the steps I was talking about. The window where SWMBO is standing is the kitchen. Cool wood stove, eh?


See the door (on the left) in the previous pic? That leads to this room, a utility room that houses the washer/dryer/water heater. This will be the main brewery. I bought a small sink unit that I'll hook directly up to the water pipes, so I have access to hot and cold water on brew day, via the sink and a hose. I think having a hose hooked up to hot water will greatly reduce my sparge water heat up time.
In this pic, my left shoulder is leaning against the door that I talked about in the bar room.



This pic is looking from the back door of that utility room. You can see it will be easy to tap into the hot water pipes. This room works out perfectly to house all of my brewing gear.


So now you can see a little bit of what I've got to work with. I'd be glad to get suggestions on how to go about this--but I have some ideas floating around already.
I'm mainly thinking of putting a couch in the center of that room and buying a big screen to set on that white counter looking thng in the back. This part of the room will also house shelves and stuff and serve as the Packers shrine. On the other side of the room I'm going to rip out some of the carpet and make that the bar. I'm leaning on keeping my beers in a chest freezer and sending lines through that to a 4 tap tower on the bar. I'll have to figure out a way to keep the beer lines cool but I don't anticipate problems with that. I'm mainly more worried about the layout right now. I've been working on a little powerpoint "map" of the room. Once I get all my ideas down I'll post it and ask for suggestions on what to do better.

I know you guys are pretty sick of me posting this stuff non-stop, but I'm pretty excited.

So I take it you gave up on the attic above the garage?

BTW I like this space a lot more

Pumbaa said:

So I take it you gave up on the attic above the garage?

BTW I like this space a lot more

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This is a completely different house. We passed on the one with the garage attic because the owners wouldn't fix the roof on the house.

This is like a reality TV show on the Beer & Meat Network.

Dude said:

The window where SWMBO is standing is the kitchen.

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Sweet. You can yell at her and tell her to make you sandwiches and **** without even leaving the bar!

-walker

Walker-san said:

Sweet. You can yell at her and tell her to make you sandwiches and **** without even leaving the bar!

-walker

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Exactly. I like the way you think.

Now all you need is a deep-fryer and a two-way swinging door into the kitchen. Order up!

That looks awesome, that brick will make it nice and warm feeling in there. I can't wait to get some space like that.

This is a completely different house. We passed on the one with the garage attic because the owners wouldn't fix the roof on the house.

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Ahhhhh I had kinda lost track of that thread. This space is much better anyway. Bar between the bathroom and window, ya put a few nice big chairs near the wood burning stove, place a strategic couch or 2 and your set.

Whats the eletrical outlet situation look like in there?

Seems like a much easier space to work with than the last one. Pretty cool!

I agree, this looks like such a nicer space to work with. The garage attic would have been cool, but I think it always would have felt kind of like a kid's hideaway space. This won't have quite the dark, hidden-away feeling of a nice bar, but the amenities are so much nicer (like, not having to worry about heating it, have a bathroom right there, having enough electrical power presumably) far outweight that. Plus, you've got enough room where you really CAN go nuts with the Packers garb.

You know what might be nice? Set up the bar on that wall over by the bathroom. Looks like you have nice storage over there already. Get some nice glass-doored cabinets to hang on the wall for all your gear. Paint that back wall green and gold. Get a Favre jersey framed and on the wall.

the_bird said:

... have a bathroom right there

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Never underestimate the value of having a bathroom close to the bar

rdwj said:

Never underestimate the value of having a bathroom close to the bar

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Lot nicer than a collection of piss jugs, eh?

the_bird said:

Lot nicer than a collection of piss jugs, eh?

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I think bird sent me one of his piss jugs in the mail. It arrived yesterday.

-walker

sweet..... make sure that wood stove gets checked out.

Walker-san said:

I think bird sent me one of his piss jugs in the mail. It arrived yesterday.

-walker

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You have no idea how right you are

the_bird said:

Lot nicer than a collection of piss jugs, eh?

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Piss jugs... There's a thread for that.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=14803

Man, that looks just about perfect.

Walker-san said:

I think bird sent me one of his piss jugs in the mail. It arrived yesterday.

-walker

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Was it full????

You could put a slide from the kitchen access to the couch, so SWMBO can just zoom that sammich to you!

Actually a dumb waiter might be useful, less hauling of stuff up & down the stairs.

In the utility room, if that dryer on the stack isn't gas, plan on leaving room for a new washer & dryer. Little electric dryers take forever to dry anything.

ablrbrau said:

Was it full????

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About an inch and a half of headroom.

Well, 10 days until closing, and we are on track. The inspection went very well this week, we only had a few minor issues (electrical) that need to be fixed next week, then on Thursday we'll do the final walkthrough. The loan is completely done, so once we get word back on the electrical fixes, we are golden. SWMBO already has plans to paint all day on the 31st.

I've been goofing around with powerpoint to lay out a floor plan for the bar--here are my preliminary ideas. Suggestions welcomed. In the first pic, I'm going to lay down faux hardwood laminate in the bar area to contain messes from spills at the bar. The dart board is along the wall on the left--that may get moved elswhere depending on what works best. I've got an English bristle board so maybe I'll build some kind of cabinet with some chalkboards for scoring. We'll see what works best. The remainder of the room will be a Packer shrine/TV room. I'm pricing/researching projectors right now--will prolly put a projector on the celing and use the far wall as a giant screen. SWMBO has already approved the official Packer area rug for under the couch area there. The second pic is what I'm thinking for a bar--I'm going to build an "Irish coffin" to dispense it. Yes, that is a TV inside the Irish coffin--I have a spare LCD screen that I plan to integrate into the Irish coffin design, and tapped into the main feed from the satellite dish. Bar patrons need TV too! My plan is to put the chest freezer inside the bar area so the beer can sit in there and I can insulate the beer lines inside a PVC pipe of some kind. Ultimately I'd like a beer engine in there too, but that is a ways off.





Whachoo think? Don't be afraid to rearrange and suggest.

I LOVE that room and can't tell you how jealous I am over the wood-burning stove. You'll probably barely have to tick your thermostat in the winter once you get that brick wall heated up. You could just kind of settle in during the morning of big sports days with a pot of coffee on top of the stove and then switch to brew around brunch (which, as mentioned, SWMBO would dutifully prepare and pass through the window...same place she would receive dirty dishes ).

One of my best memories in my parents' house was in the winter when my brother and I would run downstairs in the morning to hang our jeans on the wood stove before school! Toasty.

Wow, it's awesome. I don't have any changes to suggest, except do you have a place for a mini microwave? You could microwave popcorn without leaving the room during a game. (I don't remember where that passthrough window is).

This is the coolest room I've seen. I'm so jealous!

Lorena

Well, the bar is finally getting built on January 2nd. Carpenter friend came by today to take measurements and ask what I wanted.

The bar is going to be like this, only where the tap is, an Irish Coffin box will hold 4 taps:



I'm having him build a cold box inside it. My existing fridge for my kegerator will actually sit inside the bar, and cool a much larger area that I can set my kegs and any extra beer in. The cold box will end up being about about 3 feet by 5 feet. It'll hold a lot of beer. Then, A PVC pipe will go up from the cold box to the irish coffin box.

The bar will be mostly ready to go that same day--I'll just have to finish the cold box and the irish coffin in the next few weeks. The plan is to have it fully functional by the Super Bowl. For now it will only be a dry bar, but I'm leaving my options open to install a sink in the future.

Pics to come!

Friggin' awesome. I'm jealous as hell!

I can't believe no one has asked about your bar's name yet.

Dude I am so jealous. That is sweet.

When's the open house.

Does anyone know of a good building contractor place (or something like that) to buy formica countertop materials?

Dude said:

Does anyone know of a good building contractor place (or something like that) to buy formica countertop materials?

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Never been there, but I heard Habitat for Humanity has a store around there where a bunch of leftover materials from their builds are re-sold. Jon should know where it's at.

That is just awesome, can't wait to see pics of the final product.

SwAMi75 said:

Never been there, but I heard Habitat for Humanity has a store around there where a bunch of leftover materials from their builds are re-sold. Jon should know where it's at.

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Wow, good idea. I'll check it out.

2 days until the big day.

SwAMi75 said:

Never been there, but I heard Habitat for Humanity has a store around there where a bunch of leftover materials from their builds are re-sold. Jon should know where it's at.

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Those places are great...my wife hates it when I go there! I bought some windows for $2 each to make coldframes and an old door that I haven't figured out what to do with, miscellaneous hardware (hasps, knobs, etc). Also some landscaping plants. Now if they would just get in some utility sinks...

Teaser pic:

Almost done with the cold box portion...we'll fill it in with insulation and then close it up.

This room looks excellent. I love the cold box idea - might be borrowing that one when it's time.

The only thing that I'd be cautious about is the faux wood flooring. While manufacturers like to claim the stuff is bulletproof, I've seen installations that over time suffer from water damage. A friend who did his entire basement with a no-name Pergo type system has boards that are pulling up along the seams due to the fact that they are in a "wet" entry area. I've also worked on a handful of residential projects with similar problems. The "cheaper" articifial wood flooring products are suspect to me, though they claim to be OK for use in wet areas. I'll ask around to see if these experiences have happened with particular brands.

The cold box looks really good .... Got me thinking I've got a refrigerator that size but with a built in freezer (so it won't fit a keg). Post lots of pictures. That may be my next project.

Fiery Sword said:

This room looks excellent. I love the cold box idea - might be borrowing that one when it's time.

The only thing that I'd be cautious about is the faux wood flooring. While manufacturers like to claim the stuff is bulletproof, I've seen installations that over time suffer from water damage. A friend who did his entire basement with a no-name Pergo type system has boards that are pulling up along the seams due to the fact that they are in a "wet" entry area. I've also worked on a handful of residential projects with similar problems. The "cheaper" articifial wood flooring products are suspect to me, though they claim to be OK for use in wet areas. I'll ask around to see if these experiences have happened with particular brands.

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I'm not understanding what you mean by faux wood floor.

The floor in this is a sheet of plywood with a piece of sheet metal over it, then everything is caulked air tight. Even if I do get water in there, it will pool inside the cold box. It'll be easy to clean up in theory. Nothing should get outside of that box though if I caulk it correctly.

From first post in thread:

Dude said:

...the other half of the room I will rip the carpet out and put down some faux hardwood laminate and make it like a bar area, complete with bar and kegerator taps.

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Sorry for the confusion. I meant the floor area in the general area of the bar - ground zero for when a drunk friend spills beer all over your beautiful new room, and floor.

Fiery Sword said:

From first post in thread:

Sorry for the confusion. I meant the floor area in the general area of the bar - ground zero for when a drunk friend spills beer all over your beautiful new room, and floor.

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Oh, okay. Yeah, that laminate floor idea got scrapped. I'm gonna leave the carpet in until it gets too nasty.

Now that I see the bar though--I'm wishing I would have ripped the carpet out. This sucker is heavy.

LOL...I just looked under the bar to see how much room that cold box will have. I can fit all 5 of my cornies, 2 carboys, and it still has room for a quarter barrel.

I cannot wait for this to be done!!!!!

Dude said:

Oh, okay. Yeah, that laminate floor idea got scrapped. I'm gonna leave the carpet in until it gets too nasty.

Now that I see the bar though--I'm wishing I would have ripped the carpet out. This sucker is heavy.

LOL...I just looked under the bar to see how much room that cold box will have. I can fit all 5 of my cornies, 2 carboys, and it still has room for a quarter barrel.

I cannot wait for this to be done!!!!!

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Just did a quick measurement. 9 square feet of room. That will hold a lot of beer!!!!!

Hopefully we get close to finishing this baby tomorrow. Need to put a panel and a door on the cold box and then start the "L" part. That won't take long because it will just have shelving in it. I'm not even putting in a sink yet. No need for it IMHO.

Anyone coming here for the Super Bowl party to help christen the room?

Good progress today:







I can start doing some finishing work now, all that needs to be done yet is to close up the cold box and then put the bar top on. This weekend I might try to get some panels to finish it off and then some laminate for the work area.

It really ties the room together. I'm happier than a puppy with two peters right now.
:rockin:

Lookin' good!