Basement bar build! DIALUP WARNING (many pics)

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

cabot

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2008
Messages
187
Reaction score
1
Location
Wilton, ME
*dialup warning* - lotso pics

So I've been planning this for over a year..I didn't have the $ or the resources to build this at that time. But through biding my time and careful planning, construction has started! I'm very proud to say from start to finish (including the home theater system, tap tower, fridge) I've spent under $300 through bargain hunting and bartering.

I do not have the bar top yet, it's being fabricated right now. It will be 1.5" thick cherry, with 15" of counterspace on the sides and 18" in the front.

The panels are maple and all the trim is cherry.

This is where I'm at to date.

bar1.jpg


bar2.jpg


bar3.jpg


bar4.jpg
 
Nice work so far! I can tell that maple is just going to be beautiful when you put some stain on it. Keep the pics coming!
 
I steal internet to feed my HBT obsession, I greatly appreciate the network programmer nextdoor paying his internet bill on time! Probably shouldn't post this, but what the heck, you guys seem like a trustworthy bunch!

Wow sorry that was off topic, didn't mean to hijack. Very nice bar build, particularly like the build in of the minifridge.
 
looking good. i've got this spare room in my house that really serves no purpose, thinking of following suit and building a bar.
 
that bar is frigg'n sweet man....and is just what I will be tring to do this summer. if you were to give some specs on it I could not buy all the wood twice. :drunk:

you are da man.
 
Thanks jmp138. I won't know if it works until I build the door to that section of the bar, but if it does, that mini fridge will turn the whole left side of the bar into a frosty cold chamber. it's got room for a handful of cornies, or a few cornies and a sanke keg. I've got a 2-tap tower that'll be installed directly above the keg box. It had better work...tons of sheets of insultation and 5 cans of great stuff says it should. If it doesn't, that means I gotta tear the panels and trim back down and rework the insulation :( fingers crossed! I've got a batch of edworts haus sitting in a primary, month old now, waiting to be the first beer on tap!
 
Should work man, just don't want to overwork that compressor, but if you do it right you can get it so its not cycling too much. Funny you should be waiting to tap your Edworts Haus Pale, I just got home from dinner, drew my very first pint off the tap of my very first kegged beer, an Edworts Haus Pale and it is superb. Good luck with the build, plenty of good ideas around this place! Cheers!
 
looks very nice,

Why did you not make the ferm/temp/chamber the full bar lenght, are you going to pu in a sink on the left side of it?

and technicly i am on dial up, if you count 16MB DSL as dial up :D or this might be going through my landloards 20MB cable, dont know i setup both wireless routers and they have the same name (linksys) and my systems switch between the two often.
 
Thanks. I didn't make the chamber any larger because I don't want to put too much strain on the little fridge. Plus the back of the fridge needs to be exposed to the open air so it can exhaust and cool. I didn't necessarily need any more space and I'd like to keep the power cost down. The open side will probably just be used for placing a waste basket in, and I'll also be mounting a PC power supply in there which will power the lights and fans for the bar. I've wired 3 PC case fans: one blowing over the coils in the back, one inside the fridge blowing air from the chamber across the freezer plate of the fridge, and a third fan in the fridge blowing the now cooled air back out into the chamber. If that makes sense...again, steps to keep the strain on the fridge way down. I'm anxious to get the door to the chamber built so I can fire it up and see how well...or how poorly...it cools.

As for added value to the home...I doubt anything :( A realtor once told me that anything below ground level adds absolutely 0 to the price of your home...so I assume the bar I build in my finished basement, which in a realtor's eyes doesn't exist, is in fact worthless as well :(
 
Bar update!

Top has arrived and been installed. It's a cherry butcher block. 2 coats of poly have been applied to rest of the bar.

bar.jpg


behind_bar.jpg


bar_top.jpg


left to do:

Finish trimming out the kicker on the bar

Add beer gutter

Add tap tower

Build door for fridge box.

Slow going, but at least it's going ;)
 
Man rule #173: If you are in the market to buy a house, and you stuble apon one with a bar installed, said man must purchase the property without hesitation.

Looks great. Keep the pics coming, and update us when you get the cooler working!
 
Cowstick thats excellent news!! I've got a question if you don't mind entertaining it (I will PM you as well), but mine has been turning itself off when the volume gets into the 50's...and I don't have a single clue why...wonder if its my wiring?
 
How much do you think that bar will increase the value of your house?

You won't get what you put into it. Much like a swimming pool.

Looks very nice cabot. I like your counter top much better than mine.
2693194228_c2641ccbb4.jpg


:off:

Sounds like a circuit tripping. When I crank our home theater it will over heat and turn itself off. That's at ear blistering level though, so it doesn't happen often.
 
mmb that's what I was thinking too...I think I need to clean up the wiring, tighten it all up etc. Thanks :)

A+ on your bar. Bar's are like women...there aren't any bad ones...and if you don't necessarily like one, have another beer.
 
I'm in the process of building a door. Getting a perfect seal is tough. I'll be installing a rubber gasket onto the door, like on a fridge. The door itself will also be insulated with 1"-2" of styrofoam insulation.
 
Man rule #173: If you are in the market to buy a house, and you stuble apon one with a bar installed, said man must purchase the property without hesitation.

I may have been 5 at the time, but that is exactly how my parents ended up in their current house. It was a sweet old 3 barrel bar with barrel seats with leather trim, absolutely beautiful. We lost it in a house fire but replaced it with a nice cherry wood and brace piece :)

And now to the thread! I love your set up, I am at least a year away from building my bar but I love reading this threads there's so much to be inspired by.
 
Thanks guys! I'm looking forward to seeing all of your bars (hint cough hint hint wink nudge)!

A little bit of progress. Been slow lately due to real work :(

bar_decor.jpg


bar_decor3.jpg


Put another another coat of poly, also poly'd the beer gutter, just need to glue and screw it to the bar top now. I also got all of my barstools in and managed to get a few pieces of 'flair' on the wall. Things I've been hanging onto for years with the hopes of making a bar someday. That photo of the last B's game at the garden comes in second to the home bar license. It was my pepe's, (RIP). My grandma bought it for him back in 1972 for the bar he had in his basement. I'm finding that decorating the area around the bar is almost as much fun as making the bar itself. Great project overall!

Fridge door construction got pushed back. Hoping to get to it early next week now!
 
Bar is ALMOST complete (just need to polyurethane one piece of trim and a door) and is functioning!

done_bar.jpg


and

done_bar2.jpg


and

done_bar3.jpg


and

done_bar4.jpg


You can see the weather stripping on the hinge side of the door is getting mangled when the door closes, I need to figure this out. I am picking up a wireless thermometer soon so I can see how cold the fridge is actually getting. I have the fridge set on 3 (out of 8) and it feels plenty cold to me, but I want to find out the exact temp.

Fridge cycles once every couple of hours. So far, I'm optimistic. Beer is carbing right now, should be pouring my first pint within a week!
 
Nice work, beautiful bar! On that fridge, I'd highly recommend a coat of poly on the floor, or a coat of paint that will stand up to the moisture. I've been amazed at how dirty the bottom of my kegerator gets just from the occasional drips and dirt.
 
TwoHeadsBrewing, thanks for the suggestion. I'll throw some poly down on it when I finish up the trim!
 
Joe you know it is ;) The B's broke my heart again this year...so next year it is!
 
Back
Top