Let's Build A Bar - Part 1

Let's Build A Bar

Part 1

It's home improvement time again - or home destruction time, depending on how you look at it. Ever since we moved into this house a few years ago I have been convinced that there was a void behind our fireplace and sort of under the stairs. I tried to get plans from the builder with no luck. I was also convinced that the space would make a great bar or wine cellar type spot. 

I should mention that the question I get a lot on this is "Why do you need a bar? You don't even drink!" That's true, but for me it's really more of an 'a place for everything and everything in its place' issue. Also, I've always had this dream of having a soda fountain in my house. Dr. Pepper on tap! I talked about it for over a year and finally did something about it. 

This is an ongoing project. It's taking a long time because I don't really have a start to finish plan. Every time we take a step we just reevaluate and come up with the next step. My mom weighed in on this in the beginning:

Mom - "I hope you know what you're doing."

Me - "I have no idea what I'm doing! I don't know what could have given you the impression that I did?"

 
One of the walls along the alleged void was in the garage so I got a bore-scope and drilled a hole. My first hole was useless. There wasn't enough light for the bore-scope to pick up anything even in night vision mode. I drilled a bigger hole and still couldn't really see anything so I taped a flashlight on the end of a rod and went in.

It was hard to see much, but basically my suspicions were confirmed - Unused space!

There was a recessed area in this particular garage that had a 10-foot wide workbench and I decided that I needed that space to make a large enough bar. I tore out the bench rather quickly.

The workbench was a nice touch, but the reality is we have lots of garages and garage space but no bar in our house. This extra 10 x 4 area made all the difference.

Next, I cut a hole in the wall big enough for me to fit through (barely) and went exploring.

The space was there. It was quirky, but I like quirky. The stairs came into play a little closer to the entrance than I thought but that should also be okay.

This is the curved wall that will be the entrance to the bar from our kitchen. Curved walls create some challenges but I wasn't deterred. The only things that I identified that would need to be rerouted were a few electrical lines and the fresh air vent for the fireplace.

The next step was to call my brother. If you want a problem solved and taken care of quickly, I'm your guy. If you want something done meticulously and right, you want my brother Michael. He is the "measure twice, cut once" guy. I had already demoed the wall that was coming out and it was still cool weather so we needed to get the new wall up before it got hot.

We decided that the space would be better if we had a couple more feet so we poured a pad to extend the bar out into the garage space a bit.

I keep a trailer around and it sure does come in handy every now and then.

We set the bolts for the base plate and let it cure over night.

The next day was framing day. We had materials. We had tools. We're not idiots (at least my brother isn't), so we just kind of figured it out.

After we finished framing up the walls, Michael, being the perfectionist that he is, smoothed out the concrete base...with the "help" of my daughter of course.

With the exposed walls it was time to run lines. Since I wanted a soda machine, I was going to need a water line. Sadly, there are no lines anywhere accessible to the bar project that we could get to so my plumber ran a line outside and through the wall.

Here's the water line in the bar. I would rather have run a line from the ceiling but there was no access to the attic above the garage.

It solved the problem but this area gets a lot of sun in the morning. I'm hoping it's not an issue. I went back and painted the line to match the brick later. It's still not pretty but it's a little less noticeable.

Next up was electric. I figure the electricians will have to come out 4 times during this project. This first trip was just to rough in the wiring and to add lights. 

This is getting long so I'll cover the next bit of progress in the next post.