Wednesday, February 29

Raising the Bar

Literally. My hubs & dad have been working on getting our basement bar all put together! The last time my dad came to town they got all the installed and built up a short wall behind the cabinets where the raised bar will be.


They also attached our yard sale countertop (on the right side) and built a top out of plywood for the rest of the cabinets.


We also started planning tile layouts with our slate, but haven't installed any yet.


Intermission. Starring Baby B. This was taken a couple months ago and he looks so tiny!


Since then my mom has worked her magic on the bar in the form of pipes & wires! That's right, we have several outlets hooked up around the bar & water & drain pipes running to the sink (she also put in a drain for our washer so it doesn't have to drain into the sink anymore!). The bad news = we found out the sink that came with our yard sale countertop leaks. Boo. So while the water is hooked up, we can't actually use it yet. But at least it will be ready when the time comes!


Mister Husband has also installed concrete backer board on the countertops (which is an important step before tiling!) and in the picture below he is installing a base for the raised bar. I LOVED this step because it gives us a great feel of what the bar will be like when it is finished.


He's also been working on covering the half wall with plywood and finishing the tile backer board. We were hoping to do some tiling this weekend so we bought a tile "cutter" from Lowe's. It is supposed to score the tile, then snap it in half. Supposed to. On our first tile the handle snapped instead of the tile. SO disappointing, mostly because we weren't able to make ANY progress with the tile this weekend. However, we found out Menards rents out tile saws for $35 for 4 hours so we have our back up plan! Since it's a wet saw we'll have to wait for warmer weather to use it, though, so this project is on long term hold for now. But at least we've made some good progress in other areas. And here's a run down of what we still have left to do in the basement:
  • tile the countertops!
  • make a concrete countertop for the raised bar
  • support said countertop
  • find a new faucet
  • paint the floor
  • paint the walls & bar support
  • make new curtains
  • recover the couch
  • close in ceiling
  • get a rug for the living area
  • create zones for different activities
  • organize
  • find a way to section off storage areas from guest space

The work at this point is kind of tedious, but it's definitely important and it's a big step toward the fun changes (like tiling and painting). Do you have any tedious projects going on right now? Or any tiling advice for us?

6 comments:

  1. Making progress! Any of my projects are on hold until after March due to crazy show choir preparations :) Once the weather warms up, I am eager to start growing veggies and herbs!

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    1. Oooo, I would love to grow veggies and herbs too. I'm hoping to have a garden this year! Of course I've been saying that for like 4 years..... :)

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  2. I recommend that you purchase a tile saw...you can get one for about $100, and it will be well worth it. Trust me...you won't get much tiling done in the 4 hours that you could rent one from Menards for $35!! Something always goes wrong. And usually, you have to actually lay the tiles as you go, because you won't know how to cut the next one until the first one is laid, if that makes sense. So far, we have used our $100 saw to tile the kitchen, bathroom, and shower. Even the bathroom floor, which was pretty small (maybe 5' x 6'), took an entire day for my dad, who is a very experienced tiler. Good luck!

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    1. That is an excellent point! I've never done tile before so I had no idea how long it would take. I also didn't know tile saws were that cheap, I think I'll look on craigslist and see if we can get one even cheaper. Thanks for the suggestion! :)

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  3. Do you have a picture of the finished bar? We are finishing our basement and wanting to do something similar.

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    1. I'm sure I took some but I'm having trouble finding them (we moved out several years ago), but I'll add them if they turn up! Sorry!

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