Makin’ it Pretty….

Welcome back everyone! As I write this blog post, I’ve been playing Bachelor for about two weeks now, with still another week to go. The biggest question I’ve been getting lately is ‘how are you enjoying the bachelor life?’ Well, I guess ths short answer is that I’m pretty much bored with it. I’ve been doing little chores around the house, got everything cleaned up, etc. etc. There’s only so many things I can do while I’m alone here 😉 Luckily, with the training, there’s not been any downtime to speak of. It turns out that nothing gets done if I don’t do it when I’m alone! However, not to fear, I haven’t been a total square the entire time. The older we get, the harder it seems to be for the boys to get together. So, in order to make up for that, I decided that I had better at least have one boys night while Jody was away. I decided that the best time to do that would be the same day that she left. This little blog post will fill you in on at least some of the details. Read on.

Huzzah, I’m finally at the early build stages! As you can see by the picture to the right, the top and bottom frames of the bar have been put together and mounted on the front panels (in this picture, the bar is laying on its eventual front). Does it look like a bar yet? Not likely. I have a few concerns at this stage already. On the left, you see the wide bottom frame. A piece of 1/4 oak plywood goes on top of that frame to form the base of the liquor cabinet portion. I’m worried that the weight of bottles will be too much for the 1/4 wood. I think I’ll upgrade the base with an extra 2×4 stud piece that I’ve got left over. I should have attached it before the frame was attached, but such is life. My second concern is the side frame. There are no 2×4’s for support on the frame. Instead, the bar will rely on the 3/4″ oak plywood sides (not seen here yet) to bear the weight. I would have thought that building a full 2×4 frame would be more solid. I’m not going to bother changing anything on that though, since I’m sure the designer has had plenty of successful builds to his credit.

Okay, although I’m getting increasingly tired and grumpy, I’ve finished phase III of the basement project. For the past 2 weeks, I’ve basically been up till 11 or 12 each night working on all these projects. It’s the curse of being a perfectionist. The good news is that we’ve got everything finished off that we wanted to have done before the carpet goes down, which is on Monday. Of course we’re leaving on a bus to NY tonight, so timing was of the essence.

Earlier, I had lamented to Kev that I thought putting down the laminate should only take about 40 minutes. Well, while that may be true, it didn’t account for the prep of vapor barrier, cutting the pieces to the perfect size, trimming the lip on the edges where it was needed, installing the plastic track and mitring in for the trim and clean-up! Long story short, I basically worked on this from 7pm till 11:30pm! D’oh! So much for an easy project. At any rate, the finished product looks great in my opinion. I even thought we should’ve maybe done the whole rec room with this. I’ll probably end up renovating my studio with it next.

Well, I know I keep talking about this wonderful Oak Bar that I’m building, and that I’ll update this as I go. Well, I’m telling the truth, but it’s taking me longer than I’d like to get rolling on the project. Everytime I start to do some prep work, something else seems to come along and interrupt my momentum. I can say this much for my current status. I have the wood. All the wood now. On Saturday morning, I went out to Adams and Kennedy Wood Source in Manotick to pick up the rest of the Oak wood bits. Man, 2×4 Oak sure is pretty (and costly). They had what I needed, and 9 pieces of wood (and $250) later, I was supposedly ready to go. Instead, I went running. Oh well. The plywood is mostly cut up now as well. What remains is ripping and cross-cutting all the oak planks to the proper dimensions. That will be my next step. I’ve also decided the best way to do this is try and stain and varnish the wood before putting it all together. That should minimize the mess in the living room, and make it easier to finish off. I also have all the odds and ends that I’ll need, like hinges, the sink, shelving, lighting, etc. etc. I really wish it was already done, in time for Christmas, but that is definitely not going to be the case. Rest assured, I’ll survive. But I’ve got to get this done, so I can get back to being lazy in the new rec room! More pics will be posted as I go.