Build a Wet Bar

Well, things are progressing. I got the Marble tile laid on the top of the bar. Marble is interesting or is it rather frustrating to cut. All of that veining that gives it character also is where it fractures when you cut it. Making the thin edge strips proved to be the most frustrating part of the layout. The countertop is 25 inches deep which is pretty standard I have found as countertops go since the cabinets are 24 and the drawers come out past the face. 12 inch tiles are not 12 inches across so there is a small band of filler strip tiles in the back and along the edge. I can live with that. It adds character and that’s my story. If this were baseball they would be the warning track. Hind site in the color choice my wife picked for the wall. A close match to the green at Fenway stadium. I guess I’m building my own Green Monster!

I had to make a modification to my keggerator on how the tap plugs into it. The original setup had the tap mounting straight down on the top of the fridge. With the countertop that won’t work and I also upgraded from a single keg and tap to a twin Cornelius Keg and tap tower combo. I disassembled the original tower to get the plastic adaptor that plugged into the fridge and twisted on cams to lock it into place and sealed a length of PVC tube to it which did several things, kept it airtight between the fridge and the tap but also gave me a handle that I could manipulate the plug from above to twist in and lock down the plug and lift it up and out of the fridge to allow the fridge to slide out from under the bar. I also worked into the tube some foam pipe insulation and will wrap a larger version around the tube to keep the beer flowing through the lines nice and cold when serving and keep the tower from sweating when the coolness enters the tower in the warm room. I kept the pipe taller than I needed for a handle to keep the insulation running further up the tower and covering the lines. I’ve read that many people have installed blowers and ducts in their keggerators to keep the towers refrigerated but I’m not going that far. I got the idea from the super insulated pipes that they use in the Arctic to run water and waste from homes and other facilities in areas where direct burial of the services may not be feasible or practical. See, watching TV does help give you ideas and information! ;-)

With my other goal, Learn How To Tile, we are renovating the rear hallway where the washer and dryer once existed before until a previous owner of our house moved them into the garage. They put some generic white cabinets in the out cove and put a counter top between them. The setup worked well but we thought it could be nicer and all of those DIY shows were always suggesting turning a closet into a dry bar or if water was accessible turning them into a wet bar. We use the rear area of the house to try out things we may want to try through out the rest of the house since it is in a less traveled area. Now with installing a kegerator and tap setup we may have more traffic in the area. I’ve obviously gotten the tile on the floor, tied into the plumbing that had been turned 180 degrees to service the washer and dryer in the garage to supply the new volcano black composite granite sink and bought some stock cabinets from Home Depot. I framed in the countertop to make a marble tile counter top and today I laid the tile on the counter top.

The picture is a collage of two pictures from when we first looked at buying the house and the mid point project before I got the tile on the top. I need to grout the tile still and seal it all then install the sink, screw down the tap tower and trim out a few things. I figure I had better fill the kegs last, else wise I may not get finished. A lesson I learned camping and breaking into the beer cooler before setting up the tent. Almost slept under the stars………..