Dr Don’s Bar Construction Pt 1
Welcome to my basement sports bar construction blog. Not exactly sure how exciting this is going to be, but I thought it might be fun for you to follow along as it all comes together. Hopefully 1) before football season begins and 2) before the sound of jackhammers makes my birds go nuts.
Might be hard to see, above, but that’s the cove in my basement where the actual bar will be. The half-wall in the front will be the actual bar. The walls behind will hold a mini-kitchen with a sink, stove, dishwasher and refrigerator. As you can see, we left a support pole for Grunwald to practice his stripper routines (see his feather boa pictures in the Brad Paisley feature).
I want to give props to the all-Union construction crew working on this. Man, things are getting done and done right. We only had one delay when Kay refused to let the electrician into the house. That’s him in the picture on the left. They eventually sent someone else.
They just finished cutting up the basement floor to put the plumbing in, so there’s a big pile of rocks and dust all over everything. I’m beat from running all of the cabling for the television screens and sound system. Cabinets are ordered. Now, all I have to do is find black ceiling tiles. As you can see, Pepper is ready to put the bar to use!
Comments welcome. Recommendations, too. I need some ideas on how to decorate this thing when I’m done.
July 20th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Nice project! Ok if Kaylyn, Lori, and I are your dancers? LOL! We’ll put the rest to shame!
Hey - on the ceiling tiles - tin squares are pretty cool - you can get at Lowes (if you have a Lowes, or order online) The other thing that has a great unique look is the corrugated metal that they use in farm buildings and some roofing. It comes in the stainless - not sure about black but you could spray paint it - depending on how high your ceiling is down there - it would look really cool! Just a thought. The cheapest way of course is to spray the standard cork ceiling tiles with black. Still looks nice. HAVE FUN! Can’t wait to see the finished product!
July 20th, 2008 at 11:02 am
I’m leaning toward painting standard tiles black. The tin stuff looks great but is WAY expensive. Never thought about the barn stuff. Might look into that. Thanks!!!! -Doc
July 20th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Hey Doc!
You’re right - the tin ceiling does look awesome, but it is expensive as all get out to install. Have you ever considered wallpapering your ceiling to look like a tin ceiling? We did that in our front room, dining room and bedroom. It looks great & we have gotten a ton of compliments over the years on this. Mind you, it’s not the easiest thing to do, but it is doable. The hubby and brother-in-law did ours & it brought back memories of Lucy and Ethel wallpapering! There are also 12″ x 12″ insulated foam ceiling tiles (We did that on our upstairs ceiling). You can always paint it black afterwards. And, no, we are not ceiling fanatics, but when you live in a 105 year old brick Victorian (which is on the market, by the way, as of yesterday!), you want to keep it true to it’s origin. Anyways, good luck & keep us posted with your updates. Tell Rachael & Grunwald to update their blogs - it’s been a month since their last ones! Kudos to you for blogging more than them!!! Kim in Richmond
July 20th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Kim…
I’d love to do that, but I’m not drywalling the ceiling. There’s so much stuff up there I need access to that I’m doing a drop ceiling for 90% of the bar area. Only the sofits around the kitchen/bar will be drywalled. The rest of the ceiling has to be removable. I AM looking at that tin roof effect for the side of the bar since those panels are impervious to kick marks from shoes. I may put it up online and let y’all vote!.. Doc
July 21st, 2008 at 6:23 am
Ok, so skip the wallpapering part. Like I mentioned previously, you can get the 12″ x 12″ insulated ceiling tiles that look like a tin ceiling. That’s removable & does look really good. As for wallpapering the ceiling over drywall, when we wallpapered ours - we wallpapered over the 12″ x 12″ tiles. Yep, the hubby filled in (and sanded) every crack and crevice with spackle and THEN wallpapered! He’s a one in a million, that guy! He said that he got tired of our front room looking like it was a basement with those damn tiles! I like the idea of tin on the side of the bar. Keep us updated. Kim in Richmond
July 21st, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Sounds like it’s coming along well!!! Oh my gosh - died laughing about the pole and Kay not letting the electrician in - don’t worry Kay, I’m sure I wouldn’t have let him in either!!!!!
July 23rd, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Dr Don, That is awesome that you are finishing your basement. We love ours, however was already finished when we bought the house. We have added a bathroom downstairs since we really needed a second bathroom. Anyway, have you thought about just painting the ceiling black? (painting the wires and everything black) It is becoming more of a popular trend. Even some restaurants have painted ceilings. I have tried talking my husband into taking down the drop ceiling and painting the ceiling black. His compromise is to paint the drop ceiling black….we’ll see who wins!
We have a friend who even has a strobe light in their basement. Since Mark was in the Marines for 24 years, that is the theme downstairs. Alright I think I have rambled on enough! 
And since you have the pole (not jsut for her to strip, but she can dance around it too ~ GO KAY GO!!!) already downstairs, why don’t you use your music memorablia as your theme. (surely all the years you have been in the music industry you must have some pretty cool stuff
July 28th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Hi Doc,
For the bar in our basement, we used glass block around the bar. It looks nice. We couldn’t figure out a way to get it lit though and be able to replace the bulbs if they went out. I wish we could have. Maybe you can…
Kim
August 8th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Hey Doc!
You could do like we (well, not we exactly…just HIM) did and spray paint graffiti all over the walls! Then when you decide you don’t like that anymore…paint it all BLACK!
Miss your show…still waiting for you to follow me down here! After all…you followed me from FL to MI…right?
September 7th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Hey Dr. Don!
Gee, and I TOLD my hubby to “clean up” a little before going to your house for that job; that no one would let him in their house to do anything, looking that way! Just wouldn’t take any telling….
Kim N