Friday, September 5, 2008

The Bar: Planning

Well I think it's high time that I share my plans for the bar. Unfortunately I don't have pictures to share as of yet (the last set I took still had large quantities of celing debris on the floor; I have since then cleaned the place out and held two game parties there).
As of right now I have repaired the roof (a relative term), cleaned out the Bar and Dining rooms, installed electric lights in the Bar, Dining, Kitchen and Wash rooms, hooked up a stereo in the Bar room (an absolute MUST for any proper bar!) and partially repaired all of the doors to the building.
First of all is the Bar room. This room needs the following renovations: First and foremost, I need to either replace or at least properly board up the broken window facing US 24 and the Maumee river. I desperately want to replace this window, but I doubt that I'll be able to afford to do so before this coming Spring. Next I want to install the last light fixture that this room will recieve (right now it has two lampholders, which is plenty, but I want more light!). Unfortunately this requires tearing down one of the three remaining celing panels in this room, which was subjected to some of the worst water damage that this building saw... This will be a very messy project which I am not at all looking forward to.
In addition to those repairs I plan on building a bar in place of where the old one was located. I am planning on building a frame out of 2x4 stock, boxing it in with Luan plywood and topping it with a material that's both decorative and durable. I'd like to use Marble, but the price will likely be prohibitive...

On a side note, I am not sure yet what I'm going to do about heating in that building. I plan on using either wood or coal fired equipment, and only using it when the building is in use. Exactly what I do will depend greatly on what I can get of course. I'd like to get an old "hybrid" stove (which is basically a coal stove with a secondary air inlet, which allows it to burn wood with reasonable efficiency. Unfortunately, due to EPA regulations on wood-fired appliances such stoves are no longer made...). If such a stove is unavailable I will probaly eventually get a solid fuel forced-air furnace.

For the Dining room I had it suggested to me by my friend Nick that I should build a few resteraunt-style booths around the outside wall. The interesting part about his suggestion, however, was to make the booth tables wider than typical restearaunt booths, so each booth could accomidate two PCs with LCD-panel displays (I plan on hosting LAN parties out there once it's ready). The Dining room also needs some floor work, largely to deal with a now nonexistant drain that was very poorly plugged, and poses a significant trip hazard. Not sure what I'm going to do about this yet.
The Kitchen room will be what the name suggests, a kitchen. It doesn't need to be a full-service kitchen, it'll be more of a fridge-and-stove room. I plan on putting a "boxwood" stove in that room, both for heating and because such stoves have a proper cook top with removable burner plates.
As for the Washroom I am unsure as to what my plans are. I'd like to put a basin sink in there, but I can just see myself using the thing as a parts washer... This is all well and good right now, since I don't have a finished floor or paint in the building, but down the road...

Other than that there are only a handful of projects. I need to run conduit and wire for electrical service to the Bar and Dining rooms (more on this later), repair the roof over the breezeway between the Bar and the Shop, clean out and restore the Men's room to service and repair the doors properly. I will keep you all up to date as I get these projects done, and hopefully I'll have pictures soon...

3 comments:

DurMan said...

I'm looking forward to seeing that bat of yours in its finished state. Of course this will probably be two or three years from now, but one can dream...

Rachel said...

Sounds like a lot of work! I hope it's all doable and affordable, even if it does take a long time :)

Unknown said...

Your plans sound great. Hope you can do them as soon as you'd like.