The PolyStain Process....

The polystaining has begun!  Here you can see the bar top, the trim, and the panels of plywood that will be used for the base of the bar.  They are all drying after receiving one coat of the pecan polystain.  I'm guessing it's going to take at least 4 coats for the bar top since I'm using a high gloss finish on that.  I'm hoping the panels will only need 3 because I'm using a satin finish on those.

You can see a pile of wood on the garage floor next to the plywood panels.  Those are a bunch of 2x6 boards that my husband had purchased awhile ago to build my son a loft bed.  Well my son has since decided that he does not want a loft bed...  Now those 2x6 boards will be used to construct the base of the bar.  It's a bit excessive, 2x4s would be plenty, but there's no sense in buying more lumber when we have something on hand that will work.  Saves us some cash out of pocket right now.  At least our bar base will be pretty darn sturdy!

The Bar Top

We weren't sure what we wanted to do for the bar top.  Money is always a factor on home projects like this and luckily we found a great inexpensive solution for our bar top.  IKEA has this awesome 8' solid wood counter top called the LAGAN.  It will work perfectly for our bar.  The best part is that it was only $59!  This counter top is made of beech, is solid wood, in a butcher block style, and is completely natural.  We will need to stain and polyurethane it.  We have picked a high gloss polystain in pecan.  Polystain is great because it combines both the stain and polyurethane in one container.  This means I don't have to first apply several coats of stain and then apply several coats of poly.  I can apply them both in each coat.  Saves me time, and I really like a product that saves me time!  We decided to keep the lighter wood color for our bar as the rest of the room has dark wood.  I think the contrast with the light wood tones will help to open up the space.  We'll see if I'm right.  We may just have some ugly wood tone contrast going on in the bar!  Fingers crossed!

Before

Here's what the family room looks like now.  Basically a hodgepodge of crap!  You can see the hubby's latest batch of beer sitting on the table in the back.  We have exercise equipment, a sewing table, the dogs' crates, my son's work bench, and everything else that doesn't have a place to go...  Some of this stuff is going away for good, and other stuff will have to find a new home in the house.  It will be nice to actually have a purpose for this room!  

Welcome!

Welcome to our little blog.  My husband and I decided to convert our family room into a bar.  Thanks to my husband's new hobby of brewing his own beer, we needed a spot to showcase that beer.  The idea started with just a kegerator, but quickly grew into a full bar with beer on tap.  We have a smaller deep freeze that we are going to convert into a keezer (basically a kegerator made out of a freezer) and plans to build an actual bar, where everyone can sit to enjoy the beer.  We decided to blog all of this, with pictures, to help anyone else out there who would like to make a keezer, a bar, or their own home brewed beer.

A little bit about us: I'm a full time student and working mom of two and my husband is a computer geek.  In the mornings I work in an elementary school special education class and in the afternoons I attend college classes to complete my BA in Special Education.  My husband is in the Air Force and has had the pleasure of working in a variety of computer geek positions.  I know that's not the technical term, but it's the easiest way, for me, to describe what he does! :)