Landchark

I’ve had some requests to explain how I made the lighted bottle shelves that are behind my bar in the lounge .

I didn’t take in-progress photos, but here are a couple of the finished shelves hanging on the wall behind the bar. The shelves are lighted in all the photos below, some photos are just using a flash.

I started out by putting stud bracing in the wall behind the bar. This would allow me to hang the shelves directly into the wall and not have to worry about hitting the vertical studs.

You can see the braces in the wall to the upper left of the fridge:

The shelves themselves are just 2×10’s with the outside corners rounded off so as not to cause any injuries.

We cut a strip out of the back of the shelf to give ample room to hide the light wires.

Holes are drilled through the shelf big enough to allow you to shove the C8 size Christmas lights up through the bottom of the shelf, leaving the wiring hanging below.
There is a strip wedge of wood screwed and glued under the main shelf to hide all the wires that go to the Christmas lights. This wood also gives a little more surface area to the back of the shelf and provides some angular support.

The shelves are then screwed to the bracing studs through the drywall.

The lighted part was a bit more ingenious and came out of the noggin’ of my dear ol’ dad.

We took a piece of 3/8" plexi and cut it to the size of the shelf. Then buff the outer edge of the plexi to make it opaque.

The back of the plexi was cut with big "slots" that were big enough to allow room for the Christmas light bulbs. Slide the plexiglass on the shelf and the bulbs should all fit into the slots. The bulbs should also be just high enough out of the shelf that the bottom of the bulb is actually shining on the edge of the plexi. This creates a sort of fiber optic effect where the light from the bulb goes into the plexiglass and causes the outer opaque edge of the plexi to glow. If you don’t buff out the edge, you don’t get that glow, since the light is actually being reflected off the roughed up edge.

Screw down the plexiglass in the back (make sure to use pilot holes) so the shelf doesn’t move around when you are sliding bottles on/off it.

The back light diffuser is just a long, thin strip of plexi that has been buffed to give it that opaque glowing look.

You could screw that down to the shelf or to the back wall or whatever, just so it doesn’t tip over.

Once we had all that done, we got to the fun part: loading up the shelves with booze.

And after that is the even more fun part: drinking the booze.

Tags: , bar, basement bar, booze, liquor shelf // 2 Comments »

This is painful…

“what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”

Tags: , airhead, Dumb TV // 1 Comment »

Finally got some more done on the k2 lounge.

Part 1: Neon

Added 4 neon tubes going down the stairs to give more of a Vegas feel to the entrance.

I had the opportunity to make these myself, and it was quite a neat experience. I have a friend in the local university’s art glass program, and he gave me a demo on how to make the them and then I proceeded to make 3 more. The tubes themselves are pre-made, and you have to melt the glass ends to attach the ‘nodes’ or whatever they are called that you attach the electricity to, then pump them full of neon gas. Hook them up to a transformer and there you have it, instant Vegas.

Now I just have to practice the bending of the tubes to make a giant flamingo or something.

Part 2: Kegerator with Wall Beer Tap

The next big addition was the adding of a beer tap behind the bar.

When my grandmother passed this summer, I claimed her old Philco refrigerator that was down in her basement. It amazes me how well things were made back in the day. This thing has about 3 inches of insulation on every side and is the quietest refrigerator compressor I have ever heard. It maintaining a steady 34 degrees (Fahrenheit) on the mid setting, which I couldn’t believe.

Worried that it would be a huge electricity drain, we hooked up a watt meter to it and it only takes the same amount of electricity as my mini-fridge under the bar. So no worries there.

I got the shank, faucet and coupler from the bar I used to work at, and ordered the drip tray from Perfect Brewing Supply. Picked up a 20 pound CO2 tank and regulator from a local gas supply company. Some hose, hose clamps, and a couple hole saw bits and I was all set to start.

Drilled the hole in the side of the fridge and put the 2 hoses through. I wrapped them in duct tape first to prevent them from being cut by the sharp metal edges on the hole. I drilled a pilot hole then did one side at a time to so I could look inside the wall of the fridge and make sure that I wasn’t going to hit a coolant line.

After shoving the hoses through the hole, I filled in the hole with Great Stuff expanding foam. That stuff really is Great. sealed the hole and hardened to hold the tubes in place.

Drilled a hole in the wall and mounted the faucet & shank with the drip tray hanging off it.

Drilled another hole below that and pushed the drain tube through and ran that down to the floor drain. Someday, when I get around to finishing the bath/laundry room, I’ll hard pipe that drain, but for now, this will work.

Hooked up all the rest of the tubing and then tapped my first beer.

Let me tell you, nothing tastes better than a beer out of your own wall.

Tags: , bar, basement bar, beer, kegerator, neon, philco, tap // 3 Comments »

Man Land alumni unite!

I have been contacted by some other people that have also been filmed for the HGTV show "Man Land" so I decided to put together a directory of sorts of all the Man Rooms that were filmed.

:: posted in order of original filming date ::

• The Man Cave
  Filmed: Feb 6 2007

  (It’s not just a garage) Where Women are not only welcome, they are strongly encouraged (they just don’t have decorating authority)

• The Man Room
  Filmed: Mar 26 2007

  A sanctuary from the excessive levels of estrogen in the rest of the house. Xbox arena, home theater, climbing wall, home office, etc.

• K2 Lounge
  Filmed: May 2 2007 My own little bit of Vegas in my basement. Craps table, poker table, bar, blackjack table, home theater, and more added all the time.
• Jeff Smith
  Filmed : Jun 07 2007
  More Info soon.
• The Blue Pig
  Filmed : Jun 21 2007

  The Blue Pig includes a stage for his band "the Other White Meat", bar, pool table, tiki bar. Now THAT is an impressive guitar collection.

• If you or someone you know was filmed for the HGTV show "Man Land", send them this way and I will include them in this listing.

Tags: , Dumb TV, hgtv, man land // 2 Comments »

So I somehow got myself to this site:

http://icanhascheezburger.com/

and the moment the page loaded, I threw up a little bit.

I mean, geez, this is just not funny:

Then, before I left the site I noticed that there is a counter saying that there was over 1000 people on that site. Are you kidding me? There are that many people that not only find that crap funny, but had to have been searching for it? I mean, how many people actually live in Branson, MO?

What do they search for? “Stupid cat poses with moronic captions” must be a big google search keyword. The end is near, folks. When “wuz dat noisez? I wetted mah bedz againz” becomes the popular form of humor, it is time to load up on the bottled water and head to the hills, because civilization is at an end.

If this is how things are going, is Yakov Smirnoff going to make a huge comeback next?
“In mother Russia, cats make funny sayings about YOU!”

I’m just waiting for the “O RLY” owl to swoop out of the sky and feast upon these cats.

I can see the caption now:
“O HALP! A HUNGRIZ OWLZ0R IZ SNRFING MY STUPIDZ HED!”

Tags: , Dumb Interweb, lolcatz, yakov smirnoff // 1 Comment »