Since February we’ve been spending most of our free time on the conversion of the bar closet to make it an extension of our bar area. Therefore, we have not had much time to do any other projects.
Desk Caddy
This is a caddy that we designed and Hank made for our desk in the kitchen to hold all our “junk” that we normally toss on the desktop. In the photo below, you can see the design on paper, and all the small pieces lined out on the wood ready to be cut. 
Cut pieces
Painted & Varnished
Assembly 
Finished Product 
Coach Lights
The coach lights we have around our house (new in 2005) really faded from the sun after 8 years and they looked terrible (photo on left). So, in December of 2013 I took them down, taped up the glass, cleaned, primed, and painted them and they looked like new!! (middle photo) What a job that was though!!! I said that I never want to do that again because it was so much work. We have 4 of these big guys and 4 smaller lights. In just 4 years look how much they have faded (photo on right).
Dec 2013 after 8 yrs/Dec 2013 Renewed/ Oct 2017 Faded in 4 yrs
After the long winter the lights were very dirty and dusty (photo on left). It’s amazing what a little elbow grease will do (2 hours to clean 4 lights). I took them down and cleaned them up and they look much better. So, for now I’ll just continue to clean them until they get too faded.
Bar Closet
We started the bar closet project in February and due to major problems with the doorway arch, that really set us back. Then we had so much on our plate, that we could only work on it a little here and a little there. But finally, we are happy to report that we’re almost done!! The counter top will be installed this week and then we will look for the glass tile backsplash. Once we install the backsplash… we are done!! It will be time for some champagne to celebrate!!
Photos of completed project will be in next post.
Finishing up the knock down texture spray & painting
Our wonderful neighbor Leo offered to help us apply the knock down texture spray (since we had no idea what we were doing). It’s a very long process, spray, let it dry, sand and you do that coat after coat until you got it where you want it. A professional would have done it in a couple of hours and be done with it… next time we’ll hire someone to do it!!!!!!! But after all, this is about doing it yourself, saving a ton of money, and having the satisfaction that we did it ourselves.
Our house was a messand very dusty for a long time.
We had to paint that whole wall so the color would match. 
Now the fun part begins – Installing the cabinets
We found these great discontinued cabinets at Lowe’s and they were under $200 (for 4) out the door. They just happened to be the same color as our existing cabinets and with a similar door design. We added knobs and drawer handles that match our existing hardware.
Hank installed lighting under the upper cabinets.
Then came the installation.
All the pieces were cut, sanded, stained, & 2 coats of varnish applied. This also is a very long process due to the drying time and sanding between coats.
These sections are for wine bottles.
This is the trim for the sections.
This is the beginning of a wine rack which is installed between the upper cabinets.
More trim, kick plates, and top molding.
Adding the molding on top finished it off.
We installed a wine refrigerator (that was given to us) between the 2 lower cabinets. Just waiting for the countertop to arrive!
Finding a countertop to match at a reasonable price was a real effort and took us weeks of search. We talked to lots of people and went to over a dozen places. We were only looking for remnants because of the high cost of slabs. The quotes were all over the board, but we ended up getting 2 pieces for almost half the cost of the most expensive quote. We found a pattern that we think should tie in nicely.
We are also having a countertop fabricated for the desk in the kitchen. We took off the wooden top and will save it in hopes to use it as a shelf in the TV alcove area.
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