New Bar

[Zakk]

Built a place to finally store my arcade games properly.  Used to be a hallway and a basement bedroom (walkout basement), and is now a spiffy bar/arcade.

The entire build will be featured in Gameroom Magazine in upcoming months.  I figured that Kevin would appreciate a few more subscriptions, so I thought I'd give him a plug http://www.gameroommag.com/   

Anyway, some features of the bar:

 Custom oak veneer top and oak bar rail
 Custom cabinetry
 tile foot rail
 custom wet bar setup with round stainless sink
 300 lb per day manitowoc ice machine
 Ice crusher
 bar fridge
 Separate wine cellar area (cold room)
 color changing LED setup, remote control
 Backlit bottle area
 heated floor system
 2 monitor wi fi entertainment system
 Arcade area with Pac man, defender, MAME, a custom tron upright, mspac cocktail and a touchmaster 7000.  Soon adding a golden tee
 Dart area with staplesess 'blade' dartboard, and custom dart rail
 '63 gibson SG and amp in case you feel like strumming a few power chords
 Opens to hot tub just outside, and the outside poolside bar

We had a party with 45 signed guests, a 7 piece band, 2 bartenders and a chef, and everyone had fun and nobody got crowded.  The area behind the bar was a sea of beer and spilled, umm, stuff, so I know it was a success.

I plan to put in a Wunderbar gun system to dispense soda.  I was all set to install a beer tower, even got a tower, but the party reminded me how much I hate draught beer. 

Anyway, I'm happy to give tips, although it would be better to subscribe to the magazine, as I understand the author of the articles is a totally awesome guy (depending on who you ask!) 

Now to see if I can upload the photos without the board erasing all my typing (again!) ....

[Benevolance]

Wow. That looks like a fantastic setup. 

I am envious of how much space you have.

[Zakk]

Wow. That looks like a fantastic setup. 

I am envious of how much space you have.

Heh, that still leaves 5 bedrooms, 3 living rooms, a dining room, etc etc in the place.  I went from a 4+2 bedroom house to a 4+1+bar, so I don't think I lost any value in the property.   

[Shortbus]

Nice work....I like the lighting, looks like  place I'd definately hang out....your lucky.

Is that a basement? One thing that I miss, since moving to Florida, upstairs and basements.

very cool, Nice dog too....

[Benevolance]

*boggles* A house that size in Vancouver would run 750,000 to 1.5 million, depending on the proximity to the city.

I really like the tiled-foot rest at the base of the bar. It echoes the brick wall. And the underlighting is just freakin' cool. It sets up a great mood lighting. I could see spending a lot of hours hanging out there.

[Epyx]

*boggles* A house that size in Vancouver would run 750,000 to 1.5 million, depending on the proximity to the city.

If you are referring to Vancouver, BC...yep easily 500,000-750,000.

Fantastic looking though, grats!

[Zakk]

*boggles* A house that size in Vancouver would run 750,000 to 1.5 million, depending on the proximity to the city.

I really like the tiled-foot rest at the base of the bar. It echoes the brick wall. And the underlighting is just freakin' cool. It sets up a great mood lighting. I could see spending a lot of hours hanging out there.

Well I'm in Ontario, so it's only about $500K.  We're sort of lucky, as behind the house is a steeeeeep drop so we look out over the city.  I think we lost a few partygoers that night, but I haven't gone and checked at the bottom of the hill  

[Zakk]

Nice work....I like the lighting, looks like  place I'd definately hang out....your lucky.

Is that a basement? One thing that I miss, since moving to Florida, upstairs and basements.

very cool, Nice dog too....

It's a basement, but to the right of dart board is a walkout sliding door, so it doesn't feel like a basement at all.  Even the window in the bar is full height, and in fact people can come up to it from the pool and get a drink made up

Oh, and thanks, it is a great dog.  1 year old shepherd.  We did some K-9 training so she's diligently guarding my booze.  She's vicious, well unless you tickle her tummy. (her secret weakness!).

[spOOf]

Now that is an awesome bar.  Well done.

[HaRuMaN]

That Zakk is just mean! 

[Benevolance]

and in fact people can come up to it from the pool and get a drink made up

A pool side, drive-through style service bar? Even better!


Edit: Epyx, do you live in the lower mainland, too?

[leapinlew]

You got any other shots of the gameroom?

[Zakk]

You got any other shots of the gameroom?

Not yet, I'm in the middle of shuffling games, the golden tee just arrived and is taking up 90% of the place, besides, the games are sort of a nice add on to the room, as everyone knows, if you have people over to the bar, EVERYONE crams right up against it, so you need some diversions to get people to spread out a bit more.  Pac man is super popular, defender not at all, mame only if it's set to a certain game (galaga for example), and the ms pac just takes up space unfortunately.  I figure the golden tee will be a big hit, as was the touchmaster until the flyback fried.

A good mix of friends, beer, darts and pacman has been pretty cool, and it's not even winter yet when everyone gets chased inside! 

[Epyx]

Edit: Epyx, do you live in the lower mainland, too?

Yep Langley.

[Hewskie]

Very cool bar!

And on the off topic note, I'm in Surrey

[Zakk]

Heh, just an aside, here are some photos of the party, sort of shows the outside bar too. 

[NIVO]

wheres the shuffleboard eh?

Looks great nickelzakk

[Zakk]

Last photos for now.  Here's the room before and after.  We had a daughter move out.  I used that timeless saying: "You can stay as long as you want, but when you're gone, I'M TURNING YOUR ROOM INTO A BAR!!!"   Bwahahahahahaah!

Before and after:

[Silas (son of Silas)]

I want a bar...

And a collection of arcade machines..

 

[chrisdfw]

This would have been the perfect bar/game room...but...alass....no real pinball machine.   

[leapinlew]

This would have been the perfect bar/game room...but...alass....no real pinball machine.   

I think pinball and air hockey are too loud for the home gameroom. There. I said it.

[HaRuMaN]

This would have been the perfect bar/game room...but...alass....no real pinball machine.   

I think pinball and air hockey are too loud for the home gameroom. There. I said it.

It's about time for your man card to be revoked.

[Zakk]

This would have been the perfect bar/game room...but...alass....no real pinball machine.   

I've had 3, and I spent more time fixing them then playing them, so nope, no pinballs ever again.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a big pin fan, but just not worth the frustration. 

Air hockey is good, but neighbour has a top notch one, so I can always go and play that.  The only thing I will likely add at this point is a chexx.  Gotta have a chexx.

[mike boss]

Truly outstanding ! That is a space I could spent countless hours. I'm envious.........

[Pinball Wizard]

This would have been the perfect bar/game room...but...alass....no real pinball machine.   

I've had 3, and I spent more time fixing them then playing them, so nope, no pinballs ever again.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a big pin fan, but just not worth the frustration. 

Air hockey is good, but neighbour has a top notch one, so I can always go and play that.  The only thing I will likely add at this point is a chexx.  Gotta have a chexx.

Play them more often and fixing them goes down. Any good pinball machine will run better as long as it is played regularly. If it sits then things like the switches and such start to function as well.

I love the whole area. This is pretty much what I would love to do with a basement. looks great.

[Zakk]

This would have been the perfect bar/game room...but...alass....no real pinball machine.   

I've had 3, and I spent more time fixing them then playing them, so nope, no pinballs ever again.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a big pin fan, but just not worth the frustration. 

Air hockey is good, but neighbour has a top notch one, so I can always go and play that.  The only thing I will likely add at this point is a chexx.  Gotta have a chexx.

Play them more often and fixing them goes down. Any good pinball machine will run better as long as it is played regularly. If it sits then things like the switches and such start to function as well.

I love the whole area. This is pretty much what I would love to do with a basement. looks great.

I had a simpsons, pinbot, rocky and bullwinkle and a baby pac.  I think you might mean that the more you play, the more likely you have had to fix a troublesome part
 The 400 miles of wiring was tough enough, but bad boards, leaky batteries and molex connectors that would melt themselves off the motherboards were almost simple compared to getting replacement parts (such as the popup rocky/rhino/lion plastics for bullwinkle.  Replacement ramps, bad solenoids, broken plastics...etc etc.  I remember spending a week trying to figure out the schematic pages on either the R&B, or the simpsons, to find out 3 weeks later that it was simply bad fuse clips (how do you find those when the fuses tested fine!??

Heh, I think I'll stick to vids, although I really like the looks of the south park pin... 

[drventure]

Really nice setup.

I love the color changing bar shelves!

Very Vegas, Baby!

[pinballwizard79]

Dude that is awesome, I want to be your friend.

[Zakk]

Dude that is awesome, I want to be your friend.

No way, you piball wizards are all trouble when you drink. 

[hitec]

Nice Job!!! I especially like the blue lighting under the bar.

[Zakk]

Nice Job!!! I especially like the blue lighting under the bar.

Actually, the lighting is remote controlled, and can automatically change colors.  It is tied into the lighting around the sink, so whatever that color is, the underside of the bar is.   

[Benevolance]

Did you use anything special for the lighting? When I was designing a bar for our place (before I admitted there really was no room) I had checked out the Ikea dioder multicolour lights. Did you use something similar?

@ random thread tangets: Citizens of the Fraser Valley unite! I'm in Cloverdale.

[Zakk]

Ew.  No.   Not a real big fan of IKEA. 

I used a 5M strip of ultrabright LED's someone steered me to to on ebay.  The cool thing was with a little cutting and soldering, you can make the strip of lights reach almost anywhere.  I just cut open some CAT5 cable, and used that to bridge the gaps between the strips, and from the strips to the controller.  The strips are self-adhesive, but under the bar I cut some plexi and screwed it over the strips just in case anyone tried to pick at them.

Here's a link:
 http://stores.shop.ebay.ca/daydaygo__W0QQ_armrsZ1

The power converter had to be spliced to work, but other than that, the stuff is amazing!

[Benevolance]

I was just reading the product descriptions and those strips are unbelievably awesome. Cat 5 for wiring the lights together? Wouldn't you want something a little lower gauge? Did you buy one of the kits that included a controller and power source or did you use your own?

Also, I meant to ask whether you did the bar top yourself?

[javeryh]

Awesome setup.  Is that a real brick wall or did you make a faux one for the effect?  Either way, I love it.   

[Zakk]

I was just reading the product descriptions and those strips are unbelievably awesome. Cat 5 for wiring the lights together? Wouldn't you want something a little lower gauge? Did you buy one of the kits that included a controller and power source or did you use your own?

Also, I meant to ask whether you did the bar top yourself?

Did everything myself on the bar.  MDF construction with oak ply veneer.  Good looks at low cost.

The cat5 cable is pretty tiny inside.  I could also have used telephone cable.  I did this as I couldn't find spools of 28ga wire...I think the smallest I found was 16ga.  Inside the network cable there are what, 8 smaller wires? I just used those.
Oh and I got the one with the transformer and remote.  The remote is so so, but the lights are definitely bright.

[Zakk]

Awesome setup.  Is that a real brick wall or did you make a faux one for the effect?  Either way, I love it.   

Well it's reclaimed brick slices, so it is and isn't real.  PITA to install, as you have to use a non slipping thinset to mount the brick, and an 'icing tube' to install the mortar in between the brick.  Hands were DAMN sore and achy when I got done with that.  However, it really makes the bar.  Gives it that pub feel, and since the bathroom is on the other side, it was a way of beefing up the sound deadening level of the wall.  Inside is roxul safe and sound insulation, concrete board, thinset and then the brick and mortar.  A bomb could go off (and might!) in the bathroom, and those in the bar won't have to hear it.