Last week after tweeting about having to replace the floors in our basement (our sump pump broke) I received an email from a reader asking to show pictures of our basement.  Well, I have never really shown you our basement because the project is essentially on hold until we save up enough money to really do it right.  We are slowly working on it.  With that said, I do have enough snapshots to show you the makings of our bar.  As most of you know, I am a BIG FAN of Ikea, and all of the cabinets in our bar are actually from Ikea.  The entire set cost us $3,400.  Not bad considering our bar is the size of a small kitchen.  The quality is outstanding.  We love them.  Here is a taste of our long journey (apologies on the photo quality, they were all taken with my iPhone.)

 May 2009

July 2009: I had to use the planners at Ikea because they are not compatible with a Mac.  If you have a PC, you can do it at home.

November 2009: Searching for countertops.  We decided on a combination of AKRUM Brown/Black and White uppers with glass.

 May 2010:  Ultimately, we decided on Carrara.  As you can see, this piece had to be replaced because it was cut from a different slab.

 September, 2010:  The marble was fixed, but when my tiler hung the tile incorrectly, I almost had a heart attack.  (Can you see the lines?)  They had to come back and dig out individual rocks and reconstruct the wall.

October 2010:  Better.  If I could make one suggestion to Ikea, it would be to sell a stain that matches their cabinets.  As you can see, we added wood paneling to the other side of the bar to match the lower cabinets.  It took me 5 hours and several trips to Benjamin Moore to have a paint mixed that would match it perfectly.  We lightly painted it on the wood paneling, I think it looks great.!

I apologize, these are the only pictures that I have.  Once we get the floors fixed, I will be sure to share more!