"So a man walks into a bar..."

Well not exactly... After John and I moved into our new house we noticed that there was an odd void in the pantry area.  Originally, this space was deemed as the entry from the garage to the house.  They decided to scrap those plans and move the entry from the garage to the back of the house.  (A much better placement in my opinion)  This reconfiguration however created an empty space.  If you have ever seen a real estate show you will hear how they feel that a usable space adds more value than an empty one.  Plus, if I have the empty space I might as well make it useful.  So we decided to construct a bar area.  We found our matching countertop and a close best to our existing kitchen cabinets.  Unfortunately, the cabinets we have are custom order and honestly we weren't going to shell out $700 for one base cabinet. 


We placed an order for our countertop about 2 weeks ago at Home Depot and it came in on Saturday.  We ran up to Home Dept to pick it up and to pick out a new ceiling light fixture as well.  Builder lighting is SO ugly and gives off a firefly amount of light.  After our trip Home Depot we ran back home, dropped off the countertop and got back in the car and headed to Lowe's to buy the base cabinet.  We found the closest match to our existing cabinets and headed back home to install everything.  


All in all it wasn't too hard.  We switched the configuration around a few times to see which way we liked it best and then screwed everything in.  I will have to say that John did take off some finishing molding in order for the cabinet to fit more flush to the wall.  I would say the install took about 2 hours, not too long and viola!  We have a bar.  


If you're thinking about doing something like this I say, do it!  It's really not that hard.  It just takes a little money and time.  Plus, just think how much money you saved by doing it yourself.  Although, I'm not saying all projects should be tackled DIY style.  i.e. our next project - fence installation.  


Before:

   

After: