D. I. Wine

I've nearly let a year go by without a blog about the house. Truth is, now that we live here, it feels a bit odd writing a blog about the house, now our home. I mean, who does that? But I remind myself our home is of the more unique varietal. Few kids I know grow up among unfinished walls, doors that have yet to be hung, and random swatches of paint samples on various walls. (I'm looking at you cousins Jessica and Phil; Blake and Cade can relate.)

So yes, we've lived here a little more than a year, and the house has come a long way. I still have intent to blog from time to time - perhaps even an awesome Before & After entry one of these days. This particular blog, however, is reserved for the wine cellar. To give you, ahem, a taste of what we've been working on.

Some of you know we discovered some really pretty redwood siding underneath the plaster walls we tore out in a small room off of what will eventually be the dining room. Here's the pic from a previous blog:

Pretty, right? When we saw the space and beautiful walls, we knew it would be perfect for a wine cellar. Also given the fact that the room is mostly underground. Oh, and the fact that we really really like wine.

So, seeing as how I am married to the ultimate DIYer, he got to work - first drawing out his designs....

... then milling the wood, and starting to cut each individual piece later to be assembled and stained. Or as I eventually requested, stained *then* assembled. Since I did the bulk of the staining, I quickly learned it's much easier to stain the pieces individually, rather than contort my body in all manners of awkward to get under each diagonal shelf and apply stain into each corner, nook, and cranny (obviously no picture evidence of THAT).

This was the first piece he built, and so became the first to be stained.

There would ultimately seven pieces just like this - all to make up just the bottom shelves. Once I got to staining those, Ry got to work on the top part - shelves designed to hold individual bottles.

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Several weekends of working on it later, it was starting to come together.

Once the cabinets were built, we were in need of a countertop. We looked at a few different materials and settled on zinc. So we bought some giant sheets of it, Ryan got out his soldering tools (yes, he owns these kinds of things) and made us a cool-looking counter.

I mean, check out the detail - he did that all on his own. The man is talented with his tools.

 

So here's how it turned out!

Once we started to stock it, we quickly realized we have some shopping to do. Or more friends to invite over, or something. Anyone want to come visit? Problem is, we always open a bottle or two (or more) when you do.

Maybe if you come over with a customary bottle of wine for your hosts, we could offer you beer from our new tap instead...