Talkin' Shit About A Pretty Sunset

“Serving good drinks, like producing anything worth while, from a poem to a motor-car, is troublesome and expensive.” - Kingsley Amis

I should've smeared my entire body with latex adhesive before starting to lay my commercial dark green and tan vinyl tile in a checkered pattern on my basement floor. The result would've been the same either way: most of my skin ended up sticky with dirt-encrusted latex.

But now the pain and GAAD DAAAMMIT!s are done and I have a proper man cave to retire to when the day's work is done. I'd like to thank Jim W. for helping with the drudgery involved in building my fun room.

Anyone care to join me for a cocktail?

Before (Feb 28, 2008):



After (today):



Here's me at the helm:



Those shelves behind the bar are the slats that connected an old bed headboard and footboard that I found covered in sawdust in my old man's garage; that map is of Smith Island in the Chesapeake that the former owner of my sailboat left onboard; the lantern was given to me by a friend who visited Japan; the bull horns are from my brother-in-law who lives in Wyoming; that green weird table/chair is a 1960s telephone chair I got at an antique shop down the street for $40; those bar stools I got at Target; and the floor is cheap commercial vinyl I bought at Lowes and laid myself:



No self-respecting home bar doesn't have a beat-up swordfish on the wall. I got it at a pawn shop in Luray, Virginia for cheap:



My bitters collection has its own shelf:



Of course, I had to break in the new bar with a few guests later that evening. I had finished the tile that same day:



My wife, doing her part to break in the home bar with a lil' karaoke:



Servin' up drinks behind the stick. Finally: