Some people...

I have pretty much the coolest co-workers ever. About a week ago, the lunch club surprised me with a few bottles of wine to begin stocking the recently completed wine cellar. How awesome is that?! Then, I got a package in the mail from my sister with some wine tags she had made herself! Super sweet!

Some people are too cool... I thought they were very nice gestures, and lovely gifts. Thank you!

But wait there's more!

So, you say. That's great that you have those single-bottle racks, you say, but what do you do with larger bottles - champagne, 1.5 ml bottles, magnums, odd-sized bottles?

The answer? Diamond bin racks, of course!





The 2 x-shaped racks add room for about 40 more bottles bringing the total storage capacity to something around 240. Plus some room for other beverages that like to be kept cool...

Cellar floor

Back to some continuing progress in the basement wine cellar. I took one step back in order to take two steps forward. I removed the wine racks again and took a long look at the dirty, white-primered floor.

After considering a few different options like paint, hardwood, carpet, a big rug, etc... I went with an idea I had early on - cork! Now, rather than getting the expensive $12-per-square-foot official stuff, I got the $4-per-square-foot bulletin board grade stuff. It comes in 4-packs of 1 foot tiles. I got a dark, coarse version that goes well with the dark colors.

It even came with its own adhesive squares.



At first I was a bit skeptical of it's durability as a substrate, but given the low traffic (I know what you're thinking - yes, I'll be in there all the time, but it's not like I'll be running laps) and that it's tightly fit together, I'm going with it unless I have a reason to change. Besides it looks cool and fits the theme, obviously.



I got a bit more trim and finished off the seams between the tiles and the paneling. The racks went back in, and got anchored to the walls again. Next I'm building a few diamond stackers for over-sized bottles...

The new girl

The new girl has been here 5 months. I haven't posted any pics of her for a while, and some have been asking asking about her, so here she is!





I got lots of time to look at that smile over Christmas, but no matter how much time you get it's never really quite enough is it?

Panels and Trim

I finished putting panels on the wall today.



Also picked up some dark trim that smells of rich mahogany (or at least looks like it) and covered up all the corner seams.

Then after I realized that I had put the wine racks together with one section upside down (on both racks, of course) I took them apart, put them back together, then put them on some 2x6s to elevate them just a bit. The floor is very uneven, so it took a few shims.



Next I'll attach the wine racks to the wall so they can't tip, then do the floor. Getting closer...

Light!

I had been pondering how to mount my under-cabinet-style lights on the ceiling since the beginning of the project. The ceiling is plywood with a layer of insulation on top, then concrete. The conundrum was how to have lights up there and have paneling on the ceiling, but not see the wires. The solution was to router a groove in the plywood that the wires could sit in and not bow the paneling when I glued it up.

View of the ceiling from the front. The pencil line going back is where I cut the channel.

The glue didn't set as quickly as I had hoped, so I had to use lots of screws. In the struggle to secure the ceiling panelling up, the wires got themselves stuck outside of the channel. When I tried to pull one free it broke under the panelling after I had screwed it up. Well, now I had really screwed it up!

I was able to fish both ends back out and splice them back together and all is well... Ceiling is done and one panel on the wall.

The two most challenging parts are done now (the door/frame and ceiling/lights) and now it appears to be a matter of measuring, cutting, and gluing panelling. Progress is good!

Racks

The racks were delivered earlier this week.



They're modular, so these two finished racks are made from 4 smaller ones. From http://www.winerackstore.com/. I found they had good prices, great selection, and free shipping on the ones I got.

The horizontal bars came predrilled and were notched to receive the vertical pieces, but the vertical assembly peices were not predrilled. I predrilled those to prevent splitting. They went together in about 30 minutes each.

A door

Framed a rough opening for a prehung door:



And installed that door:





Of course, all this required moving the electrical again, I think for the last time. I still need to permanently attach the door to the frame, but it's in! Next is to make room for the ceiling lights and their wiring, then panel the ceiling and walls... The wine racks are on their way!