As I write this, it is approximately 7:15 and I have been awake since 3:27. My kiddo woke me up, and I am always happy to wake up if she needs me, well, not happy, but you know what I mean. But then I couldn’t go back to sleep. I distracted myself from fretting about, well, you know, everything, by focusing on how hot it’s going to get here in the next few days and how I can avoid using my oven. Then, at four-ish, I decided it was time to stop pretending I was going to go back to sleep and I collected the kitten and watched an episode of Psych. Then I fed the kitten and started my tea and opened some of the boxes that arrived yesterday (two of the board games from my gift ideas list, one cat grass kit). Then I had to rescue the kitten from a piece of tape that had, presumably, escaped from one of the boxes and affixed itself cruelly to his undercarriage. Which is when I discovered that he… well, he needed a bath.
So to recap: It is 7:15 and I have been up for nearly four hours and I have already washed and blow-dried a cat.
On the plus side, he is very pleasingly soft and fluffy once he’s all blown-dry.
Anyway, I need your help.
We have a bar area in the basement, and it’s beautiful. But a) we don’t really have people over to do whatever one does in one’s home bar, and b) I would like to keep the basement as kid-friendly as possible as Carla gets older, so that I feel safe having The Teens over to our house.
Right now, it’s very much A Bar, with room to display glasses, two wine racks filled with wine bottles, and three cupboards that are supposed to hold a variety of glasses. My husband used to display his collection of European beer glasses on the display shelves, but we relocated those to the cupboards once we got a kitten.
The wine in the racks is not drinkable. The previous owners left it here, and noted before they did that it was not drinkable; it was purely for aesthetic purposes. Where a person obtains decorative wine bottles – which, to be clear, are full of real if not drinkable wine – I do not know, nor do I understand why anyone might pay for wine they knew they would not drink, but to each his own. My father, who knows wine, tested a couple of bottles just to make sure the previous owners weren’t, like, super wine snobs and the wine was fine if not great, but he agrees that it is not drinkable. This is to say that I feel no qualms about getting rid of the wine, except that it does seem like kind of a colossal waste. (I had the brilliant insane thought in the middle of the night that perhaps I could donate it to a church that offers communion. I have had communion wine and it is not what I would refer to as drinkable either. But a) that’s probably dumb for a billion reasons and b) even if it isn’t as dumb as I really think it is, I would not know how to go about offering or transferring my bounty to a church anyway.)
Anyway, if anyone knows any uses for undrinkable wine, let me know.
What I really want to know is what else I can use the wine rack/glasses display area FOR. It turns out I am completely unimaginative in this respect. My brain has zero issue coming up with wild and horrifying explanations for whatever made that creaking sound in my living room at 3:45 am. But try to come up with alternative uses for the bar space, and I’ve got nothing.
My husband keeps his Nespresso machine in the bar area. Maybe we could use the wine racks to store mugs? Sleeves of Nespresso pods? (I’m joking about the latter.) Maybe we could remove the wine racks on one side and put in a shelf and an outlet and keep the Nespresso machine there instead of on the bar?
It seems like “removing the wine racks and replacing them with shelves” might be the best plan, if that’s even possible.
My friend Jen (HI JEN) is expert at hosting The Teens at her house, and I seem to remember that she has a fancy smoothie machine in her basement and maybe a popcorn maker. I wonder if the wine rack spaces are deep enough to hold either or both of those things? Maybe we could put in a microwave?
The glasses display area also seems like space that could be repurposed. I mean, I like my husband’s beer glasses collection just fine, but it does get dusty and it seems like a bad idea to have a bunch of glasses hanging around out in the open if you plan to have The Teens over. (Also: the kitten.) But what else could possibly go in that space?
I have googled a bit, trying to find examples of other people who have similarly transformed their bar areas into something less alcohol-focused… but I haven’t really found anything that struck me as useful.
What would you do with this space?
You probably could cook with the wine. If you don’t want to use it yourself, give it to a friend who loves to cook or offer it up on Facebook buy nothing group.
I’d make that a fun beverage/ snack area. Or a pantry sort of space. The wine racks are fun but I bet they’d come out.
I have never blown dry a cat in my life – the few times I’ve bathed a cat I was lucky if I got to towel dry it off before it ran and hid. Thanks for sharing such a lovely photo of the pure floofy-nes of Lenny.
That is definitely an idea! I don’t cook with wine all that often, and I like to have a glass to drink when I do (some for the pot, some for the chef), so I think I would prefer something tastier than what we have.
This cat is PAMPERED. He actually seems to enjoy the blow drying portion of his spa treatments. He purrs when I do it. Such a weirdo!
I’d lose the wine racks and dump the wine. Ick! I’d put in shelves where the racks were plus add a popcorn maker in the area, maybe with bowls beside it. One thing I wouldn’t do that my SIL did when facing the same situation about wanting to make the basement teen friendly is: no pool table. She lived to regret the expensive purchase. The kids didn’t use it for pool but found it a good place to set drinks on, toss stuff onto it, & make out underneath it. Not what she had in mind. 😁
I do really like the idea of a popcorn maker in that space — that would be fun, right?
GREAT TIP about the pool table! We had the chance to buy the previous owner’s pool table and did not take them up on it, and I have mildly fretted about that choice ever since. Now I can wipe the fret completely out of my mind! Thank you!
My parents bought the pool table from the people we bought the house from and we almost never used it. My mom and sister just went to see that house when the owners after us put it up on the market and the underside of the pool table still has the chalk writing on it that my sister wrote 25 years ago so I don’t think the next people must have used it much either.
HA.
I’m completely stuck on the undrinkable wine thing. I mean. What. Why. That’s taking decor to a whole new level I didn’t even consider. I like wine, so that seems like a nice way to store wine THAT I WOULD CONSUME. It’s really bizarre, like having a grand piano but only for display. All of which is to say I have no idea – although Ally’s is a good one! Make it a snack centre?
I also like wine and cannot comprehend paying good money for wine that I cannot drink. I have so many questions.
I am stuck on this as well. I wish to know who SELLS undrinkable, decorative wine. Like, let’s say I wished to acquire some. WHERE. And WHY.
Right???? Like, Trader Joe’s sold Two Buck Chuck back in the day, so maybe it was something like that? Super inexpensive wine? But it is NOT Two Buck Chuck, it is a wide variety of different things. Did they, like, come across a wine seller who had accidentally left all his reds out in the sun??? I am so curious.
My FIL had books for display only and I have never understood that either. I mean they were still readable books but they were chosen for how they looked and not a single person ever read them.
My mind is boggled. Well but also, I have noticed that on some websites — LIKE, but maybe not exactly Pottery Barn — you can buy a curated set of books all in the same color. I am not making any judgments, because I am going to assume that the people ordering the set of green books really really want to read all or most of those specific books.
I spent some time trying to think of what to put in all those triangular openings, with less success than I’d anticipated. I wonder—can those little dividers be just…pulled out? I’m imagining the construction of those units, and wondering if perhaps the dividers were just…slid in to the cubes. If they can be removed, then you have cubes. And CUBES are easy to fill. Card games! Snacks! Plastic cups! Decorative items! Puzzles! Whatever else teenagers might like!
I am really, really hoping the dividers come out.
We had a bar that was already there in our old basement and one in our current house when we moved in. Useless to us, as we wanted that space to be used for kids. Both basements needed to be redone, so we fixed that issue long before we had teenagers. We have a mini kitchen in our current basement and it’s a lifesaver. I use the oven down there on hot summer days when I don’t want to heat the kitchen, or when we host parties and I need a third oven. The kids have made pizza down there when they’ve had friends over. Can you someday put in a sink, or does it have a sink? That could help for craft project area clean up stuff. I think the idea of turning it into a snack area or a spot dedicated to kid stuff like popcorn and smoothies is perfect. Our friends have an ice cream parlor in their basement. They have 8 kids (I used to babysit for them, so this was ages ago) and one kid had a sweet tooth, so they put a neon sign in the ice cream spot (it looked like an old fashioned ice cream counter in a soda shop sort of thing, think It’s A Wonderful Life) that said ‘Courtney’s Sweet Shop’.
Bummer about your sleep interruption. I hope you get a nap in. If your kitty is clean and blow dried, then you should feel like you’ve accomplished so much and nod off easily – right?
AN ICE CREAM PARLOR?!?!?! Omg that sounds amazing. Probably wildly impractical for my needs, but I am going to dream about it for awhile before I give it up.
We have a sink and a mini fridge in the bar area. If I were really going wild, I would add a small dishwasher and a small oven, in that order.
We have a dishwasher and a countertop oven in ours and I use that dishwasher all the time. When we bought the house, I assumed it would be my Thanksgiving and Christmas dishwasher but I run it a couple of times a week with all the glasses and popcorn bowls and the plates that people carry down there from the main kitchen.
It would be SO NICE to have a dishwasher. I wish for it already, just for my husband’s coffee mug and the occasional glass of wine/mixed drink/cheese plate we have down there. If we start having teens around making popcorn and drinks, we will definitely want a dishwasher.
I consider all wine undrinkable since I hate the stuff, but that’s a lot of effort to go to for the ambiance of the wine rack/cellar. Would the rack be hard to get rid of? If not, I would put decor in it but don’t ask me what. I have NO eye!
I am hoping the rack itself is removable but don’t know yet!
You know, a coffee bar sounds A LOT more appealing to me than a wine bar 🙂 Just sayin’.
I also agree with Margaret that I consider all wine undrinkable (except for the odd white wine – who knew?) – hahaha! I would not know what to do with full bottles of (undrinkable) wine, other than to toss it (as it apparently also is undrinkable for other people). Can you maybe dump the wine and donate/reuse the bottles in some other way? You could make “candle holders” out of them, or something.
P.S. That looks like ONE FLUFFY KITTEN <3
I agree that a coffee bar sounds fun!!!
What I would do with the rack space won’t help you at all, because I c an clearly picture putting my yarn in it! But I also don’t have kids, or a kitten, so all in all, I know I’m not helping. It is a fascinating thing to ponder.
I wonder if the previous owners weren’t wine drinkers, and “inherited” the bottles from whoever they bought from? Though I don’t know much about wine, would just time make it undrinkable? So Many Questions!
Oh my goodness – the wine racks would be PERFECT for yarn!
Yes, time can make some wines undrinkable! I mean, time eventually will make ALL wine undrinkable, I think, but some are bottled to be held for years/decades and others are meant to be drunk right away. I suppose they could just be old??? But that’s a lot of wine to just allow to go bad!
I would put the wine on BuyNothing but now that I type that, I wonder if you CAN give away wine on BuyNothing. Hmmm. Otherwise trash it. We can’t do the perfect thing with everything and it is paralyzing to try.
HI! I do have a fancy drink maker (it is technically a margarita machine, the teens use it to make shaved ice) and a popcorn maker. The popcorn maker is used ALL THE TIME, in fact I was stopped halfway through reading this blog post to make popcorn for one of the live in teens and I now have a bucket of it next to me. When I was putting together the teen room, the internet told me that teens want phone chargers and bean bags and fuzzy pillows. They charge their phones very infrequently while they are here but there’s a charging station down there anyway. They care nothing for the bean bag (we already had one from years of having children in the house). They LOVE the fuzzy pillows and the blankets. I also bought a fuzzy rug and I once caught one of the teens stroking the fuzzy rug and murmuring “I love this rug” to herself. We also have a giant couch and a giant tv and they use those all the time. (Never the bean bag. They sit on the couch and they sit on the floor and the bean bag is scorned, Pinterest was wrong.)
Also get a bunch of plastic fancy glasses for the teens (we have hurricane glasses and champagne flutes, they like the hurricane glasses the best) and club soda (we now have a Sodastream and make our own) and those bottles of fruity syrups. They make a zillion fancy drinks with those and instagram the pictures. Do not forget the tiny drink umbrellas and the little charms you put around the stems of your drink to tell them apart at parties- we have silicone flowers. You can fill a few of those wine racks with fancy glasses.
I also keep my teen food hosting supplies in the cabinets under the basement kitchen and I use those a lot too. It’s cheaper in the long run to make a lot of spaghetti and grilled cheese and pancakes and eggs instead of buying dozens of pizzas every week. And feed them popcorn- it is so so cheap and everyone loves it.
I will now text you pictures of my basement since I do not think I can put pictures in the comment section.
ADDING SODASTREAM AND SODA SUPPLIES AND FANCY CUPS/DRINK ACCESSORIES TO THE LIST.
A snack center sounds like fun for everyone in the house and the groups of teens! Everyone has such great ideas in the replies. I just have to say that the tiles on your bar are so gorgeous!
craft supplies!!!!!!
I would put Polly Pockets in those slots. Only because we still have enough of them in the house to fill all the slots, and they are small enough to fit.
Limericks. Write a limerick and put one in each slot. Retrieve randomly later for amusement.
Office supplies of various sorts. Pens, sticky notes, paper clips. But I suppose I am the only one in the universe who is interested in office supplies.
Or snacks. Yes, snacks. A mini candy bar? Tiny bags of chips?
You can’t give wine away on Buy Nothing, I’ve seen people try. It may have been decent wine at one time but has gone way past its drinkable date, who knows. Or something may have happened to it. If I were you, and IF you are on Buy Nothing, I would offer the empty bottles. If you get a taker or two, dump the wine and give them the bottles. Otherwise, dump the wine and recycle the bottles. There are a lot it will take a while.
Regarding the space, I think it’s going to be GREAT! I love the idea of a coffee bar, a popcorn maker, a soda stream with flavored syrups. You’re going to be the cool house to hang at, which is always a good thing.
Also, I didn’t meant to reply to CHM’s comment, sorry. 🙂
Undrinkable wine – I did not know there was such a thing. What a waste!! I would dump it and recycle the bottles. I don’t even think a Catholic Church would take it.
There are already lots of great suggestions! I like the idea of a popcorn machine. My parents have one. I will say it is a PAIN to clean it, though! But it gives off a fun vibe!
I’m gonna guess that the wine was perhaps drinkable at one point, but must have had drastic temperature changes which made it undrinkable. Then they decided to just use it as decor.
I’d find a carpenter/handyman who could remove the angled slats, leave the three shelves one either side and add glass doors to mimic the ones on top. Maybe use that area to house records/CD’s/DVD’s? (do you guys still have those?) Or even use without the doors, just three shelves to store board games, baskets of snacks.
I am just… flabbergasted… at the fact that all of those wine bottles are for UNDRINKABLE WINE. What in the world? Yes, yes, remove those wine shelves and use that space for something much more useful! I love the idea of a popcorn popper. Smart!
Wow- you have the potential for an AMAZING teen hangout! I would definitely go in that direction- popcorn machine, smoothie maker, microwave, etc. I think I would stop short of an ice cream parlor, though!
Lenny!!! He’s so soft and fluffy! I’m not sure I’d be too happy about being up in the middle of the night bathing a cat, but he’s obviously worth it.
I love the smoothie machine/ popcorn maker idea, but I’m so stuck on the undrinkable wine bottles. That’s a THING? I remember when we learned about something – underwater irrigation for something, maybe – and my friend Zarah said “I think that’s a prime emblem of a decadent society”. SO WEIRD.
Its a cute spot! How about a non-alcoholic drink and snack bar for Carla and friends – juice boxes, soda, snacks, etc?
I had the mistaken impression that wine lasts for a really long time. Must have gotten that idea from movies where someone is opening an old and expensive bottle of wine. Recently I’ve been cleaning out my Dad’s house since he’s in his 80s and is getting ready to move out. The wine in his bar definately had gone bad. The bottles were dusty and had been sitting around for years. It was discolored and no drinkable. I guess some can last for a while – maybe that’s what wince cellars are for? Dad’s neglected collection was definately not in any special conditions.