Everyone should have a bar in their house.

I have a fairly large dining room, but only an old formica table and some IKEA chairs. I still don't know what I actually want in terms of a dining room table, but I do know I would like more storage in the dining room. I'd like to keep my alcohol related drink-ware (martini, wine, and champaign glasses) and my liquor bottles in the dining room to free up space in the kitchen.

Right now the bottles sit on top of the fridge and the glasses take up valuable space in my cupboard. My brother is opening his own business building custom cabinets and other wood work. So I have this grand idea. I have an antique sewing cabinet that I currently use as a TV stand in my bedroom. Since the TV is old and no longer hooked up to cable, it's relatively

useless except to use as a VCR. We did use the VCR when my kids got hooked on movies before bed (in MY bed) but I nipped that in the bud and mostly, the TV sits dormant.

I'd love to have the cabinet turned into a sort of mini-bar. The top flips open which would be perfect because then when you are entertaining, you can set the glassware and an ice bucket (which I need) on the open lid. You could store the bottles underneath, and depending on the craftsman ship of my brother, the metal tray that lifts up (which used to hold a sewing machine) could be replaced to also become level with the top.

The problem is my brother lives five and a half hours away, but I'm heading home next week without my kids, which means maybe I could fit this in my trunk and hire him to spruce this piece up, then I would have more storage in my dining room and a perfect piece for entertaining.

Maybe he could make me a dining room table while he's at it...