The Bar

Early Construction

In Drake Keating's original room back in TKE (Room 101), he and his roommates had a small bar set up. Drake and Jack Gutting built the first version during Drake's second semester as a freshman. At that time, the bar was merely a table with booze placed on it, but it served as the framework for a much greater bar.

Drake's second semester was cut short around his first St. Pats due to COVID-19. This provided ample time to develop a much better setup for the 101 Bar. Upon returning in early August, Drake and Jack started working on what was, at the time, an updated bar.

An important detail to note was that when everyone was sent home due to COVID-19, roughly half of the celebration and preparations for St. Pats had been completed, one of those being the float. The float was nearly finished before St. Pats was canceled, which meant there was a metric fucking shitoad of 2x4 boards available for free. This surplus jump-started the process of expanding the bar into its own sectioned-off area within the room, complete with temporary walls and a ceiling. This was the state of the 101 Bar throughout Drake's sophomore year.

101 Bar Layout

Inside the sectioned-off area, there was a back mirror and shelf. The shelf was used to display glasses and simple syrups that Drake and his group had made themselves. On the bar itself, they displayed their liquor, and this area could be illuminated with an aquarium light connected underneath the shelf above the bar. Finally, a small table was positioned in front of the bar, where drinks were served to people, and a CRT TV was displayed, which was connected to another TV in the listening area.

Part 1

Pre-Construction

Ever since moving into the 3rd Floor, Drake Keating always felt that building a bar was the natural progression from what the 101 Bar had been. However, it wasn’t until Jack Gutting graduated and Drake finished his first Coop in Cedar Rapids that he was able to begin construction of the first version of the 3rd Floor bar.

During his time in Cedar Rapids, Drake had ample free time to think about how he would design the bar, as well as collect a mountain of miscellaneous items to adorn the walls of the garage and future bar. Many of these initial ideas were scrapped once he started measuring out the floor and ceiling space. Eventually, Drake landed on a simple design featuring a 9ft x 9ft footprint with temporary walls that extended from floor to ceiling.

Construction

After the 101 room shooting, most of the items built for that room were stored at the 3rd Floor. All the parts from the old 101 Bar, along with various other materials, were taken apart and repurposed to build the frame for the 3rd Floor Bar. The back bartop in the 3rd Floor bar was physically built around the old 101 bartop. The reasoning was practical: since the same mini-fridge was being reused, Drake saw no need to scrap the old frame entirely when it could still serve its purpose.

Drake worked on the bar from December 28th, 2022, and completed it by January 3rd, 2022. (The bar mirror was painted by Dylan Rose sometime later in the spring of 2023.) The existence of this bar had a significant impact on the social life at the 3rd Floor. Before, it was common to have only a few people over sporadically, but after the bar was built, it became a regular occurrence to have a crowd nearly every weekend. Part of this was due to “new toy syndrome,” where everyone wanted to show off what they had built, but there was also the undeniable social aspect of having a bar. It acted as a people magnet, and even when no one else was around, Drake found himself casually sitting at the bar. The presence of the bar, along with the upgrades that were soon to follow, elevated the 3rd Floor into something more than just an apartment.

Part 2

Pre-Construction

After completing the first semester with the bar, Drake Keating began to obsess over the missing elements of a traditional bar. Namely, an Under Bar (my retarded ass had to google what that was), a kegerator, and a sink. Before the end of spring 2023, Drake and his friends managed to acquire an old kegerator from, at the time, freshman Brock Eyster’s dad. Unfortunately, they would later discover that the kegerator didn’t work, leading Drake and Dylan Rose to purchase a new one for $400.

(SIDE NOTE: The cheapest way to have a kegerator is to buy a kit and modify a mini fridge. The only concern is finding one that can hold a keg. Also, buying a keg is not very cost-effective, but it’s the ultimate big-dick move to have beer on tap. If your concern is price, stick to a 40oz or gas station booze.)

At this point, Drake had moved to Washington state for the summer for an internship. During his time in the office, he often found himself bored out of his fucking mind, leading him to draw up sketches of what the bar extension would look like with a kegerator. The original plan was to have the under bar built around the kegerator with the tap in the middle, and the remaining area used as simple storage.

However, due to boredom, Drake began to consider additional features. He quickly came up with the idea of installing a sink, which initially seemed impractical since there were no water lines running into the garage. But after some surface-level research, he learned about RV sink setups.

RV sinks commonly work by having a pump connected to a water tank, which pressurizes the water enough for regular use. The sink drain can either run into another tank or onto the ground. After estimating the costs, Drake realized he could complete the project for about $150.

Construction

After thinking about this project all summer, it was finally time for Drake to start building. The construction process went relatively smoothly, although some placement adjustments had to be made from the original drawings. Primarily, the newly purchased kegerator could not be built into the bar due to its height, so it had to be positioned beside the under bar. This actually worked out well, providing better access to the kegerator and reducing the amount of construction needed.

Overall, the extension of the bar was a great success, though Drake was slightly disappointed with the limited storage space in the back, only allowing room for one wine cooler. However, the sink worked out much better than expected, and Drake did not regret pursuing the idea.

Part 3

Pre-Construction

This was Drake Keating’s first time working with epoxy resin on a larger scale, and it was, single-handedly, one of the most fucking annoying and stressful projects he had tackled up to that point. The end result was pretty damn good, but it was definitely a learning experience for him.

This edition of the bar didn’t see many major changes, aside from some basic repairs, aesthetic updates, and small additions. These included painting all of the orange-stained wood red, upholstering the bar stools, pouring epoxy resin over the bartop, and adding a footrest bar.

(SIDE NOTE: The footrest bar was always intended to be part of the bar. The first iteration had a stud running about 8 inches from the ground to support the bar, but it was cut due to budget restraints at the time.)

In addition to being a TKE house, by the fall of 2023, the 3rd Floor had also become a fully KMNR house. Drake and his housemates had already hosted a few socials and wanted to add something to the bar that would represent their involvement with the organization. Drake and Dylan Rose sketched up a few concept ideas, eventually deciding on a 3rd Floor Bar emblem with a ribbon behind it that said “BH TKE” and “KMNR.”

Drake came to the conclusion that printing the image as a large vinyl sticker and pouring resin over it would be the best route to go. He went to a local place called Sign Dimensions (right behind John Deere off of I-44). The only issue was they needed a vector image. Dylan was a damn good artist but didn’t have experience with Photoshop, so they relied on Kevin Cummins to turn Dylan’s drawing into a vector image for the sign company.

(SIDE NOTE: Drake set up an account with the people at Sign Dimensions under the name Third Floor.)

Construction

At this point, Drake was home for the Christmas holidays while Kevin worked on Photoshop. During this time, Drake did some basic take-offs to estimate how much epoxy was needed and found a good place to order it from. He ended up buying 5 gallons of resin from epoxyresinstore.com, which was delivered by the time he returned to Rolla.

Once back in Rolla, Drake sent the vector image to Sign Dimensions and was told to wait a couple of days for the print. During this wait, he built the footrest bar, which only took about an hour. As soon as the design was printed, Drake laid it out on the bartop. This was one of the most tedious things ever, since the vinyl was so thin that it had to be peeled off a sheet of masking tape and adhered to the bartop. Drake later remarked that he would have had an easier time performing heart surgery on his grandparents.

Once that task was complete, it was time to start pouring the epoxy. Drake poured 3.5 gallons on the main bar top and 2.5 gallons onto the under bar, but some major mistakes were made. First, using a power drill to mix the resin added too much air, making the resin look like a bucket of semen. Second, Drake didn’t scrape the sides of the bucket while mixing, leading to areas that didn’t cure properly.

While the upper bar was mostly clear with only a few sticky spots, the under bar looked like the aftermath of a Japanese bukkake video. At this point, Drake was close to losing his fucking mind, having already spent roughly $300 on epoxy. Still, he needed a solution. He bought another gallon of epoxy, dyed it red, and used it to cover the cum-coated under bar, turning it into an accent piece. Drake then coated the upper bar in polyurethane to seal the sticky spots.

These methods eventually worked, and the end result wasn’t bad at all. But holy fucking shit, the process was incredibly annoying and tedious, especially since it all happened in an uninsulated garage in January. Drake had to run two space heaters constantly, until one of them stopped working. What was supposed to be a four-day project ended up dragging on for almost two weeks due to delays with the sticker, issues with the first epoxy pour, waiting for more epoxy, and waiting for layers of polyurethane to cure.

One major gripe Drake had at the end of the project was how the layers of polyurethane changed the bartop from a glossy shine to a matte finish. Although no one else cared and Drake admitted he was being a "gay bitch" about it, it still sucked to not get the exact result he wanted after spending so much time and money. On the bright side, he was really happy with the red top on the under bar, which worked as a great accent piece without being too distracting. If the resin hadn’t turned into a bucket of cum, it would have just been a clear top with no design underneath.

After the slow-motion nightmare that was the bartop, Drake and Kevin taped off all the orange-stained wood and painted it a dark red. They only needed two layers, and the process took about three hours, including the drying time for the first layer. Drake much preferred the red to the orange and was super happy with the result.

Toward the end of January, Drake found an old memory foam mattress in the TKE garage. He ended up stealing it to use as seat cushions, pretending the stains weren’t from piss or vomit. He then went to Hobby Lobby to buy some cheap red fabric and a new staple gun from Harbor Freight. Within an hour, Drake had all the bar stools repaired and upholstered. This turned out to be one of the better additions to the bar, as the hard wood-topped stools had been uncomfortable. Now, the upholstered bar stools not only added comfort but also worked as accent pieces next to the bar.

Part 4

Pre-Construction

The only noteworthy changes made to the bar at this time were the addition of the 3rd Floor Bar sign and a new layer of epoxy on the upper bar.

The barlight was built in the spring of 2024, made from an old pretzel warmer found in the activities closet at TKE. Unfortunately, the warmer was super fucked, with all its components coated in salt for the last two decades. However, Drake Keating was able to salvage the glass sides and the fluorescent light from the top of the machine.

Drake essentially built a wooden box with the fluorescent light in the back, connected to a switch. The light would shine through the glass, which would later have a design on it. His plan was to go to Sign Dimensions again to print off a large sticker that would wrap around the glass. The design used was drawn up by Connor Marler, who was about to move into the apartment at the time.

Connor had created some designs over the summer, and by the beginning of fall 2024, Drake had the design printed and stuck onto the glass. This sign replaced an old white TV that had been sitting on the top shelf of the back bar.

Construction

As for the epoxy resin, Drake had learned from his previous mistakes and decided to do a flood pour. This technique involves pouring the epoxy over the surface and letting it spill over the sides, creating a smooth, even shell around everything.

During the first week of school, Drake made a temporary barrier around the upper bar using masking tape and laid down trash bags on the ground to catch any epoxy that spilled over. He poured the epoxy on a Tuesday and was able to use the bartop by that Friday.

Drake was happy with the results, as the bartop finally had the super shiny gloss finish he’d been aiming for. It only took buying five more fucking gallons of epoxy to achieve that look.