Home Bars: Buy, Build, or Hire?

You woke up this morning and decided you want to add a home bar to your rec room.  Good move smart citizen, you can get as drunk as you want and not have to worry about driving home.  You have two (three, really) options:

You could buy a bar already assembled.  You could build your home bar.  Or you could have it built, but outsource the work to a general contractor or the sort.  I’ll go over each option for you.

You got skills?  Build a home bar.
We’re not talking about hanging the Christmas lights or changing the oil in your Volvo.  This is a considerable job reserved for a handyman of intermediate to advanced knowledge.  Even if you do know what you’re doing, do you have the required tools and available time necessary to build a home bar?  Also remember that while you may be talented with a buzz saw, most home bars (depending on your design) would require electrical and plumbing work.

Not ready to build your own bar?  Keep reading.

Who says happiness can’t be bought?  Buy a home bar someone else made.
There are a variety of sites where you can buy home bars.  Prices vary wildly from $600 to $20,000+.  Pre-packaged home bars come with very little assembly required and once unpacked, they shouldn’t take more than a few hours to setup.  If you still need someone to connect it to the electrical and plumbing systems, a reasonable general contractor (GC) can be hired for about $50/hour.

You’re lazy, know nothing, and/or you have a lot of money.  Hire.
General contractors are notoriously unreliable.  They overcharge you, show up late/not at all, produce shoddy work… the list goes on.