Uncork the Possibility

Richard Amar enjoys his wine. He enjoys his cabernets, chardonnays and sauvignon blancs so much that he soon ran out of room when his collection of reds and whites went beyond 100 bottles. What's an oenophile to do?

"I had been keeping my wines in a nice cabinet and always knew I would eventually build a wine cellar," said Amar. "Once my cabinet outgrew its capacity, it was time to do something."

What he did was to take the empty space underneath the stairs in his two-story Red Rock Country Club home and turn it into a 10-foot-by-10-foot, refrigerated wine cellar that now holds more than 700 bottles of wine and champagne -- some that will sit there for 10 years and gracefully mature, and others that will be consumed later this evening.

It took Amar seven months from the time he cut a hole in the wall underneath the stairs to see what was there to placing the first bottle of Bordeaux in its new home.

"I was always intrigued by the empty space beneath the stairs, but once the idea came to me to build my wine cellar there, it was just a matter of figuring out how to do it," he recalled. "At first, I thought of buying a ready-made cabinet and placing it there, but the cabinets only come in certain sizes and manufacturers are not going to build one just for you. So, I brought in a carpenter and we took out the vertical 2-by-4s and replaced them with horizontal 6-by-6s. The entire process was simply approaching and completing each step, one at a time, according to my specifications."

While do-it-yourself often refers to the actual activity of people using their own abilities and tools to take care of their own needs, there is nothing wrong with reaching out to others for assistance.

Amar researched wine cellars and do-it-yourself projects on his computer. He found an encyclopedia of information, including stories from people who, just like him, built their own wine cellars. They posted how they built their cellars, including what they did right and what they did wrong. He also discovered Web sites that covered painting, plumbing, gardening, wallpapering, fixing ice makers and water heaters, and just about every other do-it-yourself project, including sites to purchase the products needed to complete the job.

"One of the things I learned is that there needs to be clear and direct communication between yourself and the people who might be working with you," he said. "I was very specific with my carpenter in letting him know exactly what I wanted. We understood each other and that made everything much easier. I also found that there are so many tools available these days for do-it-yourselfers, which make the project that much easier."

Amar installed African mahogany for his shelving, laid out a marble floor and sprayed an expensive insulation that not only soundproofed the room, but removed most of the humidity. All the electrical and refrigeration was connected and the room remains a constant 58 degrees.