Post #380251 by Mr. Pupu Pants on Wed, May 14, 2008 11:25 AM

On 2008-05-03 17:53, etohliver wrote:
Wow, that is going to be one sweet retreat!

I feel you're a kindred spirit Pupu. Disneyland is a worthy inspiration (or Disney World as it's called round my parts).

I don't have a basement or spare room to convert into my theme park, so I'm using what little backyard I have. I can see you are working along the same lines as I am in your project - it's the details that make up the whole. Coincidentally, we had a party today in the backyard and my friend who is a great woodsmith gave me a nice compliment (without even knowing my affinity for Disney). He said "from every angle you always see something new, just like at Disneyworld."

It's easy to see that you will achieve the same effect in time. I've been at my backyard for lots of weekends for going on 2 years now, and am maybe 50% done (although when your outside it's easy to work for a couple hours and then admire your handiwork from the hammock for the next six). When people tell me I could do this kind of thing for a living I say: "yeah, just find me someone who can wait 5 years for a finished project." When I hired a tile guy to do my pool tiles and pavers, and he and his crew came in and finished in 8 or 9 days I remember thinking: "What fun is that? I could have had a good six months of laying tile!"

My guess is that as soon as you "finish," you'll have to start "updating." At least that's what I'll need to do - I know I won't be able to go cold turkey!

Anyway, don't rush it - the journey is almost all the fun!

And one more thing, more pics!

[ Edited by: etohliver 2008-05-03 17:58 ]

Hi Etohliver, I've been meaning to respond to your post above. Definitely kindred spirits here. My family and many of our closest friends are Disneyland nuts. I've made the trip down to Disneyland more times than I'm willing to admit. My wife and two sons are right with me :) My brother went to an animation school founded by Disney in Southern Cal called Cal Arts to begin his career. A friend of ours used to animate for Disney in the '70s when the last of the nine old men were still there working (he ended up with a huge neon sign from a tiki bar that used to sit across the street from Disney Studios called the Pago Pago. It's now in his backyard--outside his own little tiki bar).

I usually take alot of pictures when I'm down there (including many architectural) to use later when I'm building things. You never know when a good reference photo might come in handy (and who does it better then Disney did). I usually always try to put my own twist on it though. It's all about the details and, even if you don't notice them individually, they definitely contribute in a big way to the overall effect. 'The whole is definitely greater than the sum of it's parts' with things like Tiki bars. Or is it 'Sum parts are greater than whole ones'? Something like that.

Another project I'll be working on later this summer (or possibly next year for budgetary reasons :) ) is a backyard deck (as though it were a tropical dock bordered with facades of different hut and building fronts built onto the back of our house.
In fact, that project is what got me building the tiki room when it was originally going to be built into the back of our garage (which also would border the deck/dock), It would have had flip-up window/awnings to make it open-air for parties in the summer. I'd love to see pics of your backyard for inspiration.

For practical reasons, we decided to use the basement for the tiki bar so, at some point, I still might build an exterior storm cellar entrance to the basement from the backyard so you can easily access it from the deck (maybe I'll make it look like a lava tube or something.

Anyhoo, I'm totally with you on the journey being much of the fun. I also jump back and forth from one project to another (to the occasional dismay of my wife) but they all get done eventually. Or at least to a phase I can call done -- before I'm officially in the 'updating' phase. :wink: There must be some union rules about that.

Thanks again for the comments. Really nice to meet you,
John