Post #684490 by Hale Tiki on Wed, Jul 3, 2013 12:23 PM

As some of you may know, I've been on this site for almost 10 years now. I've asked a ton of advice, made a ton of posts, and learned a lot. For that, I have to give you all a big Mahalo Nui Loa!

Three years ago now, I bought my first house. It's 1265sq ft, and was built in 1900. It's a rowhome, but I'm not going to hold that against it, because it was $6000. No, I'm not missing a 0 there. A 1265sq ft home with a small front and back yard, in move-in(ish) condition for $6000. It was a forclosure, and they wouldn't let me turn on the utilities to get it inspected. The asked $8k, I told them without turning on the utilities, the best I could do was $6K. What's the worst they could say, no? Well, they said yes, and I moved in about 6 months later. Construction on the house has been VERY slow. Right after I moved in, I took a second job. Then found the wahine for me, and it has been a whirlwind ever since. But I've left out an important part. The bar. The dining room of the place, which I'll provide photos of in the next few days, is wood paneling. But not your everyday wood paneling, wood paneling with a transparent green stain over it. Looks like it could be the background in an August Holland painting. It SCREAMED Tiki bar.

Fast forward to three years later, and I've got a basement full of Tiki just waiting to be turned into a bar. Bamboo, tapa cloth (both modern and historical), real fishing net, 40+ glass globes waiting to be turned into floats, 15 or so tourist floats, artifacts from Papua New Guinea, NOS cork floats, a hundred or more new mugs, artwork (both modern and antique), the list goes on and on. I've even had help from some wonderful tiki-folk (I'm looking at you, Sven. Among others). And I've been very fortunate in finding wonderful pieces that you all will see in the coming months. Some come with marvelous stories.

Why post now, you might be asking yourself. BECAUSE SHIT JUST GOT REAL. Of all of the things I've tried to track down, Black Lava Rock has been the hardest. It's still plentiful, and available from Hawaii, but shipping to the mainland is expensive. So, I called all of the landscaping places I could find within two hours. I stopped at everyone I saw, including industrial stone supply houses. You know, the kind that supply rocks and the like to big companies for massive construction. Nothing. Nada. Recently, I was tipped off by my mother, who found some in Ohio. And at least half the cost of having them shipped, if not less! (Still would cost a few hundred dollars for the stones. But they were uncut, and some were just big boulders. So off I set on finding a rock cutter who could turn them into stones for the front of bar. I was trying to replicate the look seen on, well, I forget what page of the BOT it was, but I've been in love with it since the first time I saw it. Black lava rock with white between, who back wall of the bar. I found a stone cutter, but they'd never cut lava rock, and weren't sure if they could do it. The project was put on the back shelf, and that, along with another setback (that has since been solved (more on that later too!)), the bar has been on hold as I acquire more and more, and have spent the summer going to events. Hukilau, Ohana, and I will be performing at Hot Rod Hula Hop.

Fast forward to yesterday. On the way home, I had the urge to stop at Construction Junction. Now, usually when I get an inkling to stop at a thrift store, antique store, and anything of that ilk, it always turns out well. But yesterday my wahine was sick, so I drove straight home. CJ, for those of you not from Pittsburgh, is an architectural salvage place that is generally pretty reasonably priced. While I was at lunch today, I got a phone call from TC's own Pan Am Pia, who happens to be a good friend, and a fellow Pittsburgh resident. She's screams with excitement that she's found a pile of lava rock! She was on the way home from work, when she got the inkling to stop at CJ. Unlike me, however, she didn't fight it, and she stopped in. As she's describing it to me, she realizes there's a second pallet! We hang up, and I call the store to see how much it is. Now, they only take down old buildings, so I know it has to be old (more on that later). The woman puts me on hold for a long time, and when she comes back, she tells me it's $20. TWENTY DOLLARS. I stumble over my words as I ask her if they'll please take a credit card over the phone. They WILL! So at 5PM today, I'll be heading over to pick up my two pallets of lava rock, and find out what building it came from. Hopefully I can track down the original builders, or at least get a date to know when the rock was put in. The photo isn't very good, and I'll post more later, but as of right now, I'm so excited that I'm running around telling people at work...like a crazy person.

Now that I have the stone, my last hurdle is surmounted, and construction can begin. I've got a LOT of fun things in store, and am hoping that my home bar will rival some of the classic tiki bars. Except, you know, it'll be a single room. Then again, the Tiki Ti is a single room, so we'll see what I can't throw together. Mahalo for reading, and I hope you'll enjoy the adventure as 10 years of Tiki culminates in the construction of: THE AKU AKU ROOM!

[ Edited by: Hale Tiki 2013-07-04 16:22 ]