Post #709114 by Aloha Daddy on Sat, Feb 22, 2014 5:14 PM

Aloha fellow tikiphiles, I apologize for being away, I moved over the Thanksgiving weekend and the Tiki Shack had to come down. I knew we would have to move when I built it so it was built with portability in mind. With the holidays over and all the pieces laying around in my garage, I could not wait to start putting it back together. And of course, I had to do all the upgrades to our new place for the lady first! :)

But this time, I know what areas of the bar I was not satisfied with the first time, so I am able to build it a little bigger and better than before, yeah!!! My garage in this house affords me the opportunity to build it bigger and I like the way it it situated better. I will be posting pictures of my progress, one of the things I did better was pour a two part epoxy on the bar top. I found it at Lowe's and it was not too expensive so I went for it. I also decided to glue more photos on the bar top this time. I have a combination of retro Tiki Bar ads, Disneyland Tiki Room, classic surf movies, and Hawaii travel ads. All are encased in the epoxy. I love the look which is what I was hoping for with the Varithane but it just never got thick enough.

I had only one issue with the epoxy, some of my photos lifted at the corners and so they stick up a little, but I am overall very happy with the result, it looks like glass and is very easy to wipe up messes. I also faced all of the shelves with Bamboo splits. I love the way this finishes off the fronts of the shelves. I have also discovered the wonder of LED lights. I bought a couple of strands of LEDs for my shelves, I had rope lights before but was never happy with the brightness or the stiffness of the rope which made it hard to bend and position without seeing the rope. I am installing the LEDs behind the bamboo facing since they are so small so you can't see the lights just the effect of them. They come with a remote control that allows me to turn them different colors, sequence, brighter or dimmer, or flash. I am so excited about this addition to the bar, I can't wait to install them.

I am also going to re-design the fountain. I am thinking about gluing two bowls together, (back to back)and spraying them with foam which I will then sculpt into tiki designs. I found an LED fixture that I will be putting underwater to shine up into the fountain spray and it changes color. I am so excited about this new addition also. I'll keep you posted on this one as it evolves.

I am so happy to have my Tiki retreat back, like having an old friend back! :) Oh! I almost forgot to mention something else that will make this bar better than the old. Our new place came with a fridge, so our old fridge ended up in the Tiki Shack! YES! No more runs to the freezer inside the house! Ice and cold juices right at my fingertips :))). I'll be posting photos soon, until then, thanks for reading and looking, and any and all comments are encouraged and appreciated!