Puamana & Selector Lopaka's backyard Bali Hai

Just wanted to share photos of the evolution of our backyard Bali Hai,
that came together this past summer. The tall tiki in the back corner was
carved by Edwin Germaine last summer. The support post tiki & moai are carved
by Keigs, and the tapa globes were a purchase from beachdude about a year
or two ago. We worked with some amazing & talented landscaper & carpenter friends
who knew what we were striving for, and they ran with it to create something even better
than we imagined.

[ Edited by: puamana on 2003-10-08 19:15 ]

VERY cool.
Love the lofted roof and the big carved support.

Thanks for posting those pics.

Too COOL for words!

[ Edited by: susane on 2004-01-20 07:09 ]

Outstanding!

I can dig it!

AHA! Now we know who bought the one that Kiegs posted.
Very cool backyard. Great pics! What a difference!

Uh, egad. I am getting moist...

:)
em.

Holy craps! I am envious of your magic yard, that is a lush set up in many ways. I hope you and your loved ones enjoy it for years to come.

P.S. Los Angeles sucks because you have to be a millionaire to have a freakin yard.

By the way, your whole setup kind calls out for a Flintstone car to be parked nearby. Am I wrong?

Puamana!

Fantastic! You & your friends did a great job! Now, a question for you that I'm pretty sure everyone would like to know, so I'll ask, but completely understand if you don't feel comfortable answering....

For those of us contemplating doing something similar for our backyard (PolyPop?), what would be the approximate total cost for doing a backyard conversion like yours and what amount of time did it take?

Those of us not talented enough to do it ourselves, have to plan a budget, so any info you wish to share would be helpful.

Again, great job, and I wish you many years of great backyard memories!

It helps to have carpenter and landscape pals that are totally into the project!

[ Edited by: susane on 2004-01-20 07:10 ]

I am completely floored!!! That has to be the best backyard lounge ever!!!

Thanks so much for the kind words, folks. Both Selector Lopaka and myself were fortunate that everyone involved was into the idea. It still cost a chunk of change (dipped into the home equity loan), but we did have some help to cut corners. We got all of the cedar wood for cost, as well as a break on the landscape materials / rates & carpentry rates (we did some of the grunt work and running around for materials). I had a notebook full of old postcards of tiki bars/restaurants that the builders referred to for the structure. The garden is irrigated, and the structure is wired both with sound & electricity. Our budget was $10k, and it took a little less than a month. Hopefully it will add to the property value of the house, but now I don' t think we could ever move & leave behind such an oasis in our back yard ! Here's a few more pics :

p.s. the Flintstone car is parked out front ( I wish !)

dats dope yo'

Take a night shot with torches! I'd love to see that.
It's really beautiful.

[ Edited by: susane on 2004-01-20 07:11 ]

On 2003-10-09 02:08, SugarCaddyDaddy wrote:

For those of us contemplating doing something similar for our backyard (PolyPop?), what would be the approximate total cost for doing a backyard conversion like yours?

SugarCaddyDaddy, I'm contemplating something like this (just dreaming right now). I showed the photos to my fiance who designs & builds "unique outdoor structures". He said he would price the structure at about 8K using cedar. That wouldn't include the structural tiki of course.

Puamana, what a beautiful backyard! I'm green with envy.

I'm lucky enough to have experienced the beautiful Backyard Bali Hai. We had an elegant dinner of seared ahi (served on vintage polynesian divided plates, recently featured in Collecting Tiki), with the best exotica piped in over the built-in sound system. Lopaka has buried speaker cables run out from his Mac inside, so all he has to do is queue up a bunch of tunes, and it's good to go!

It really is fantastic. I got to see the yard before they started, and it was a typical, nondescript north Seattle yard. It was amazing to see it transformed only a few weeks later into a private-feeling lush paradise. After the landscaping has a couple of years to grow in, it'll be even more mind-blowing. The banana that they have planted near the structure in particular may really take off -- I have a dear friend who lives not far from them with a banana that after 10 years now is massive and actually produces fruit! (Just decorative, not edible.)

Puamana & Selector Lopaka's whole house is amazing -- the two are thrifting fiends, and have amassed an amazing collection that is really beautifully presented throughout the house.

I've got a few more pics of the Bali Hai at home, I'll post some later.

Now you need to get some thatch panels and cover the roof for the grass hut effect!

I'm afraid that thatch wouldn't work well here in Seattle -- it would never get a chance to dry out, and would probably get moldy & rotten. We had 97 straight days of rain a couple years back -- think about that -- three straight months without a break from the rain (and you can bet the dry days on either side of that were not long stretches). I wonder how expensive synthetic thatch products are?

Golly Humuhumu, and all you Tiki Centralites, much thanks and praises for your kind words. We've been dying to get photos up, and the feedback has been great, both here on TC and from those who have physically visited our home. I'm amazed every morning as I look out the kitchen window. We are nothing short of blessed with the results, and knowing the talented people who contributed to the project. Let's hope some of y'all will get to chill back there one day. Mahalo many times over!!!

Thatch would be cool, and synthetic does exist. I'd still like to research what kind of luck people have had with any kind of thatch up here in the NW (Anyone?). It would be a drag to have to change it every year or so. We almost did cedar shakes, but the metal roof made the most sense at the time, especially since the cost of the whole project ended up being more than we anticipated. And another justification/rationalization for the metal was that similar roofs are used on structures throughout the South Pacific and the Caribbean, plus it sounds cool when it's raining. Still, thatch would be the ultimate.

[ Edited by: Selector Lopaka on 2003-10-09 18:46 ]

Look into Eastern European thatch. It's designed to last through Polish winters & probably would only have to be replaced every 50 years or so. Check out http://www.thatching.com for more info.

Wow! Great link. There is hope for thatch. Thanks!

Totally rad.......

T.F.

From the web link:

McGhee & Co. is led by Master Thatcher Colin McGhee, who started thatching at the age of 16 in Essex, England. At the age of 25, he became the youngest thatcher ever to win the Master Thatcher's Cup.

?? What does it take to win the Master Thatcher's Cup? I haven't seen ESPN2 in a while, I guess I'm out of the loop.

A little pool acid goes a long way to give it that un-polished look (and a lot cheaper than that thatch). Or, just save all together and let mother nature go at it. With 97 days of rain......(are tanning salons big in Seatle?) You could always do the underside but, it would've been a lot easier before the tin went on. Screw it! It's beautiful the way it is!!!

[ Edited by: revbambooben on 2003-10-10 10:52 ]

Can I get an Amen for the good RevBambooBen?
It's pretty
outstanding the way it is!

[ Edited by: DawnTiki on 2003-10-10 16:27 ]

What Ben said - it's beautiful the way it is, plus, as Lopaka said, it does sound really cool when it rains.

(are tanning salons big in Seatle?)

Not really. Pasty & pale is the norm. The people who go tanning stick out like sore thumbs here, it just looks obvious & weird.

AMEN!

Totally off topic here, but I am excited to know what Lopaka means! I have a friend at work who lived on da islands for a long time and I looked up his name to suprise him one day. Lopaka!

it does sound really cool when it rains.

I remember sitting at Tahiti Nui on the Lanai with my Dad 15 years ago, on our 5th Mai Tai each diggin' the "Rain on the Roof!"

(Needless to say, it didn't stop raining for 6 days! I guess that's the closest I've been to Seattle.)

(And one more thing. Our old ceramic factory was built out of studs and corregated tin. I definatly remember that sound!)

Lopaka is Robert in Hawaiian (Robert is my real name), and Selector is another name for DJ in Jamaica, hence the name Selector Lopaka. I spin records here in Seattle under that moniker.

excellent work. that is quite a slice of paradise you have there. hope i can come and see it in person one day.

[ Edited by: tikitanked on 2003-10-11 12:13 ]

1 word fo dis place..ONO!!

GASP!!!!

I'm making one of your pics my background. That could convert anyone to tiki.

Correction!
FreddieFreelance, thanks for pulling this thread up! It's not noon yet, I'm not a morning person!

Lisa Lisa

[ Edited by: Cultjam on 2003-10-15 12:49 ]

Puamana,

Very nice indeedie! Beachdude (KC Heylin) is my buddy that sold me the old Tepco kava bowl (I'm gonna give him sh$& for not letting me know about those tapa lamps!).

Do your neighbors think you're a California whacko or something?

{{{{{ B O I N G G g G g ! ! !}}}}

That's the sound of my eyes popping right out of my head! What can I say? Sheer perfection! Truly a magical little paradise...can't believe it's in the NW!!! You have just set the bar for tiki design very high!

[ Edited by: exoticat on 2003-10-20 20:30 ]

That's awesome.

Puamana & Selector Lopaka- Thanks so much! Your photos saved me $100sss. I have a very Polynesian backyard (yeah yeah yeah photos to come..one day I'll go digital blah blah) and I had been contemplating a boardwalk style walkway. Bare bones estimate was $500 for lumber only and the construction chick doing all the work. I made no progress in 2 yrs. because I couldn't cope with this intense construction project. Then your pictures (clouds part, sun shines, birds sing) and I have since bought 900 lbs. of stone. I set them into the lawn and reseeded around them. I need about 600 lbs. more to complete the path. THANKS FOR THE INSPIRATION!!!! (Photos soon....yeah really. I promise.)

Did you ever take a night view photo?

[ Edited by: hanford_lemoore on 2003-12-29 02:21 ]

I'm curious about the moai in your yard, is it concrete?

Awesome transformation, I would love to do the same some day when I buy a house were I know I'll stay.

Weird -- my message above got so goobered up somehow that I can't even edit it. Could one of the moderators kindly tackle it for me?

Oh yes, I did promise some photos earlier, didn't I? Here's a bunch, and there are more here.

These guys live aloha more than anyone I know!

The birdbath Moai is concrete, we picked it up at a local garden shop. Some friends of ours just saw the same Moai in three sizes at a garden shop in Vancouver BC recently. Ours is the largest size.

In regards to a night shot, the best of them are up. This project wasn't finished until mid August 2003, and we never got a chance to get torches up before it all went dormant for the winter.

We planted a ton of bulbs (lilies, irises, and more) in late fall, and we (im)patiently await spring. We're so psyched to watch the garden come back to life, and have the whole season in 2004 for Backyard Bali Ha'i fun and frolic. We hope some of you TCers passing through Seattle, as well as all you locals, will get to see it. Mahalo Humuhumu for your pics! Happy New Year everyone!

[ Edited by: Selector Lopaka on 2003-12-28 16:41 ]

It's really gorgeous!
Thanks for the update and photos!

good lord! that is absolutely breath taking.......amazing work

My God!!! That is truly beautiful work!!! Ya'll have done an amazing job and have inspired myself to improve my own surroundings!! Incredible work! Tell me if you need some tropical plants!Love to help fellow gardeners.
Mahalo
diesel tiki

The yard and hut look amazing. Great job! Now if we could just have some of that stuff called warm weather. Hope to see it in person this summer.

Completely fabulous! Very inspiring - the big carvings really make it. I love the shot of the interior ceiling. Congratulations, what a perfect party spot!