The Hut....The inside done .... outside begins...

So for 11 years this was my hut. It was the only 8x8, but it was my place to smoke cigars, watch tv, and escape. I was even lucky enough to have it in an issue of tiki magazine....

About 9 months ago I sold my house and moved to Yucaipa. I left the shell of the hut behind for a shed, bringing all the decorations and cool stuff with me.

So now its time for a new hut..... its a slow process, doing most of it myself or with my dad. My contractor buddy helped me with the framing..or I helped him actually.... 99% of the electricity, speaker wire, and remote light controller is all in. All the bare wood outside has been primered. Next will be paint and the corrugated metal roof.
This hut is 16x20. It will have real working porthole windows. The closet door inside will be a 1950-60's navy interior ship door.
The plan will be more "trading post" than trader vics...I have always enjoyed the idea of mixing nautical, tiki, and 1900's-1930's british/french colony
Here's a few pics so far... (don't expect anything to cool yet...lol)

these beams are a tribute (or copy depending on way you think) of the beam that sticks out over the Dole Whip shack at the Tiki room in Disneyland....


My navy door

Thats it for now..... Long long long long long way to go... so many ideas and thoughts, so little time and money...lol

[ Edited by: ErichTroudt 2014-09-17 14:33 ]

[ Edited by: ErichTroudt 2015-03-10 20:05 ]

[ Edited by: ErichTroudt 2015-05-03 16:17 ]

Erich that is fantastic! I really like the outrigger beams on the roof trusses.

Best of luck, and thanks for the pictures, keep them coming!

Chris
WestADad

Wow! You've more than doubled the size. This ought to be fun to watch. :)

Congrats on the new project. It's really looking good so far!

Keep the pics coming when you can.

Cheers!!

Awesomeness!! Can't wait to see pics of the new hut, the old one looked sweet!

Sweet
Keep up da good work
Ya made me thirsty
Cheers

Oooooh....how exciting. I love the decor style you have planned and that door is off the hook. Have fun...looking forward to more pictures as you progress.

Very cool!! Looking forward for updates.

Holy moly that thing is HUGE! Can't wait to see how it develops. :)

Got the ship porch lights up and working.....This weekend the roof goes on...

Night shot...

I take it you're up near Wildwood Canyon/Oak Glen area?

real close to oak glen... trying to build a tropical place in the mountains with snow and bears.... lol

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2016-02-06 06:25 ]

AWesomeeee. love the steel door - keep on keeping on...if you need some ideas check out my hut blog...diy http://www.tikirancher.blogspot.com
cheers

slow going so far..working on interior walls and insulation. I got 1 of 3 porthole windows in and working. Didn't leak in the rain either!!!!
All the bamboo and tiki are still in the 100's of boxes waiting to be released...

Had a metal company make the outside portholes to exactly match the size and bolt pattern of the old ship portholes. I built a tunnel system between them.

I learned to if you take your torch and burn the zinc shiny nuts and bolts they will look gray, old and ugly real quick...which is exactly the look I wanted to match the porthole...

I know I know...hurry up with the tiki and bamboo.... :wink:

Quality takes time...looking good!!!

Thanks for an update. Love the look of the portholes.

We fully understand that quality takes time and we are a very patient group. No rush.
(pst...can you believe I said that with a straight face??)

• Dale

Any updates for us on this project? Love what you have so far!

Thanks man. It's been real slow. Doing 99.9% of it by myself which takes even more time. Also the winter month kinda slowed down the process too. And the fact I'm lazy doesn't help either...

I haven't posted any updates because I've been doing all the boring stuff... Ceiling, walls, insulation, vents etc. I'm just now starting to get some lauhala matting on the ceiling and the bamboo ceiling fan up.

I've been learning to router boards for the beams. Self taught, trial and error. I'm pretty happy with the results.

I still have 2 portholes to put in, a closet to build, a wall project, lauhala matting, fishnet, etc etc etc... Lol
Then I get to do the outside.....

I should be done in 2046

Here's a peek ....

That is some fine router work. Did you carve out the islands and other items with the router?

• Dale

Yes.. All done with a router. Each beam represents a different theme, hawaii, maori, etc. I have some killer ideas for themes of the other beams that I'm working on... I'll post them when I'm finished.
Over 300 ft of routing to be done just in beams and door frame alone.

See why I figure I'll finish my hut 3 weeks after I'm dead? Lol

I'm thinking I would like to add a porthole in my design. How large are the portholes you are using? They seem to get expensive pretty quick for the larger ones.

Also, I guess that with most I have seen for sale that they would need that outside ring made like you did for it to screw into. What material did they use? Also if you don't mind me asking, what was the approximate cost to the outside ring made?

That is some amazing router work. Love the detail you were able to get on those.

I can totally see why you will not be done for a while. LOL

Great work!

• Dale

Beautiful router work!

Thanks everyone. Jimsflies, I sent you a pm...

The Navy door is bad ass.

Awesome Erich!!! Love the nautical stuff. That Navy door is way cool. This is going to be a fun space. :D

Simply... WOW!

WOW id kill for your navy door!!!! so so cool!!! wish I had that kind of property

paul

Wow thats amazing router work cant wait to see the rest.....

Wow fantastic carving on those beams! Are you using a plunge router or a Dremel tool of some kind?

I'm not using a plunge router...although it would probably make life easier at times. No dremel tool either. Just going slow, setting the router at different depths and being careful.
It a classic case of I had no idea what I'm doing, so I had no idea if I'm doing it wrong.

In the words of Indiana Jones..."I don't know, I'm making this up as I go"....

Couple of new router carvings in the Maori beam...

More nice Router work. Keep it coming!

• Dale

The ceiling is starting to come together slightly.... need bamboo to cover the ridge beam down the center.
More carved beams are done. The hawaii, maori, rapa nui, south pacific, and PNG beams are all done.

here are the PNG images I carved. They are all based on actual pieces I found on different PNG museum sites... all are 3 1/2 inches in height.... not a lot of room for detail...

I used an owl feather I found in my backyard for this one...

these were taking before the stain, but you get the idea anyway

Once again...I should be done 2 weeks after I"m dead...

Eric great job on making your own art pieces. I am thinking of doing same but not sure exactly how. Clever use of the owl feather. Keep us posted.

Awesome job so far. Keep up the great work!

Love the routing on the beams....have fun with those masks!!!

I spent this week building all the supports and today I cut the holes for the last of the porthole windows... casualty, 1 cheap @ss black and decker jig saw....

Now I have to put in the insulation and put up the wall boards. Hey its only 101 degrees out, wearing long sleeves for insulation sounds great!! Then build the tunnels between the outside and inside portholes to make them weather and leak proof.

Heres the outside view with the unfinished fake doors... which will make sense later in the project.... :)

[ Edited by: ErichTroudt 2013-08-23 17:17 ]

Wow, the details are amazing!

Some tapa print up on the wall...

Got the tapa on the east wall done. Some Lauhala matting on the west wall... cutting it around the porthole was not fun...

Dude, u r cruZin now
Lookin good
Keep up the show

Jon

getting some bamboo up, covering all the screw holes with the lauhala braid, and routing the boards to cover the matting seams on the ceiling....

I'm digging the beams and portholes.

When are you going to put in the Ship's door?

-Longboard

Ships door will be soon....hopefully. Lot of problems are going to come with it. I'm doing almost all of this by myself and the door is way too heavy, so I have to wait for some help.
I have to build the closet incredibly strong to support the door because its so heavy.
Then the brackets have to be custom made at a metal shop so the door will swing open and fully function.

No instruction manual for this install.... lol

Okay, the ship door...

Dad came over and we framed the walls for the 4ft x 6ft closet. We built the top and bottom supports for the door, put it in, and realized .....X...... 3 inches off. So now I'll be spending some time moving the stud and re-building the supports.

Here's a pic of it so far...

NICE work!

Wouldn't it be nice if a 2x4 was actually 2x4?! I'll never understand why they're not. It makes everything more complicated.

Ive been decorating part of the ceiling...glass floats, fishnet, corks floats, rope, shark jaws, etc.... I thought Hey, I'll hang up a ships wheel on the ceiling.... so I dug thru the garage and got them out....

I may be a hoarder.....