Prettyman's Atoll - planning a complete rebuild

Hello, fellow tiki lovers!

I posted this yesterday in the Facebook group "Home Tiki Bar Builds," and they recommended I start a topic here to share my plans and progress. Apologies if you've already seen this on Facebook.

[TLDR—Unwittingly fell into my tiki destiny a few years ago and now find I need to recreate a 50-year-old the tiki bar/room from the ground up. Am looking forward to sharing my experiences with this group.]

I'm an unwitting lifelong fan of tiki. I really didn't start to realize that until about five years ago, when I started visiting local tiki bars (I'm in the SF Bay Area, so Smuggler's Cove, Forbidden Island, Trader Vic's, Tonga Room and the like).

I can't describe how I felt, other than that I felt completely at home. That's when I realized that my grandfather (William Prettyman) exposed me to tiki from my earliest days in the mid-1960s. He served in WWII in the Naval Air Services, based out of Alameda Air Station. Among the many places he spent time in WWII was Kwajalein Atoll. When he eventually settled down in North Hollywood, he and his wife converted their backyard into a tropical escape for family and friends. He never called it tiki, but it was tiki.

Fast forward to about three years ago. My wife and I and our 6-month old were looking for a place big enough for her to have the sort of childhood experiences we wanted for her. That's when we found our forever home. Built in 1959–1960 by a man who appreciated entertaining and tiki—so much so that he built a 20 x 25 foot tiki room onto his house in the early 1960s. He lived there until he died in 2013. The house was then bought by people who thought tiki=={Miami Vice, Florida and Jimmy Buffet}, and their "improvements" came close to ruining this long-surviving tiki oasis.

We bought the house in Summer 2015 and ripped out the neon parrots and day-glo margarita accessories and found a 50-55-year-old tiki bar underneath it all. We spend most of our adult quality time in the tiki bar and we were looking forward to restoring it to its former glory. We've named it "Prettyman's Atoll" after my grandfather and his time in the South Pacific during WWII, and we've created a 4-page menu of offerings.

It was paradise until last year's rains came. While the original owner knew tiki, he knew bupkis about structural engineering. The roof is sagging and threatening to collapse (we've shored it up with timber and jacks), so we know that has to be replaced ASAP. We've held off on that so far because the walls that the roof rest on are rotted, and the footings under those walls are cracked and buckled. Finally, the concrete pad that serves as the floor of the room suffers from slab heave.

So to restore/recreate our beloved tiki oasis, we have to rebuild it from the ground up. I've done a good amount of maybe-not-quite-up-to-code construction in the past, so I feel close to being up to the task, but I'm determined to do this tiki bar by the book. I've set a two-year deadline for planning, funding, and starting the remodel and a three-year deadline for finishing. I'm teaching myself AutoCAD and we're scouring the internet and thrift shops for inspiration. I'll share photos, plans, and dreams for the completely rebuilt Prettyman's Atoll, as well as photos of it as we progress towards our dream. In the meantime, here are a couple of dated photos from right after we moved in.

The tiki room is currently full of boxes of Christmas decor, but I promise I'll submit a better set of photos soon.

[ Edited by: Prettyman's Atoll 2018-01-23 12:23 ]

[ Edited by: Prettyman's Atoll 2018-01-23 12:26 ]

[ Edited by: Prettyman's Atoll 2018-02-13 21:48 ]

Welcome! Glad you could make it over here. I think TC is a more permanent archive than FB is. There are some great bar builds here and I look forward to yours joining them.

I second everything Prikli Pear said, especially, “Welcome.” You’ve come to the right place; TC is a wealth of inspiration.

I love the history of your home bar, your determination, and that tiki connects you with your grandfather,. Lots of us here will be anxiously waiting to see and hear more.

Hello again, fellow tiki lovers!

Part II--The "before" photos: Prettyman's Atoll as it looks today (literally three hours ago).

A brief history of Prettyman's Atoll: (skip this paragraph if you don't want construction details) From what I can tell, the tiki room began as a central portion of the backyard in 1960. At some point, the owner poured a cement pad roughly the size of today's tiki room. A little later, he put up a lightweight roof structure of 2x6 beams on 24-inch centers, capped with corrugated aluminum. The structure was just strong enough to hold up the lightweight aluminum sheets. A little later, he added non-structural side walls that served primarily as a means to install a pair of sliding glass doors on each wall. He then built the bar you'll see shortly, and ran cold water to the sink and a gas line to a heater (the drain for the sink is just a pipe that sticks though the wall and waters our mint bush). Finally, he decided to put a much beefier asphalt and gravel roof on 3/4-inch plywood that he threw on top of the existing aluminum panels. The increased weight of the new roof was vastly more than the flimsy, knotty 2x6 beams could handle, and over the years they've sagged and even failed at knots (structural select lumber this ain't). When we bought the place two years ago, we quickly discovered that the weight of pooled rainwater on the sagging roof was threatening to collapse the compromised roof. The roof needs to be completely replaced, but so too do the walls and the bucking slab and cracked footings.

In essence, we've got to completely rebuild the tiki room to save it. We're seeing this as a design opportunity--to make the tiki room into the tiki room of our dreams (or at least to the extent that we can afford on our non-profit worker bee salaries). Here's what we're working with:

The entrance to the tiki room:

One of the design principles I adhere to is that there should be a clear division between the tiki world and the real world. It doesn't have to be as extreme as at Smuggler's Cove (although well done, guys!), but there should be some dividing line or threshold; something to keep the real world hidden from folks in the tiki room, and vice versa.

Right now, the tiki room is too much a part of our 'regular' house. There's a 6-foot-wide sliding glass door entrance as you can see above (as well as a 6-foot-wide window between the living room and the tiki room, as you'll see in a moment).

I'd like to see this replaced with a 36-inch-wide heavy wooden door that looks like it came off a 17th-century English ship. And even after opening the door, visitors would first have to pass through a dark anteroom before emerging into the tiki room. This might be as simple as a heavy black curtain a few feet inside the door, or it might be something constructed of dark wood with a second door at the end--like a very short passageway.

Another important detail--when I replace the 2x6 beams on 24-inch centers with 2x12 beams on 12-inch-centers, we'll lose precious headroom. My wife and I are both six-foot-plus, and we'd be close to scraping our heads on the ceiling if we left the floor where it is. Since we can't raise the roof (the ledger board is as high as it can go and we're not keen to re-engineer the roof of the main house), we'll be lowering the tiki room floor by 16 inches. It's not much, but it'll give us a bit of room to hang nets and whatnot from the ceiling. I haven't given up on finding a way to (also) raise the roof, but that looks like it's going to add considerable complexity and cost to the project. Right now, there's one step down from the house to the tiki room, but after the remodel, there will be three steps down (further accentuating the divide, and evoking a feeling of going below deck on an old sailing ship.

Inside the tiki room, looking back at the entrance:

Again, note the lack of separation between tiki and normal worlds. The chair is a hand-carved chair I purchased from a bar in the Afar region of Ethiopia when I worked there in the early 1990s. In a former life, I spent a lot of time working in remote places in Africa and the Near East, and I've love a chance to show off some of the more exotic things I brought back. Right now, there's just no wall or shelf space to do so. Also, pardon the parrot and toucan. We're still trying to educate the in-laws on what tiki is and what it isn't. We ask them not to get us things for the tiki room, but there you go.

Panning to the left a bit:

Yeah, that's the beginnings of a model train layout. No one can accuse me of having too few hobbies. For now, the train table will stay in the tiki room (we have nowhere else to put it), but I'm hoping to have it hinge up out of the way when not in use (to where that metal-framed window is now). We're going to get rid of the window and make it into a solid wall to gain more wall space and to have more of a separation between our living space and the tiki room.

Looking to the east:


The tiki room sits between our two (!) backyards. This photo shows the view to the east onto our main back yard with pool and (someday soon) tropical plantings. The pool deck and coping also needs to be completely redone, but that will come after the tiki room. Someday we hope to have the tiki motif spill into this yard, with a fire feature, waterfall(s), large tikis, fun lighting, outdoor speakers, torches, and perhaps even a moai. The yard was barren clay when we bought the house (the previous owners had every living thing in the backyard removed), so you're seeing the result of two years of my wife coaxing life back into the yard.

While it's nice having the pool right there, and we certainly want to encourage people to move freely from tiki room to pool, we want to make this into a solid wall and have another heavy wooden door and an enclosed dark wooden staircase to transition from tiki room to pool area.

Looking to the west:


This is looking towards our daughter's yard (she's 3 years old). We'll also be making this into a solid wall with a solid wooden door exiting to a stairway to her yard. We have plans to turn the nearer half of this yard into a two-story addition to the house once our daughter is too old to appreciate having her own play yard. That won't impact things too much in the near term, but I will be designing this end of the tiki room to eventually support a second story (plus we'll want to use the roof as a place to go to watch the stars (yes, another hobby) and see the bay (it's the only place in our house with a view of the bay).

The bar, from the entrance to the tiki room:

Finally, what you came here for. I removed the bar stools for this shot, as they're seriously out of character (picture chrome legs and red and black leather seats).
The whole room (and the entire pool deck!) used to be carpeted in AstroTurf, but now the foot rest is the only remnant of that artificial green glory. The thatching is old and brittle and needs to be replaced. The bar is nice and long (8 feet), but I'd like to make it even longer (probably about 10 feet). This would mean losing the 1960s-laminate bar surface and moving to something like a dark mahogany bar surface. I really like what the original owner did with the bamboo edges, and I'd like to replicate that.

The top shelves:

One thing that a couple of years collecting rums has shown us is that we need A LOT more shelf space for liquor. The top shelf is a heavy-duty 12-inch-deep, 8-foot-wide red oak shelf I installed last summer to get extra space, but we filled it almost immediately. The black-and-white-checked shelves are light-duty 8- and 10-inch-deep shelves that came with the house. These latter shelves are thin, the supports are weak, and a lot of space is lost to a mini-fridge at the bottom left. I want to move the fridge to under the side leg of the bar, in large part to free up a lot more space for shelves. Another problem I've got is that folks can't see the tasty rums I've got in the second and third rows of the 12-inch-deep shelf.

The bottom shelves (back stock, bitters, and whatnot):

I have a liquor storage problem, and I'm not sure what to do about it. Part of me dreams of putting in a sub-floor storage area for back stock, and other part of me sees heavy-duty drawers as the answer. I have no experience as a bartender, so I'll have to see how other folks solve this problem before committing to a solution.

The Prettyman's Atoll sign:

This was my first attempt at a sign for our bar, but I'm thinking that the new Prettyman's Atoll will need something bigger, heavier, and less two-dimensional. And probably a lot less blue, too.

The side leg of the bar:

This is where I keep my swizzle sticks, stirrers, straws, and various tchotchke. Under the bar is where I keep all my mixing equipment, umbrellas, plastic monkeys, electric ice cubes, mixer, skewers, and whatnot. Originally, 2-3 people could actually sit on that side of the bar and be served, but due to a lack of storage and display space, the bar surface currently serves that purpose.

My naval bell and bos'n's whistle:

I use these to signal when a drink is ready (folks may go to the pool, backyard, kitchen, or wherever after they order their drinks, but I've instilled a Pavlovian response that gets them running back to the bar when they hear either of these).

My glassware, vintage liquor, and board game storage/display cabinets:


These cabinets would do a good job of displaying the more interesting and lightly used glassware, but they're really bothersome for the heavily used glassware (all my glassware is stored here). I have to leave the bar back every time I make a drink, as there is zero glassware storage behind the bar. I'd like to have a place to keep the most heavily used glassware behind the bar, but out of sight. I also have a small but growing collection of vintage tiki-relevant bottles that I store in these cabinets.

This is one of my favorite vintage finds (still mostly full)--Korean-War-era bottle (I think) of Beachcomber Scorpion mix, with a "U.S. Navy Mess" sticker.

This is Stanley and a disassembled WWII-era bomb:

I'd really like to find a way to incorporate Stanley and the bomb into the redesigned/rebuilt bar.

Well, that's it for today. In my next post, I'll talk more about ideas and dreams for the rebuilt tiki room. I'm teaching myself Revit now, so hopefully soon I'll be able to share some 3D renderings of ideas for the tiki room.

[ Edited by: Prettyman's Atoll 2018-01-28 18:11 ]

[ Edited by: Prettyman's Atoll 2018-01-28 18:27 ]

[ Edited by: Prettyman's Atoll 2018-01-28 22:11 ]

Wow. This is going to be something to watch unfold! I do not, however, envy you with the concrete removal that lies at the core of this project. Since you're lowering the room, I'd say to pay very close attention to drainage, but I'm guessing you already know that.

I like what you've already accumulated. Them's the makings of a great tiki bar. I'm not clear on how much yard space you actually have to landscape, but Mediterranean fan palms are compact and cold-tolerant. Pindo palm get a bit bigger, but I think should be able to handle Bay Area climate. Hardy hibiscus should also be worth a look. When you mentioned your idea for a dark anteroom at the entrance, I immediately thought of The Alibi in Portland. That place has a barrel-shaped foyer covered with seagrass matting that is pretty darn cool. I'm not saying this is what you should do (because man, that'd be an insane amount of work) but it's a data point on what's possible:

Keep the posts coming!

Oh, and I forgot to make the obvious statement of tikifying your train layout and having Ixtahuele's "Curitiba Train" playing in the background. :wink:

Thank you, Prikli Pear, for your kind words! I really like the Alibi entrance you showed. Very creative. Thanks also for the plant ideas. We've tried hibiscus, but have been underwhelmed so far (4 inches in 2.5 years), but probably because it's in the shade most of the day. Will have to check out the palms you mentioned. We've got lots of land (well, for the Bay Area), as our lot was actually zoned for two houses but the second house was never built. We're trying to be cautious with the non-peripheral plantings until we've figured out a long-term plan. We jumped right in on the periphery, though, as we need some privacy for our tiki oasis!

Thanks also for turning me on to Ìxtahuele and Curitiba Train. I had never heard it, and really like. The train layout is going to have to pay some sort of tiki toll for taking up space in the tiki room. Not sure what that toll is going to look like. The trains are N-scale—far too small to haul a tiki drink—so I think we'll end up having an exotic tiki corner of the layout.

As for the drainage, that is indeed going to play a major role in the design of the room and the surrounding yard areas. Thankfully, the tiki room sits on the highest part of the property, so even with a floor that is 16 inches lower, we'll be able to put a drain system 16 inches below that and still have more than enough elevation above the planned outlet 100 feet away to have the water drain nicely without having to deal with a pump. Still, though, that's going be a lot of trenching.

Totally love this project! I am especially fond of the combination tiki / board game hobbies I see since those are two of my loves. I am still trying to figure out where to put my tiki bar since I agree with the idea of teleporting to a different world when you enter the tiki oasis. It will take some doing to find a place for that in our house right now, but I will find it eventually.

A progress report on the redesign/rebuild of Prettyman's Atoll.

First, a few disclaimers:
• I'm teaching myself architectural modeling with Revit, so much about these early models will be unorthodox, clunky, silly, or just plain wrong. Feel free to point any such errors out to me, as I may not even know I've erred at this point.
• The neoclassical bust on a marble column will not be part of the room décor. That's a temporary stand-in for a standing tiki until such time that I figure out how to model a tiki in this software.
• The non-tiki bar stools are just place-holders. I'll be going with something more tiki-themed for the real deal.
• These early models are focusing on the overall structure, layout, and flow of the room, rather than than on the tiki and poly pop décor that will hopefully cover nearly every surface in the tiki room, so apologies if it looks tiki-sterile at this point.
• Last, with only a few exceptions, I haven't yet layered in mechanical, electrical, plumbing, or structural details. In this first round of planning, I'm focusing on the architectural aspects of the project.

Second, I'm hoping that folks with a better eye for design, architecture, history, entertaining, and the like may have feedback on this initial design. What would you change? What would you add? What would you lose? What do you think I'll regret if I follow through with it? What do you think I'll regret if I don't do it? What am I not even thinking about at this point?

Here's a 3D overview of the redesign so far:

Some of the main changes:
• The floor level is 16 inches lower than existing, so there will be steps down into the room from the main house and steps up to the areas on either side of the tiki room.
• I lengthened the bar by two feet, so the main surface of the bar is now 10 feet long.
• I added a hinged counter over the entry to the bar, bringing the length of the main surface of the bar to nearly 12 feet.
• I sketched in 5 shelves for bottle display and storage. Four of these are 9' 9" and one is 12 feet long. All are 16 inches from each other vertically.
• I added in a huge over-bar cabinet that will store my most commonly used glassware, mugs, and bowls, as well as audio equipment and speakers, and probably the electronics and switches for lights, sound and lighting effects, and other special effects. I may also install a touchscreen to access a database of less frequently made drink recipes .
• I've sketched in a generously sized booth (table is 3 x 6 feet) with under-seat storage that should handle much of our board game collection.
• The mini-fridge now fits neatly under the bar.

Here's a section looking from the wall behind the bar (first a thin section, then a full-depth section):

Here's a section looking from the house towards the bar (first a thin section, then a full-depth section):

Here's a section looking from the pool-side wall towards the room (first a thin section, then a full-depth section):

I still have no idea how I'll handle ice (a problem with my existing bar)--at the very least, I'd like a place where I can leave an amount of ice and not have it mostly melted when I need it 15 minutes later.

I'm not sure what back story I'll need to create to make it fit into a tiki bar, but I inherited an industrial fog machine that I'd love to hide under the front center of the bar (under the foot rest and hidden behind opaque fabric) and include among my bar's special effects (perhaps when a fog cutter is ordered?).

Let me know what you think, fellow Tiki-Centralers!

[ Edited by: Prettyman's Atoll 2018-02-11 17:23 ]

Okay, wow. That's some exceptional planning there. It's going to be fantastic. Get a liquor license and you'll be able to make it pay for itself!

And I wouldn't give up on the neoclassical bust so quickly. A likeness of Trader Vic or Don the Beachcomber would fit in quite nicely. :wink:

Thanks, Prikli! Serving paying customers in the bar is actually a retirement dream of mine, although as we're in a quiet residential neighborhood currently full of non-drinkers, it may remain just a dream. A boy can hope, though.

On 2018-02-11 11:01, Prettyman's Atoll wrote:
Thanks, Prikli! Serving paying customers in the bar is actually a retirement dream of mine, although as we're in a quiet residential neighborhood currently full of non-drinkers, it may remain just a dream. A boy can hope, though.

Two words: Speak Easy. :wink:

Great beginnings and it sounds like you have a solid plan in place! I'll be keeping an eye on this thread!

Prikli, I like the way you think. We might indeed just become the suspiciously popular neighbors if the legal and appropriate means fail us.

I’ve had a few ideas rolling around in my brain since seeing your big January 28 post, and a few others thoughts since you put up your renderings. I’ll share them soon, but in the meantime, I’ll say that I’m also jealous that you'll have a model train layout in your tiki space....

Hamo, you tease! I can't wait to hear your ideas!

Okay then, cogitate on these humble suggestions:

You’d mentioned wanting a clear division between the tiki room and the rest of the house. If you turn the stairs 90 degrees and enclose it with a partition wall, you could create that “antechamber” feeling and cause people to turn their bodies multiple times to enter, thus accentuating the distinction. It would also add some wall space to hang things on, and give the room some interesting dimension beyond a open “box.” If you moved that one exterior door to the base of the stairs, it could better utilize the space, and share in that antechamber feeling, too.

And what if your table had an L-shaped booth? It would be less confining at the bar, and you might be able to add a few more chairs around the side.

I made a few quick sketches to help illustrate what I mean.

You might also consider swapping the locations of the train layout and table so things aren’t so crowded in that corner by the bar.

Or you could keep the perpendicular booths, put up another partition wall and move the other exterior door to make another enclosed entrance. This might also allow for building a “hut” around the table and booths.

Obviously I don’t know your room dimensions, so these sketches aren’t to scale, and these thoughts might not work in reality.

Another way to provide separation of spaces at the doorways might be to hang curtains to create “foyers.” I don’t know if they all had these, but a few years ago, an Old Navy store near me had a “quick change dressing room,” which was essentially a half-circular rod with curtain attached to the wall in front of a mirror. You could hang something similar in front of your exterior doors. I was recently in a downtown Denver restaurant that has a similar setup serving as an airlock to keep out the winter weather. (Sorry; no crude drawing of this...).

Hamo, I really like your idea for the steps and that door. Efficient use of space. There are lots of variations to that concept that could allow for great creativity. Even something simple like adding a bamboo or beaded curtain at the bottom of the steps could add to the effect.

Hamo, these ideas are great! Thank you for your generous brainstorming! I like all three, but especially #3, and my wife prefers #2 somewhat over #3, so I'll be creating some design options today based on your brainstorming and will share it back as soon as I'm done. I do have one question--other than needing to use more expensive security hinges if the doors swings outward, do you have a reason for having the two side doors swing inward?

Hamo, thank you again for your brainstorming and suggestions. This is exactly the sort of feedback I was hoping to get from the folks here at Tiki Central.

I've worked up Hamo's three ideas and my original plan as design options, and I'll present them below momentarily. I think turning the entry stair 90º and walling it in is genius, and that will definitely become a part of the design. Likewise, I really like the idea of moving the booth to the side of the room opposite the bar is great, and that will also almost certainly become a part of the design. Finally, changing the booth to be an L-shape is a much better use of space and actually results in a greater number of people being able to sit around the table, if additional chairs are brought in.

To refresh your memory, this was my original, pre-Hamo design:

And here are Hamo's three brainstormed designs:

Hamo's first brainstorm:

Hamo's second brainstorm:

Hamo's third brainstorm:

The only brainstorm idea not to work out is the first, and that's only because the curio cabinet restricts the flow of people at a couple of key areas. Move that cabinet to the south side of the entry staircase wall (as in his second design), and that problem is solved.

Of the three, I now agree with my wife that Hamo's brainstorm #2 will work the best for us. It gives us a lot of flexibility for the use and seating arrangement of the booth, it leaves plenty of space in the center of the room, there are no bottlenecks to people moving around or through the room, and we'll have a nice big design opportunity when/if the train table exits the tiki room.

Hamo and Prikli, whenever you may find yourselves in the SF Bay Area, consider yourself welcome at Prettyman's Atoll!

Hello, fellow East Bay resident! Very cool to see another local bar build-out! I am enjoying seeing the ideas here. Good luck!

If I ever get back to SF, you better believe I'm going to check out the Atoll. This is gonna be killer once you're done! Thanks for the invite!

Great thread! I’m a big fan of heavy ordnance in the home bar. I have incorporated a couple of big boys in my bar and they blend in well. Keep up the good work.

I agree with you and your missus; that second drawing does look like it will work best.

On 2018-02-16 08:09, Prettyman's Atoll wrote:
I do have one question--other than needing to use more expensive security hinges if the doors swings outward, do you have a reason for having the two side doors swing inward?

No specific reason. I guess I just assumed exterior doors normally swing inward, since I don’t think I’ve encountered it any other way.

I’m excited to see everything come to life. It’s very generous of you to extend an invitation. I’m actually considering a trip to the Bay Area in late November/early December. Better get working.... :)

Hamo,

You are most welcome in November/December, but don't get your hopes up about Prettyman's Atoll v2.0 being done (or even started for that matter). We've still got to figure out how to pay for it, to say nothing of the permitting process or the actual construction. Our pessimistic estimate is that it will be done within 2-3 years, but of course we'll do it as soon as possible and we hope to be able to relax in the newly rebuilt bar well before then. On the other hand, the most optimistic estimate calls for demolition beginning this fall, which would mean you'd see Prettyman's Atoll v1.9 (aka a muddy hole in the ground or maybe a brand-new concrete slab). Check back around late summer and I should be able to give you a much firmer idea of the actual construction timeframe.

As far as the doors go, my understanding is that residential exterior doors tend to open inwards for better security and more convenience for the homeowner coming home in the rain or with hands full of packages, but that commercial exterior doors almost always swing outwards, to facilitate speedy evacuation in case of an emergency. In our case, it's mostly a design choice to maximize the interior space of the room.

Looks like you have great bones (that need shoring up) to work from. I love those storage cabinets. At one time I had my glassware stored on open bamboo shelves, but then the glasses were always dusty. I found a great a cabinet on a local for sale site and had a friend clean it up, add more shelves, repair some of the bamboo style decor and stain it to match the rest of my bar woods. It turned out great and no more dusty glasses. You are blessed in that you have the construction skills to make your plans happen. I've had various plans over the years and some of them did not come to fruition because I couldn't find anyone to be able to do the work. So as time marches along my plans have changed many times. I look forward to watching your build and I like the military items incorporated into Tiki...fits for me. I'll bet you have some great collections.

We do our Cap City Tiki Bar Crawl the first weekend in October. Sacramento is not far from you so check out our event thread and join us on the crawl. You will get the opportunity to see so many different styles and approaches and ask experts how-to questions.

Have fun building.

On 2018-02-10 13:53, Prettyman's Atoll wrote:
I still have no idea how I'll handle ice (a problem with my existing bar)--at the very least, I'd like a place where I can leave an amount of ice and not have it mostly melted when I need it 15 minutes later.

Have you seen the Imbibe article with Adrian and his Desert Oasis Room? I thought of you when I read this:

http://imbibemagazine.com/home-tiki-bar-adrian-eustaquio/

“For small groups, Eustaquio fills a diving helmet–shaped ice bucket from the ‘60s, but for a larger crowd, he wheels out an upright drinks cooler that he adapted to his own purposes. ‘It’s basically a Red Bull cooler that I decorated in such a way that it matches the lamps,’ he says. ‘It holds 50 pounds of ice, and I can wheel it around, so If I need to fill it up again I can just wheel it into the kitchen. There’s no sink in the bar, so at the end of the night, I can wheel it outside and empty the water there.’”

This looks like an exciting project! I also had a chance to build our tiki room from the ground up, but didn't decide to actually make it a tiki room until it had already been framed. So we were still a bit limited.

One of the best aspects of starting fresh is that you can actually design and build your space around some of the larger items you plan to include, allowing you to feature/highlight them, and make them an integral part of the flow.

Best of luck, and I look forward to seeing your progress!

Jeff

Have you seen the Imbibe article with Adrian and his Desert Oasis Room?

An upright, passive (ie unpowered) wheeled cooler would be perfect for me. As soon as I saw that Imbibe article, I started looking for one. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be available retail--special order for vendors or such. I'll wager Adrian got one that was being "retired" by a convenience store. An Ebay search shows there's one available in Spring, about 200 miles away. Pick-up only. Not exactly convenient.

[Edit] It appears my search terms were lacking. "Ice barrel cooler" turns up a decent number of hits for this particular design, mostly targeted at retail stores, but available for purchase by us home bar enthusiasts. https://www.webstaurantstore.com/irp-ice-hawk-5005-insulated-portable-round-barrel-beverage-cooler-merchandiser-with-lid-and-70-qt-black/465IRP5005BK.html

[ Edited by: Prikli Pear 2018-03-06 07:26 ]

Hamo, Prikli -- Thank you once again for your suggestions. I was originally thinking of going with an icemaker that had built-in refrigeration for the ice, since I'll have both power and cold water lines, but this has got me thinking more along your lines. I couldn't find any icemakers that were small enough, affordable enough, and that produced enough ice, so going this route makes things a good deal simpler.

An update on the planning process—after almost three weeks of waiting, I've finally got an appointment to meet with the planner/inspector at the building permit office in 30 minutes for an initial conversation to discover what they'll let me do, what they won't let me do, and what they'll charge for the permit. I'm hoping this goes better than the discussion with the local utility who has a 1923 easement over essentially my entire backyard that prevents me from doing anything more than putting in a vegetable garden.

All right--good news! While the Planning Manager noted that the existing tiki room was almost certainly built without a permit and is disconforming to city code and zoning regulations (and not necessarily legally so), he dug deep into the code regulating allowed encroachments for single family residences and discovered a little-used provision that would allow me to permanently set aside a non-encroachment portion of our land to never be built upon, and in return I could legally build in an area that would otherwise be off limits because it's in an encroachment. Since the entire tiki bar is currently in an encroachment zone, this will allow me to finally make it all legal and conforming. And it would all become inhabitable square footage, so a plus for our home value.

The Planning Manager had no problem with me wanting to go down 16 inches, and saw no problem with the bar sink draining as graywater (watering our mint bush to keep the Mai Tais flowing). And most surprisingly, he had no problem with calling the complete tear-down and rebuild a "partial remodel" since one of the walls (the wall of the house) will remain standing.

He did hint that I should get hopping on this right away, as Planning Managers are given a lot of latitude in their decisions, and the next Planning Manager may not be as accommodating. But if I can get design approval soon, and if I apply for a permit for at least part of the work within a year of design approval, the design approval for the entire project will never expire.

So he recommended putting together plans for all work I need to do (new development--I now also need to build an addition somehow, somewhere for elderly parents to eventually live in), and get those plans approved. He suggested a second-floor addition above the tiki bar (or the garage) as one possibility to get extra space in the house, and I'm now thinking I may end up with not just a tiki room, but also something like the Captain's Quarters above Milwaukee's Foundation Bar (https://www.critiki.com/location/foundation-captains-quarters-milwaukee-1078/). Obviously, we wouldn't be sticking the elderly folk up the stairs above the bar, but we could move up there to free up a ground-floor room.

All very exciting stuff, and I can't wait to get to designing it all!

Congrats on the positive developments in the planning process (although it sounds like most construction projects and beginning to grow exponentially...:)).

Congratulations on the good news! And, as Hamo warned, these "little projects" do tend to take on a life of their own, consuming yours in the process!