The Makuhari Club

You tell me, is it starting to look like a tiki bar yet?

The walls I am not changing except that the closet will be replaced with the bar. The tatami mats will be replaced with Sugi wood flooring and stained a dark color to mimic the decking of a ship. I've got plenty of material to cover the walls. The wooden panel ceiling is will be removed, revealing the hardwood pitched roof above, which I will hang lights and a suitable Hawaiiana style fan from. For those times I want total darkness, the rice paper on the window and door covers will be replaced with thick black fabric. That should work with the overall design.

It's starting to shape up. Keep up the good work!

Outside update.

The renovations still have not begun, so outside tiki area is not going to happen this year. That'll be next year's project. I'll focus on the upstairs tiki room over the colder months as Jayme (Lagoon of Mystery) suggested.

But the outside is really starting to show its beach house pedigree. I'm hacking away non-subtropical/tropical plants mostly, and most anything next to the house (all of the siding is being replaced with a vertical MCM siding, and except for one olive tree I want to keep, I've been told it all has to go so the contractors can set up scaffolding).

I found a colony of bromeliads against the kitchen wall outside, shallowly rooted. I dug them up, washed them thoroughly, and have potted up some and put others into water vases. If they survive, I'd like to replant them back outside somewhere. It appears they can survive our occasional cold snaps and I saw a ton of them in Hawai'i.

I have not yet taken down most of the hedges, which appear to have been put in place as privacy screens. We'll be putting in a wall with breeze block elements instead, but I am not prepared to sacrifice my privacy until I have a reno start date.

[ Edited by SouthSeasKat on 2023-08-08 01:44:40 ]

It finally begins. Renovation team is on site in Mid-March. I have begun demo (stripping anything I can unbolt/unscrew, actually, otherwise leaving it to the professional), and I've had the landscapers out to help me cut down anything I couldn't cut down myself and to take away a bunch of trash.

Originally, I had wanted the eastern most room to be the tiki room because I was going to knock down the wall between the western room and the middle room on the second floor. That wasn't in the budget (neither was opening up the roof, which is a shame, as it is quite high and has beautiful wood work). The entire first floor will essentially be brand new though (it is currently entirely stripped, and I'm living in the rooms upstairs, even set up a kitchenette in my office).

So, that being said, I decided to make the eastern most room into my master bedroom, the western most room my office, and the middle room will be the Tiki room. These rooms are all small (105 square feet), but they have large windows (and the middle and eastern rooms have sliding doors for the balcony outside), but there should be enough room for a small bar and some seating. Due to the house's proximity to the beach (two blocks) and given the abundance of typhoons, fully metal storm doors are available for every large window and sliding doors, and they're black-out when closed, and with the middle room I will only need to close one set of storm doors.

I've stripped the middle room, including the closet, and I'll start work on it while the builder's team is working on the first floor. I'll sleep in the eastern room, and work (I am work from home) in the western room (the office). The walls and ceiling will be painted black and then I'll put up various materials like woven reed material, bamboo, etc. I've got a lot of material left from the previous owners, and even more of it up in the attic, and bamboo is cheap or free here. My current plan is to finish the closet area and put in the fridge and run the bar across the front of sliding doors coming out from the right side of the closet. Then arrange the seating in the remaining area. I may replace the hinged door for a sliding door in order to maximise the available space. Not sure yet. I have plenty of spare sliding doors from the first floor, since it has been gutted. Not entirely sure what I want to do about the flooring.

Totally open to suggestions, this is the epitome of a blank slate.

[ Edited by SouthSeasKat on 2024-03-03 04:08:24 ]

[ Edited by SouthSeasKat on 2024-03-03 04:09:13 ]

Can't wait to see the result.

Side note: are you going to the big tiki thing at TV Tokyo in October?

I was unaware of it. I did know that Trader Vic's at the New Ohtani has a big anniversary (50 years, I think), and I was planning to go to that.

Do you have a link/news report/etc?

Yeah, it's the 50 year anniversary thing

https://tradervics.com/trader-vics-tokyo-celebrates-50-years-in-2024/

I should be back from my temp stay in Africa by then and hoping to go.

Well, a note: the site you linked has already been taken down because the hotel is fully booked, so no tickets for the Jeff Berry talk on the 17th. Tickets ARE still available for the party itself, but to get to it, you have to use the link directly:

https://www.tablecheck.com/shops/newotani-tokyo-vics/reserve?menu_items%5b%5d=654afbb69598d400b441b47c

I just assumed, very much incorrectly, that I could just show up. If you are making the same assumption, I'd get your ticket now.

[ Edited by SouthSeasKat on 2024-03-04 02:28:20 ]

Well, damn. The Jeff Berry talk is what i wanted to attend the most.

I'll grab tickets I suppose

Someone always cancels, and even with room blocks, there's always some space left in the hotel, just not officially. October is a long, long way away. And it says all hotel guests have access to Jeff's talk, so I'd just keep checking the availability. You might end up essentially paying double, but at least you'll get in.

I have never met anyone "tiki famous" anyway. And I have... thoughts on how we have celebri-tised certain folks.

First coat of black underpaint done on the tiki room. I think I'll only need two coats, but we shall see. Another day. I need to paint the ceiling tiles too. Then I'll be putting up the mats and bamboo. I think for flooring I'll just go with easy to clean black or dark gray carpet squares in case someone gets a bit too enthusiastic and commits a cocktail party foul.

Most of the materials here are from the original owners. Shoved up in the attic. Hey why not? They did have the chairs, after all. Seems to me they might have thought about doing the same thing and just never got around to it...

How's the bat status going? I'm tempted to look into buying a property here as well for the future. Love Japan.