Hapa Haole Hideaway rebuild

With the plans for a real public tiki bar too far away to imagine right now, plans for the home bar are now full speed ahead. We began putting it together in earnest in the last two weeks. Brought the thatch and matting and stuff out of storage. It's a smaller space than before. We have a real bar in it now. Lower ceilings. So, we began.

We started by hanging the first panel over the bar. We wanted to make a "hut" that the bar was in. To have the thatch come over the space and inclose it. But it was not working. We got two panels up and then put 2 more out and it was just wrong. Racked our brains for a while and then had the idea. We lowered the ceiling panels. That made it right.

The lights were strung through the thatch easily.


From the front of the 4 X 4 panels, we attached half thatch panels. Tied them to the front and got some bamboo plant stakes at Lowes and tied them to the insaide to make a sort of frame and used wire from ceiling hooks to get the right angle.

We had a bamboo mat we hung on the wall and put my long Papua New Guinea piece in front of it. Turned out nice. A warm feeling.



Here you can see the wires a bit that hold it all up. We started adding fish floats in too.


The view from the kitchen

Making more progress. I am trying to figure out how to wire LEDs into the small puffer fish I have and hang them all over the place. I have my Hobby Lobby fish float lamps in progress. They should be about ready to finish. We're moving more furniture in and wiring up speakers, etc. All in all, it's getting ready to entertain guests. We desparately need better bar stools. But, we can't find what we want cheap enough so far.

But the bar is open. When in Knoxville, drop by! The inside of that bar is filled to overflowing with booze!

The Swank Pad Broadcast - If it's Swank...

[ Edited by: Swanky 2006-03-07 16:14 ]

[ Edited by: Swanky 2011-07-13 09:47 ]

Looking great Swanky! It was a sad day when the Hapa Haole Hideaway was dismantled and it's nice to see it back up and running!

Swanky,

Looks like a wicked place to kick back. I dig it! I give it 5 saw revs!

-Gman

OK - Who are you Gman?

"The Saw is Family" is a quote I saw at Marty's Halloween Trail in Lithia a couple years back.

You familiar with that whacked out bunch?

The Saw is Family, is from Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.

[ Edited by: Turbogod 2005-07-23 19:04 ]

Pablus,

Sorry, I don't know any of those folks. I've actually never met any other tiki carvers....ever. I'm just Greg, a marine biologist who likes to carve with chainsaws in my free time. I'm new to TC, and started posting pics last week. I really enjoy the contact with other carvers. I've never had the opportunity to have this contact, or discuss carving with anyone else who shares my passion.

As pictured in the post above, "The Saw Is Family" is from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part II. That is one of my favorite quotes/movies. The comedy in it is NUTZ!

I figured that as a chainsaw carver I needed a signature that was saw specific...and there you have it.

If there are other tiki carvers in the Tampa area, we should meet up one night at the Coquina Blue and trade designs and techniques. If you guys need logs, let me know as I go log hunting on the weekends.

-Gman

I thought that might be a movie line - but I never watched that one.
I miss a lot.

I'm not a carver.
I am, however, a collector.

BTW, how come none of you carvers ever check out the music forum?
We come over here.

Buncha art snobs.
:wink:

Looking Good Swanky...
or
Looking Swank! Goody!

Swanky, looks great. Did you save a spot for the Big Ku?

looking good swanky. the bar is looking nice and tikified. i see you got the standard blow fish, glass floats and tiki carvings. Looks like it is on its way to being a swank tiki bar.

If you didn't post this I was going to get on your case for not finishing your carving. :wink:

Looking GREAT- I like the view looking into the room- it's going to be a nice place to get away in...

Looks real nice. Cool stuff dude.

The home made fish float lights are coming along as are the puffer fish lights for the small ones. I have a large lighted one, but I am going to use small LEDs for the 8 or so small fish and put them all around the room.

It's closer, and at an "acceptable" point, but has a long way to go yet. I have the typical dilemma: I have no place for mugs.

I have the typical dilemma: I have no place for mugs.

Ha!
Being a rental flat dweller I have the opposite problem. The mugs are on their shelves on the wall but I have no place for a tiki bar! :)

Looks great so far Swanky!

Well, okay, let me amend that. When I moved in there, I put a few of my mugs on the kitchen counter by the microwave. Then, as I continued collecting over the last 7 months, that new stuff went on the counter too. That space is now full. I am thinking I will have to put some of those in the boxes in the basement to make room for more stuff. So at this point, I don't know how many mugs I have, and quite frankly, I don't really recall which mugs I have.

We are looking at some of the floating shelves they have at the hardware store to put up in the bar.

Starting to get into shape again. Looks like it will be better this time around? Makes me thirsty looking at the pictures.
Keep on Posting.

Yesterday I added 7 framed menus and 14 framed postcards to one wall of the Hideaway. These are easy open back frames, so I can take it down and get the menu out and lokk at it in a moment.



Gotta get somethign to make the postcards hang stright.
Next step is a shelf for mugs above the menus, and I may put in a second shelf below. Not sure. 12 feet of shelf will not hold all my mugs...

Those little postcard frames can be a pain to get straight. Try a dab of earthquake putty on the back.

I like the menus on the black back ground.
I really should have mine framed so they stay protected better than they are right now laying around on the bar top. Sooner or later there will be a spill happen.....

Earthquake putty? Never heard of it in Tennessee. But I am getting some when the mug shelf goes up.

Those frames were maybe $8-9 and they open easy so you can still get the menu out and look at it in just a second. A piece of acid free paper for a backing. And these places always have half off sales. The postcard frames were $1 each on sale this week.

Now if I can figure out ways to get the rest of the stuff out where people can see it...

Hey Swanky - nice work on the bar man. Love the wall of postcards and menus.

This week I put in my mug shelf and brought a lot out of it's cold storage in the basement. My barrel kiosk o' tiki and all my mugs!

Here I am unpacking the boxes of mugs in the kitchen.

Here is the barrel o' tiki kiosk. It has a light inside. I have mostly black items in the bottom with a Kahiki menu as a backdrop,.

Here is the finalized (sort of) wall of the lounge. The postcards below the menus and and the shelf of mugs above. I tried to match everything with locations, although I own very few Kahiki mugs, and I put Trader Dick's with the Trader Vic's...

I also unpacked a box load of tikis and stuff, hung the final two fish floats and now the bar is really ready! Come on over!

Looks like you reallly have it under control Swank, It's looking great.

Very nice. The menus look cool mounted like that.