The Lava Hut

The quick answer WHY NOT…

Ok so Arizona doesn’t have that many options for a decent tiki bar. Below are the few that are close to me and I have personally visited.

• Hulas Modern Tiki
• Undertow
• The Drunk Monk

These are all great options but they have a few down falls.

Firstly Lenny my brother in law (drinking buddy) has hearing issues and having a discussion is difficult, but to be honest that happens almost everywhere because he has hearing issues, go figure…

Secondly While not all made me feel this way, I felt that the drinks were Kool-Aid-ed (over sugared and watered down somehow at the same time) and

Third (the big one!!) The cost… two drinks shouldn’t cost me almost $50 after the cost of the drinks, tax, and tip.

So it all started one evening Diana (the wife and love of my life) and I were out in the back yard enjoying the evening out by the fire pit I made her for her previous birthday, when the topic of tiki came up. We started talking about the up coming Tiki Oasis in Scottsdale AZ. When I passively mentioned how I always wanted to have a Tiki Bar, fearing that Diana wouldn’t feel the same. Despite having been married for over 18 years at the time she surprised me (that made me happy) “I have always wanted one too”. Over our marriage we have multiple times done things we thought would make things easier for the other just to find out just to find out we had the WRONG. This was one of those moment where we kept back the fact we both wanted a Tiki Bar thinking the other wouldn’t want one. To be clear the want for the bar was not based on alcohol but within all things Tiki!

I tend to cling onto projects and make them my focus, so that’s what I did just a few days later, but I still had to “adult” and couldn’t spend all the money I had to to make a bar in my back yard because that wouldn’t be the best choice. So I had a limit on how much I could spend and subsequently how big I could make the structure. Reclaimed wood and free pallets became my favorite resource. The only things I allowed my self to spend money on was anything for safety, basically the floor and anything that would support the roof but the rest would be free or super cheap!!!

Craigslist was a good friend in the building process.

I by no means am a certified carpenter but I have a clue, and I can Google/Youtube what I don’t know. Once I drew up a plan, I was able to purchase the basics and get started. The nice part about doing it your self I can modify the processes on the fly and make it better (correct some screw ups).

In the process of making the general platform/deck I was able to adjust the size and make it bigger based on wood availability and saving money. I am glad I did the extra 2-ish feet make the whole deck feel like it’s a reasonable size and not the crampy feeling I was afraid it would have.

This build project went over the period of several weekends and as the build progressed I was able to “test” out things little by little. I am learning about photography and one thing I have learned was to use the surroundings to drive the focus on what your subject is.

The focus of my Tiki Bar is an anxious one but I decided to use the wood of the bar top to help aim the focus, towards the most important thing in the bar the bartender or more accurately me!

So now that I have a basic structure I can test it out and see what works and what I need to work on making better.

Back around Christmas when I started this project I tested Christmas lights around the bar to add to the ambience and I think it worked great, but it’s a shame I can’t leave them up year round!

I can’t say the Hut will ever be done, I will always want to upgrade and improve, but for now its as done as it will be (for the summer)!