OUR Irish Pub Home Bar Build.....From Scratch (that's Ireland not Notre Dame theme) - Page 3

now we move outside

the following picture is back in january when we started. the yard was really torn up from moving the concrete










so a story comes with this....

we had a deck started on the back of our house over 12 years ago, & never really started working on it till 2 years ago.

so the spring of 2010 we started on finishing the deck up to the space where we would eventually put the bar.

on memorial day hubby had a stroke while he was screwing in the deck boards. just an FYI to let you know it can happen to anyone.
we were hoping it was just a TMI , but was not the case. the MRI showed a scattering of 'white dead' spots.
ok let me back up a bit.
soooo he loses feeling in his right arm, & comes in the house, he is having trouble talking,,, just great. so call 911.. now since it was memorial day, our little township was having their parade at that time & the rescue squad ( all volunteer in our area) was just sitting 1/2 mile up the road. seems like a bunch of cops etc were around also, as within minutes we had the rescue squad , 2 police cars, & about a dozen emts here. seems like they wanted something to do that morning.

ok, so by time hubby gets to hospital he is regaining feeling in his arm, but speech is still slurred. ( dang). anyway, the next several days he gets all the scans & heart tests. & they find nada. which is BAD. they really want to find out something wrong. so they blamed smoking for this, could not find anything else . ok so he is back to work the next week, but takes a couple months of speech therapy to get him talking straight again.

it was pretty scary on the 'stroke' floor. many many other patients were totally bedridden with only ONE spot on their mri.... well we were told something is dead up there,, we are just waiting for the day when he gets asked a question & he has no answer for it,


well he eventually finished the deck... but he keeps wanting to re-fix it. something isn't quite square on it & he wants to unscrew the boards & re do it. I protest... but he probably will work on that part again.


anyway guys,,,,,,,, if you have ANY strange symptoms, please don't shake it off.

ok, back to the deck.

here is working on the deck behind the house now. the brown door is where it leads to the bar.

oh & hubby has strict orders from his daughter ( & me) he is not to be alone out back working on this....

thanks Nick,
yup he is doing great!

he has been wonderful for a long time. but that also creates problems, as he forgets how scary it all was & could have been devestating, so He thinks he can go back to normal...... like smoking.

back to the leprechauns cave.

here again are the gold bar props from "Die Hard"







the tree limb is for helping support the plexiglass






the chest was something I inherited from my dad. it has been with me for over 35 years just waiting for something like this.

the jewelry is from a help request I sent out to friends to help me collect stuff for my project. ( THANK you guys )

the coins were from molds I made from props for Pirates of the carribbean





the gold bars in the corner are from props from star trek, Gold Pressed Latinum.

casino chips from the cruiseships we have been on

sea glass my Son collected for me









The "Heart of the Ocean" the leprechaun gathered off the floor of the ocean near the titanic ( after all it was built in Ireland)

& gotta have a genii lamp









The leprechaun





with plexiglass on

now , as I said work in progress. I am looking for just the right size Tardis to put in it.

I have put a lot of thought into this over the years. It is kinda a strange curio cabinet.

I did a rush job putting it together ( to get it done for the big party here) so did not get some things in.
we have collected sand from some of the beaches we have gone to. plan on putting small piles with the flag of the country stuck in.

also have a small crystal ball need to put in.

I would say many of the things have sentimental attachment to them. (several from loved relatives that have passed away.... my hubby made sure I told our kids (etc) of these items so they wouldn't be discarded)

the large piece of coral was my moms, & the shells , of course, we collected (shhhh the leprechaun collected )

here are pictures of the back bar




put the fridge in under a large drawer





put copper colored shelf paper on shelves.




here you can see the door fronts. & we put up a copper colored glass tiles on the back of the bar. I didn't take any pics of that install, I was so distracted by it being a PIA. soooooo many little tiles that you have to wipe off the grout on. I am still finding some pieces that need to be fully wiped. I decided NOT to put a sealer on it, as I read some horrible reviews on some of the sealers that are now used. that it changes the grout & tile color. this is in a place I doubt will have to be cleaned much ( unless a smoothy explodes )

also I am suggesting, do NOT ever do tile after the bar top is on. we literally had to crawl between the counter & bar top to finish the one corner.
we just put it off , one of those things that don't work well.

funny the grout in the pictures looks white, when its really a dark tan

Edited by muffyn - 6/12/12 at 9:39pm

ok, somewhere avs changed the format here.
I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong. can't upload any pictures!!!
I am using picasa 3.
anysuggestions? which items to use doing a link?

ok testing to see if this works on loading pictures.
(not happy with change in format, the way I was doing this will not work, now)





hmm, ok works, but can't choose picture size...
but guess good enough for now?

ok, back to posting pictures of the bar.

these are mostly of the dining room area & looking into the bar itself





























the post card holder.
I had thoughts that our Bar was "somewhere" that if you were on a trip and just stopped by, that it would have postcards for sale, like it was in some town/tourist attraction. I had wanted it on the end of the bar, but was quickly vetoed by the rest of the family that it took up too much space,,,,,,, hmmm,, ok,,, but I still would have liked it ON the bar.
we were able to get a few people to pick us up some postcards from Ireland for us. other postcards are from other trips we have taken, & many are from others collected from over the years that people have sent us, or that my mom had collected, some are 75+ years old. just thought a neat idea to look at & they weren't stuck in a drawer somewhere.








these are 4 & 5 leaf clovers I had found wayyyyyyyyy long ago in my back yard. I am surprised they survived so long. & reminds me of how as a kid there was so much clover & BEES in the grass...... hardly ever see a Bee anymore.










this was taken during our grand opening party!!! we finally got guests in there!! notice the chip stand?? felt that any self respecting bar needs a chip stand...







more later....

ok, now more pictures of the bar front looking at the bar back





3





















starting on the left side of our *collection* shelf.
we have a singing bear... she sings when irish eyes are smiling
Beer bottles that hae special meaings to us,,,the 1st 2 are from my brother, then a bud Irish, bud from RCCL cruise & the Dorado was from the canary Islands
in front is a lucky cat from Hawaii







the christmas story lamp & lifebuoy soap ,

( from our fav movie, which we were extras in,,
I'm in the red hat , hubby is next to me with the light spot on his chin)




the budda mug, from a dinner out,, & the unicorn meat can........ well reading the can
it tells you that unicorns go to die in a certain place in Ireland, & the nuns there sooth & take care of them till they die & then their meat is canned.



next begins our run of stuff rom the adventurers club on walt disney world.
Babylonias bubbles, canteen, tacki tiki mug, the tasting mugs, YAKOOSE, & the last glasses they sold










most of these glasses on the shelf are from cruises we took






I don't collect t-pots , but for some reason all irish pubs have t-pots on their shelves











the trolls were a gift from my sons family

that was from ebay seller "lovelysign" it as only $32. (shipping included ) ( I see thought they dropped the price now ) & pretty fast shipping from hong kong

they have a lot of personalized sings you can choose from

thanks!

yea so far we haven't got tired of sitting in there

although my son in law thinks its too BUSY but i have seen a lot of irish pubs with tons of stuff all over the walls. I just put what my *stuff* would be.

yea well. some of the signs were a "link" to our visits in the carribean.....







now these are the titanic links, somehow My husband has this affinity for the titanic,, he must have beena pax in a former life.
the bottom picture was the last known picture of the titanic sailing past Ireland.






our " name your poison" sign





New beer additions






found a new lucky cat that is the AFLAC duck in disquise. swiped it from a box of AFLAC ducks,, my son on law is an AFLAC agent. this "cat" sings in japanese...... real cute




(more of the ducks,,, I just love the the ones where the duck is something else pretending to BE the duck,, like the orangutan.)

just some other pictures looking into the booth side of the bar






















































& here is another Twilight zone connection in the bar.
although I am quite confused by anyone noticing. I have had all ages here, & it seems no one connects the episode. like they have never watched twilight zone. gee even the people who go to Walt disney world 'should' know twilight zone.......with the tower of terror. & there are twilight zone marathons every year on tv. oh well...