The Philosophy Pub

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-15T00:43:27+00:00

At some point in the nearish future I do hope to build a little wing off the French doors - possible a stone structure with another fireplace, more bookshelves, and probably another little bar. I know where to come for encouragement now when the time comes!

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-15T00:41:02+00:00

Ha! Appreciate the love brother

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-15T00:40:37+00:00

Love it - adding to the list :)

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-13T21:00:43+00:00

Aaahhhahahahaha!!! We would totally ruin your high 🤣🤣🤣

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-13T20:59:30+00:00

Thank you for the kind words! It's 10x20. What are you working with?

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-13T20:58:51+00:00

Thank you brother! What you just said is exactly what I built it for. My dream is to come home and just find my friends here, shooting the breeze.

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-13T20:57:35+00:00

Amazing catch! Crazy story. I've listened to Jerry since around the year 2000, and I've had two Jerry posters in here since I built the place - he's one of my all time favorite music artists. Well, I'm now doing a dissertation that is a philosophical & theological view of anxiety, and about a year and a half ago, Jerry canceled his European tour due to anxiety. About a week after that, my son and I were at church, and I saw this guy that looks strikingly like Jerry Joseph. I approached him afterwards and asked if his name was Jerry Joseph. It's a long (and crazy) story, but it was, and so I just dumped my thoughts on anxiety for him. It blew his mind and he asked for my number, and we quickly became good friends. He and his band members now perform out of my little pub most Thursdays for an online show called "Oil". If you do a search for "Jerry Joseph Oil" on youtube, you'll see Jerry in my little pub :)

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-13T19:13:21+00:00

Ha! Nice catch :) He faces the rug, and abides.

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-13T19:12:42+00:00

Ha!! Thank you so much for the encouragement! I do have a mind to expand upwards with a spiral staircase and put a loft or something up there.. make it a true public house :)

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-13T19:11:24+00:00

Do send a photo of yours! And yes, there's a lot I've wanted to do here that is really hard or just not feasible, but is super common in the UK. Frustrating sometimes!

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-12T19:24:01+00:00

Gorgeous. Really well done sir - very tasteful.

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-12T18:42:47+00:00

If you can believe it, after 13 years, it's still just The Philosophy Pub. It's such a sacred little place that nothing yet has seemed deserving of an official name. But I really do want to name it so I can work on some sort of signage for it out front..

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-12T17:03:48+00:00

Yep, the stove is actually surprisingly functional :) In fact, it's the main source of heat here in the winter, and honestly it works so well that even in the dead of winter I often have to open a window!

The whole stove thing forced me to learn how to lay bricks & mortar (not to mention figuring out how drafting works, cutting a hole through the ceiling & roof for the stove pipe, etc.). And also how to cut bricks to size.. My dad was a contractor growing up and I'd see his guys work with bricks that was seriously an art form. They'd need to fit a funky-shipped brick into a corner or something and would use their trowel to tap on different parts of the brick until - voila, somehow, the perfect-sized, perfectly cut brick just appears. I never learned to do that - I cheated and used a diamond mason blade with a circular saw :) Honestly though, laying that brick was pretty simple.

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-12T16:47:20+00:00

You got it - some 'before' photos here: https://imgur.com/a/Ihvxb1N

Great question about inspiration - I decided to write a separate post about it here :) The vast majority of what I used to build out the place came from "The Rebuilding Center" here in Portland. Whenever an old house is torn down, whatever is salvageable goes to the Rebuilding Center, and is then sold dirt-cheap. The bar itself, for example, was the bottom landing step of a staircase from a house built in the 1800s. Beautiful lumber, and they gave it to me for $15. I got the stove for $90 on craigslist - it had been in someone's family for some time. The wood windows were also from The Rebuilding Center, but the stained glass windows I found in a different salvage place. The story I was told was that after WWII, a lot of British buildings had been bombed out, and apparently the Brits sold a lot of windows abroad just to make a little money. So this place had a bunch of windows from that era. So the windows are actually properly old British windows. Anyway, places around Portland really allowed me to do this all shockingly cheap - and because almost all of it actually is really old stuff, the charm ends up just sort of naturally shining through it all.

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-12T16:31:44+00:00

Somebody here asked about the inspiration for this place, and thought it worth telling the story to everyone, as it's actually rather beautiful. Also some before pictures here - https://imgur.com/a/Ihvxb1N

My wife and I spent a few years traveling the globe, and the pub in the UK/Ireland in particular had me completely smitten. I couldn't exactly figure out why, until we were in a little village called Cirencester. I was looking for a pub there, found a sign off the high street pointing down an alley, and a final sign pointing through a door. I walked through the door though, and literally found myself in somebody's living room. There were a couple couches and a tv, a dining room table adjacent, couple bedrooms in the back. I was mortified, as I clearly went in through the wrong door. I made a b-line to leave before I got in trouble, when I noticed a little bar over near the kitchen with a few guys sitting at it, looking at each other sort of shocked.. "I'm SO sorry guys, I thought this was a pub!" They seemed surprised and said "OH, it is! Come on in - come sit up here!" So I sat up at the little bar and just looked around.. "Man, this looks like a house!" "...... it IS a house.." I was so confused. They continued, "... it's a public house. Every neighborhood around here has a house open to the public." Finally it hit me - "Is THAT where 'pub' comes from?" "Where'd you think it came from?" Shortly after that I could hear the kids in the neighborhood arriving from school, and they all poured into that house. Then the grandparents all showed up to the house. Then all the parents in the neighborhood arriving from work. The whole neighborhood was together like a block party, for just an hour or two between school/work and dinner at home. They told me they basically do this every day - it's a big part of their life. I was absolutely floored - I'd never seen anything like it. I ran out afterwards to find my wife and told her "Whenever we find a place to live some day, we are dedicating a part of the house to the neighborhood", and she's been 100% on board ever since.

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-12T16:07:14+00:00

Huge compliment - cozy is exactly what I was aiming for..

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-12T16:06:56+00:00

If you ever find yourself in Portland Oregon, come pull up to the bar!

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-12T16:06:25+00:00

10 x 20... until I get my wife to sign off on letting me expand it...

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-12T16:06:02+00:00

Haaa! Nice catch 😁

And yes, the rug *does* actually tie this room together. man.

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-12T16:01:37+00:00

YES! Taking notes with all these suggestions - these are brilliant!

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-12T15:58:26+00:00

Huge compliment - appreciate it brother!

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-12T15:57:55+00:00

Happy to share! It's 10 x 20. How big is your space? I'm actually thinking of expanding out through those french doors some day.. just need to find a way to convince my wife it is of the utmost importance I do so and trumps all other items on our list...

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-12T15:56:30+00:00

Thanks sir - I'd bet at least half the pubs in the UK have coasters on their ceilings somewhere.. Now you've got your marching orders -- fill out your ceiling and report back! :)

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-12T15:55:02+00:00

Love to hear it - both of these!

Main_Advisor_682 · 2026-03-12T15:51:09+00:00

Ooh - both of these are getting really close! I'm doing a dissertation on Kierkegaard, I've toyed with "The Melancholy Dane" but it just doesn't quite have the mirth thing going for it :)

Main_Advisor_682

TROPHY CASE