I’ve got a short and sweet one for you today. Well, relatively short anyways. Compared to the novels I normally have for you, this one is a short story. Also, the light was really harsh during the early stages of my project, so I don’t have any pictures of the process. Just a before shot and some after shots.
So, here’s a filler to grab your attention:
Puppyface aside, We’re in the midst of getting the place ready for when my family comes down to visit from the great white north… in October. I know, I know, it seems a little premature. We just want to get a few things done in order to make this place more comfortable for guests and more comfortable for us for entertaining and figure why not start now so we’re not overwhelmed later on?
On Monday, I made the decision that I wanted to check “firepit” off our to-do list and do it without touching our bank account. We already knew where we wanted one and bonfires have always been huge with our families, so it was just a matter of figuring out how to accomplish this.
The area we’d decided on is a part of our whole future entertaining area, between the pond and an oak tree. We feel confident that the oak tree is far enough away and that our fires are going to be small enough that it won’t be an issue to have the tree where it is.
Eventually, we’re talking of putting a block patio down for the fire pit area to rest on, but for the time being, I used some of my sweet labour skills and moved some creek gravel around to give the space a little definition and uniformity. Half way between doing this I had started on the pit, but realized some more landscaping needed taken care of, so I went back.
The area was half full of dead grass, so I raked it all out of there and dumped some gravel (that I stole from over near our bistro area) to be spread out. There’s still some dead grass on the perimeter, but provided Mother Nature decides to cooperate, it might not be so dead and actually look nice as a border!
One thing I had to keep in mind in this area is that it’s where all of the rainwater flows from uphill on the driveway, so I had to make sure to rake the gravel so that it sloped toward the drain. I feel like I accomplished this, but I guess we’ll see the next time we get a big downpour.
So, in terms of cost, the creek gravel = free since it was already there!
Next was the actual pit itself.
For the most part, I never liked fire pits. I grew up having bonfires in a circular patch of dirt in the middle of the lawn, so I wasn’t much for the whole contained fire thing.
Exhibit A: Craig (left) at 21.
However, looking back, I realize that our fires seemed to grow and grow the older I got until the pit was about 10 feet in diameter, so the one bonus of a pit is controlling the size. As you get older, you realize that throwing bookshelves and couches onto a bonfire doesn’t really appeal to you much anymore anyways.
Lest I forget to mention the oak tree again, as well.
The plan here, since we didn’t exactly want to go out and buy a pit right now, became a temporary rock pit. The former garden in the front of the house is no more, but all of the landscape rocks are still there, so I sifted through the collection and found the ones I figured would work best to build a fire pit. I hauled them over two by two and three layers of rock later, I had me a pretty nice fire pit!
Cost mention #2, landscape rock = free! Already there!
Then I collected the Adirondacks (of note: in Canada, they’re called Muskokas) strategically placed them around the pit, put my burly lumberjack skills to use and chopped some wood and prepared the pit for a fire!
All together now!
Since we had to head to bed early to get up for work, the fire wont be lit til this weekend, but you can be sure it’ll be a part of Weekend Warriors come Monday!
I miss having enormous bonfires and standing as close as I could to it and trying not to singe my eyebrows off. I respect your contained fire pit though (especially since it looks like it’s right under a tree). I’m not a fan of those outdoor fireplaces or chimineas though, that’s far too contained for my taste.
Yeah, when my parents bought a contained fire pit, I was seriously disappointed. It takes so much away from the fire. Fire rings are one thing, but a box with a grate on all four sides? That’s not even worth it.
Your do-it-yourself, free firepit looks great! Good job! And Muskokas must be an Ontario thing. Here in Alberta, we say Adirondaks…at least I do
Thanks so much!
Personally, I just call them chairs. It wasn’t til I moved down hare and started calling them Adirondacks that I noticed family calling them Muskokas. Must be an Ontario thing though, for sure, since the Muskokas are in Ontario!
I totally call them muskokas.