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BizB
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Fire Pit
2006-05-31 |
You may remember when I took on the task of building the deck, I had to dismantle the old porch which was made of brick. I salvaged the bricks and spent quite a bit of time removing the old mortar from the bricks. BBCK and her friends also pitched in and chipped mortar from a couple dozen bricks. You can see the piles of bricks lined up on the deck here
 . And a view of how the recently seeded yard looked before I dug into it to make the cement pad  . I marked the pad by first building a box out of MDS and then spraying the ground with white spray-paint.  and then I began digging   . Just look at that beautiful grass  !!! More digging   . I hauled the dirt in the wheel-barrow to the back of the yard where there is still a sizable mound of top soil.
When the digging was done, I placed the box into the hole  . Now you may be wondering why I went with 8 inches worth of depth on my forms. The truth of the matter is, I had 8 inch by 8 foot boards laying around that I used as the forms (cut in half.) I didn't feel like ripping them down to 4 inches. So... I needed something to fill the bottom of the form with since I had no intention of filling 8 inches of concrete in the form. It would just be too expensive. I did have all that mortar that I had chipped from the bricks. It was in a garbage can right nearby! I decided to just dump those in there  . And, there were left-over screenings from building the walkway. Those were both in the back of the truck and in a pile on the driveway. So, in went the screenings  . Then, I sprayed it all down with water to level it out and pack it down.  . Finally, it was time to add some concrete! I bought 12 bags knowing that I'd only need 10. Half of the bags were in the hole  and half on me  . 10 bags of concrete in the hole and 1/2 of the form leveled out, I realized I needed more concrete  . Since I had 2 bags left, this was no problem!  The concrete pad was now in place and all I had to do was let it cure  . Oh, and TAKE THIS Mr. Murphy and your stupid law  ... no extra trips to Home Depot to complete the task! Rain was predicted that night, so I tented the pad with a tarp so that at least a little bit of evaporation could take place  . I removed the tarp the next morning just in time for a couple of days of steady rain. Luckily, one way to cure cement is to keep it wet for 5 days.  - mission accomplished.
Brick Laying
I've never so much as attempted to build anything with bricks in my life. I'm not even good with Legos. But, what was there to lose? I actually put off building with the bricks for a couple of days because I was nervous about how it may turn out. One bag of mortar later, and I had an inner wall and two courses laid   . More mortar... more bricks   . And again...   .
Next, I had to find and purchase some firebricks. Those red bricks will asplode if they get too hot, so the firebricks were a MUST. I called around to several places and found only 3 that sold the bricks. One, a chimney shop, had only the thin (1.25 inches) version and they wanted $2.90 per brick. Another, Home Builder Supply over on Douglas, wanted $2.42 per brick, but at least they offered the full size bricks. Lastly, and I called them on a fluke, Kuhlman's down by the South Ave on-ramp to 75 sold both types of brick and the full size brick cost a mind blowing $0.90 per brick. Deal!
I bought 50 bricks with the intention of lining the bottom and the sides with the firebrick. I thought that 4.5 inches (Bricks laying on their side) for the walls would be deep enough until I actually got the bricks in there. Then, I realized it was just too shallow. Now I had to figure out how to lay-out the bricks. I finally decided on leaving the bottom of the pit as just earth. The sides are firebricks standing on end and I used the remaining firebricks for capstones. They're not mortared in place yet, but I'll do that soon (tomorrow?).
Final product  
and a fire
   
And finally, BBCK and Diz enjoying the first fire...
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 Betty Boop Fri Jun 09 03:16:08 PM
No wind there today, eh? 
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 BizB Thu Jun 08 08:46:07 PM
I just had to spend $515 on 3 tires. That deserves a pic... I think
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 sopops Thu Jun 08 04:09:43 PM
simple!! He is thinking about going tubing without the tube, would it be called tireing?? I think so!!!
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Betty Boop Thu Jun 08 03:31:19 PM
Okay, so what is with the tire? We just can't imagine everything, you know.  
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sopops Thu Jun 08 12:17:32 PM
Only math I can still do!!!
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 Talix18 Thu Jun 08 09:47:57 AM
We may have been trying to do math. Cribbage math always hurts my head.
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BizB Thu Jun 08 08:41:37 AM
BB and Pops, you guys asked about the first pic of Talix and BBCK... turns out that's their "Cribbage Face". We were playing crib (them vs me) and they were trying to decide what to throw to the crib. Lots of brain cells firing there. They kicked my butt.
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Betty Boop Tue Jun 06 07:37:35 AM
Biz - just looked at Miss M's site and revitup asked for some pics of 'fer. Maybe you have time to find a few since you have all the family albums at your house. thanks. Love your fire. will call soon. love - ma
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BizB Sun Jun 04 07:38:23 PM
It's Ohiopyle state park just north of I40 on Rt 381.
And, we did have a good time despite the weather.
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sopops Sun Jun 04 04:24:20 PM
Well it looks like you young'uns had a great weekend, even if the weather at the start was not the best. Brings back memoties of camping in our tent when all our youngsters were smaller and younger. It looks like beautiful country there, and as we have some friends in PA, and they will be asking, just where is the campground located? 
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 BigBro Fri Jun 02 11:28:29 AM
Good news!
The wife's tests all came back negitive, so she didn't have a stroke. They still don't know what the problem was that caused the symptoms but at least she is now home and feeling much better.
Bad news; I bet that now I have a hole in the ground that looks like a small swimming pool. I need dry weather for a couple of days. Please God??? Thanks in advance...
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BizB Fri Jun 02 07:55:22 AM
She is wearing the dress today in honor of the last day of school. I'll snap another pic (better) later when I pick her up.
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Betty Boop Fri Jun 02 07:32:19 AM
Thanks for the answer to my question. So cute.
You get your "can do" from POPS. He can do anything. I just stand back and say "I told you you could."
To our firepit chat. 
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BizB Fri Jun 02 06:23:45 AM
I've never taken on a project like this, either. And, I too was amazed at how well it turned out. I think it's more about an "I can do it." attitude and the willingness to try than anything else.
I'm really looking forward to a fireside chat with you guys... all of you.
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sopops Thu Jun 01 04:54:16 PM
I have never tackled a project like that and find it amazing that you have the skills that you have. The finished project looks great and I hope to enjoy a fireside chat with Y'all this August.
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BigBro Thu Jun 01 12:20:48 PM
I've got free long distance with the VOIP service at home, so it doesn't cost me anything either.
I went out to the property at lunch time and I am now the proud owner of a big hole in the ground and several big piles of clay.
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Betty Boop Thu Jun 01 09:50:24 AM
Big Bro - many, many prayers for sand - please call us tonight and we will call you right back, so your expense will be minimal. It sounds promising on the lot progress though. Talk tonight. HUGS!
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BigBro Thu Jun 01 08:44:13 AM
Oh yah, nice job with the bricks. Very professional looking. It even has square corners.
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BizB Thu Jun 01 08:27:46 AM
BigBro Wow... big prayers for Mrs. Froggie! Will keep her in my thoughts.
Talix you dig - I'll supervise
'fer you better! I miss having you around, kid. And I don't see enough of that munchkin you made, either.
Betty BoopThanks! It feels good to look out and see the fire pit knowing that I made it.
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BigBro Thu Jun 01 08:17:17 AM
Very busy of late. The contractor and I met with the guy that will be doing all the below ground work ie; foundation, septic system, water line, etc. to finalize the location of the house on the lot. We set all that up and determined the best heights and hole depth for the foundation. They begin digging the foundation this morning.
A bit of bad news though, Mrs Frog is in the hospital, undergoing tests and stuff to see what is wrong with her. It appears that she had a minor stroke on Saturday, which caused her weakness and dizzyness. She thought that she was haveing a bad attack of her meniere's disease. After talking to her Dr on Tuesday he had me take her to the ER.
She is having some numbness and weakness on her left side, and is easily fatigued. Over all I think she will be OK but is not out of the hospital yet. The doctors think that the kind of stroke she had was a "TIA" casued by plaque in her blood stream blocking blood flow. The plaque will disolve over a couple of days so we may never know for sure what caused it. I know that she will be off of work for a while while recovering.
I'll keep y'all updated as I hear something definate from the Doctors. She had a MRI done yesterday, but no results back yet.
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Talix18 Thu Jun 01 08:01:27 AM
Now we can build one at my house!
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 'fer Thu Jun 01 07:44:36 AM
very nice job on the fire pit dad... we'll have to come enjoy a fire sometime
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Betty Boop Thu Jun 01 07:36:45 AM
What a great job and story to accompany. Kudos, kid. So proud. BBCK looks very mischevious in that pic. So sweet. Miss her too!
Note for Big Bro - any progress on your project? Would love to hear from you. Ma.
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BizB Wed May 31 09:47:18 PM
Total cost... Just under $100 - excluding the tools that I bought (those are an investment.)
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