tip trick tuesday!! diy backyard fire pit..

 

this is what our backyard looked like last memorial day weekend.. see to the right the grassy area and tree.. well the tree died so we decided to have it pulled out, the area cleared of grass and leveled off and then concrete poured and we put in an outdoor fire pit!! we love it..

 

 

 we had to have a landscaper come and pull out the tree and level the area because of existing concrete to the side of it and there were so many tree roots.. once he did that we decided where the fire it would go..

 

 

we had concrete poured.. to achieve the round opening they used whats called sonotube concrete forms and poured the concrete around it.. once it was set we pulled out the sonotube out and had a perfect round hole in the concrete..

 

 

we dug the hole down about foot and half.. {it's not dug down yet in the photo}

 

 

pete got this steel ring from work..

 

we used landscaping blocks that the same ones we had used for the planters and thought it would complete the look..

after the hole was dug down pete using a rolling cart dolly thing {love my technical terms here} rolled the steel ring over to the hole and put it in in.. he then surrounded the bottom with medium size landscaping blocks and then filled the gaps with fine sand/gravel .. he kept pouring it in and i kept sweeping it away until it was filled and packed down good.. he then began stacking the next size smaller of block in a staggered pattern around the steel ring.. we dry stacked them, meaning we didn't use any cement or adhesive.

he thought he was done and didn't want to put an additional ring around the top.. {note i said thought..}

almost done.. but not yet..



 

we had a party and the boys all hung out by the fire.. {and yes we had s'mores!! i think the kids dipped the marshmallows in irish cream.. more on that later}

{see that chain link fence there?? i bought 3-4 more jasmine and tied the vines to the fence it's growing pretty good and blocking the fence now..}

 

they complained their feet got hot where there was no blocks.. but the other blocks surrounding the steel ring barely get hot at all.. it's actually pretty neat..

   

so we added one more top layer of block.. we are going to build benches but in the mean time have these old vintage metal seats. i cleaned up the corner and added a wooden ladder i picked up at a yardsale for 3 bucks.. we have been collecting vintage wood pieces and old wood so that pete can build an entertainment center of sorts along our side wall which will hold a tv, extra fire wood on the bottom and to the side a drink station for parties.. {yeah i know your thinking what in the world.. but i have it visualized but just need to convey it to pete ha ha i'll keep you posted!!} and remember to

 

enjoy and get diy'ing!!