The fire at the end of the Project.

3 years ago, I jokingly told the neighbor"Come over! We will have a fire!  In our Fire Pit... just give me half an hour, I'll dig a hole.

Sometimes projects take a while.  I dug that hole the first year, but our fires were always smoky. Turns out the bare earth wicked the water from the ground.  Year 2,  we added some decorative bricks I had taken from a Craigslist add.  The smoke was better, but the bricks were not meant to withstand so much heat, so by the end of the summer, I was pregnant, and the fire pit was shot.

This year... this year we would nail it.  With the help of our good friends Tim and Ryan (the oh so brilliant engineer) We went to work... well they went to work, My husband, Ryan, and Tim.  I watched the baby.

Using real fire bricks, they made a beautiful cylinder!  and Fires were lit!

But then... our friends Cadi and John acquired a bunch of bricks from the old Rainier Brewery,  and when Andy said "Can we have some of those?"  They said yes...This begun the REAL project.


Day 1,  Clean stuff out, and prepare to make fire pit... we are still calling it fire pit, but really it is now "large and difficult to make brick patio."... but we don't know that, we are still naive.  As the sun went down, I drank two beers, (I rarely do that these days, as I am nursing) then I pulled out a zombie poky tool that I found at a garage sale for 3 DOLLARS!  (I know, right?)  and got out all aggression I have ever had on the 12 foot area around the fire pit.  I tilled the daylights out of that soil, and it felt good! 

The next day, grandpa watched the baby, and we made a frame, and then leveled the ground.  Then we added fabric, and 500lbs of sand.

Then I got sick, and Andy moved a bunch of bricks, many of which had concrete on them to our back yard.

Then Andy got sick, and Cadi, John and I moved a few bricks.

Then I lost track of time, as Andy spent HOURS over the course of weeks laying and leveling bricks.

 The goal was to make a mosaic of the different bricks to create a beautiful pit that was all recycled.  Andy is more detail oriented than I, and so this was a better job for him.  I am good at attacking the ground with a pitch fork and yelling "Die Zombie, DIE!"  I have a strong imagination that way...

Then Tim watched the baby, and Andy laid bricks, and I spent 4 hours with the back of a hammer hacking concrete off of bricks. 

Then we stole bricks from the neighbor, because we were just short, and I was distraught.  The good thing about being friendly with your neighbors is that you know what they have...

Then our family helped us with the last of the sweeping sand in place during the family reunion, which we just kind of finished in time for grilled Calzones around a fire with the family.

It took a village, and I am grateful for it!  But I have to say, this project was... a little bigger than I thought it would be.

Any body up for Smores?  With the amount of work this thing took to build, we better have lots..and lots of parties!