For the last cople of years I have always liked fire pits and have owned several of the commercially built one from the swuare tables to even the portable on wheels kind. Well while looking arpund o the internet I ran across a kit that Lowes has where you can build your own stone fire pit and I realized that this is what I wanted!! So this weekedn Sheri and I went to Lowes and looked at theirs and after seeing how simple it was I duplicated it for around $70 less. I picked up 48 of the concrete retaining wall pavers (11 5/8" l x 4" h x 7" W), 5 bags of play sand or all purpose sand and 5 bags of drainage rock (gravel). All material roughly $130. When I got it to the house we went back to the area I found was the safest (30' from house and no over hanging trees) and started digging with the shovel to clear the area of growth and attempt to level it some. I then got the first 12 pavers out and using the angled sides marked the are for the pit and dug it out 6-8" and then poured 2 bags of sand out and then put pavers back in and made sure they were level. from there I just stacked them around on top of the first level using the marks made on the pavers at the half way point and then did the next two levels alternating them. When I fininshed I poured 2 bags of gravel in on the sand and the pit it self was finished! From there I then poured the sand around the pit for 2' ft and then did a 2 'ft border of gravel and we were done!
Sheri and Gizmo enjoying the start of the first fire
and tonight with the hot fire going!!
We thoroughly enjoyed it and our neighbors came over and liked it. Since he is a local police office and his birthday is Friday we surprised him by showing him the one we build in his backyard as a thanks and for his birthday
. I knew he would love it and so would the kids. Now as Sheri says we can yamp here and not spend extra money camping for a bit and everyone likes it that has seen it.
Cliff
