Building our backyard fire pit

I don’t know that we could live without our backyard fire pit!  Mike has quite the reputation with his fires – “go big or go home!”  Sometimes I have to remind him that we don’t need one so big that the fire department shows up!  (the police did show up with in minutes of his first fire at the new house!)  << starting his reputation off right I tell you!

One of the many things we loved about our old house was the fire pit.  We spent lots of evenings out there hanging out with friends, drinking beverages and having a great time.  Some times it seemed like Mikes full time job was to cut firewood for the pit!

With all that said, you can imagine what one of our first projects in the new house was…………..YUP!  A fire pit!

It started out small – well small in Mike’s book!  Those of you that know him know that he can’t do SMALL!

I had visions of the fire pit being by the berm and creating a cool rock wall by cutting into the berm to provide privacy and protection against the street traffic and wind!  Problem is, we didn’t think we could “alter” the berm.  We did it anyway, but didn’t want to be too obvious about it!  So we dug in just a little!  UNTIL, we realized that we CAN alter the berm……..Oh BABY – Hang on – I have more plans now!!!

So in the pictures below you can see how the fire pit started out.  Not bad!  Cute little rock wall, nice sized fire pit, plenty of room for seating.  But can you say BORING!

 

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FYI – if you love a fire and would like a fire ring like ours – you can get one here.  Super simple to put together!  We placed ours in the ground about 5 inches then placed small rocks around the edges to hide the ring.

Over the past month we have been working on a landscaping layout for the area around the fire pit. It is on the west side of our house and there are ZERO trees!  The berm is a beast!  It is probably 6 foot tall………….heck I don’t know, how do you measure one?  I am only five foot and I can’t see a car or a person that is on the street or sidewalk on the other side of it!  Anywho……we needed some trees!  When we moved in my parents gave us a house warming gift to be used towards the purchase of trees……….it finally got put to good use this weekend!

This project is FAR from being finished……..but I thought I would share some “in progress pictures” with you.  I am so super excited on how this is turning out.  It was a lot of work!

As you can see in the picture, I worked hard on the visual portion and pointing when needed…………Mike and our son Jacob on the other hand worked up a sweat!

I wish the pictures were better, I had a difficult time photographing how beautiful this is turning out.  To the right of the fire pit we –> Mike, added a two foot rock wall (I bossed him around and told him where to put the rocks, he is such a good sport!) and filled it with dirt, then planted the pine.  I LOVE this spot!!  We (he and Jacob) planted two more pines, three curly willows and three shade trees in the berm.  In a few years, when these trees have a chance to mature a little, it will be beautiful and shady!

Mowing the berm is not easy without trees……..it will be a challenge with them!  We will add more rock ledges around the rest of the trees and add mulch to help keep them hydrated. 

Our city allows the residents to take tree branches to the city yard where they grind them up into mulch, which is free for the hauling!  (We love FREE)!!  Speaking of FREE – all of the rocks (some of them could be considered boulders!) came from our son in laws farm fields (thanks Luke!)  Dirt from another friend that had excess and the trees were 75% off the original price at Home Depot!!!  NICE!

To the left of the fire pit I would like to create a water feature.  Mike said that has to wait until after the shed is built……….we will see how that works.  I will keep you posted as we add more layers…..and a water feature *wink**wink*.

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