Fire, Fire: Part 2

Yesterday I mentioned the giant brown spot in the lawn being no more.  'Tis gone.  Forever.  (Until The Dog moves to a new area)

Remember my first Fire, Fire post?  It was basically me whining about not having a big enough yard for a designated fire pit area.  It also included photos of ridiculously beautiful yards with gorgeous fire pits.

Well guess what?  I, Mindy, am now the proud owner of a fire pit.  Uh huh.  And I'm pretty darned excited about it.

I've been contemplating taking out a small area of the minute amount of lawn we have left for months.  I finally just went for it.

This is how I did it:

First, I layed out the hose as a guide, to get an idea of where I wanted to start digging.

Then I used white flour to draw my line.

Then I took my trusty garden butcher knife and cut along the line.

Next was the fun part.  

NOT.  

I recommend hiring/begging/forcing someone else to do this part for you.

I've removed every inch of sod in this yard, but most of it was done in my late 20's and I wasn't knocked-up.

Removing sod with a shovel is hard work and it sucks.

Here it is half done.

I took this picture after having a mini stroke and needing to take a break.

Here it is with all the sod out.  

I did a little happy dance.  

Okay, I didn't, but I did smile really big.

The kids drug their chairs over.

Clearly watching their mother sweat made them think they needed to relax.

Next, I needed to dig a small trench for the bender board.

After all that digging, I was seriously dreading it.

I went to put the kids down for a nap first.

When I came back out, The Dad had it dug for me.

Awwwwwww.

We used some plastic edging that we already had.  

Once that was in, I needed to dig a hole for the pit.

We had one of those metal fire bowls, so I used the insert from that.

I positioned it where I wanted it, drew a line in the dirt around it and started digging.

Once the hole was deep enough, I put the bowl in it.

We had some buckets of sand from leveling out our patio this spring, so I spread some of that around to level things out.

 Then it was time for pea gravel.

Pavers would have been super fantastic, but pea gravel is cheap.

The Dad took 10 of our buckets and filled them for $1 a piece.

That's as far as we got yesterday.

This morning, we headed to Home Depot to pick out something to go around the edge of the pit.

After going back and forth, we picked one we both liked, that also happened to be the cheapest.

They're pavers and they were $.78 cents each.  

We needed 24 to go three rows high.

Here's the best part of the day...I headed off with The Kid to get some paint samples while The Dad and The Girl paid.  

When I got to the car, he told me they were offering $25 dollars off if you opened a new Home Depot card.

Shut the front door!

We already have one, but apparently you can open five accounts????

(That could get a person in trouble)

Anyway, our pavers came to $37.44 and then they took the $25 off of that.

That's $12 bucks and some change folks.

DEAL OF THE DAY.

Plus, he didn't even have to use the card to pay for them!

He just payed cash.

Insanity I tell ya.

So here's our new $12 pavers.

We put some more sand down around the perimeter of the bowl and started laying them out.

Second level.

The third and final row.

Here's the big reveal.

Drum roll please........

I love, love, love it.  

We had our coffee out there this morning and tonight we'll have our first fire.

Here's a cost breakdown:

Labor:  Free (tell that to my back and thighs)

Sand:  Free

Bender Board:  Free

Fire bowl insert:  Free

Pea Gravel:  $10

Pavers:  $12.44

 

Grand Total:  $22.44

And here's the reason I started digging in the first place.

How can you not love that face?

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