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My New DIY Firepit!

June 19, 2020 /

Every couple of years, we buy a new fire pit as ours get worn out with weather and use. For a couple of years now, I have been wanting to make a stone fire pit. We enjoy fires in the summer, fall and winter, roasting marshmallows and just enjoying the delight of looking at a fire. So I finally looked at a YouTube video and decided that last weekend was the weekend to make it. I listed my supplies and headed to Home Depot.

I hesitated between a brick that was $1.98 per brick and one that was $2.38. And the $2.38 won out. For only a little over 13 dollars extra, my fire pit bricks look awesome. I tend to go for cheaper but I am learning to pay a little more for quality.

I followed the directions from the you tube video and dug out the grass, and added a bag of sand to level out the area before putting my bricks down. I used an old piece of wood to level out the sand and then used the level to make sure the first row of bricks were fairly level.

Three rows later, I added stone gravel (given to me by our neighbor who had extra) and then added a bag of lava rocks for looks. Different videos showed using 10 or 12 rocks per layer. I used 11 retaining wall blocks for each: just the right size for me. The cost for the firepit was $95. My sad little metal firepit above usually would cost me $50 each time I had to replace it.

We had a couple of logs left from this past winter’s fire so we just had to find some little branches to help start the fire. We have marshmallow roasting sticks and put them to use!

We also bought a couple of packs of fire colors at a state park so we used one after we were done roasting our marshmallows. The packet said that it would work for about 30 minutes and it was true. We saw the flames changing to green and blues and purples for about that much time. You just throw the whole packet in wrapper and all.

We really do like making fires. Our last one was on New Year’s and it was really fun as we had to bundle up and it was dark! Now we do need to get some good firewood. Fighting the insects in the wood is not appealing to any of us to get some.

I am so glad that I took the couple hours it took me to make this. The hardest part for me was to dig out that layer of grass. I am not good with a shovel so I used a small hand shovel. Next we need to to buy some nice wood adirondack chairs to replace our plastic ones that are broken.

Do you like camp fires? What do you like to roast on them? I am thinking hot dogs would be fun and I have seen different contraptions you can use to heat or roast things over an open fire: great ideas for Christmas gift!

A bientôt!

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