A DIY Fire Pit

Hi there, it's been a while since my last post. I apologize. Life simply gets in the way sometimes.

I have quite a few finished projects on my "to blog" list, but I am going to jump ahead and write about the fire pit that I built a few weeks ago.

Fire mesmerizes me. It calms me and makes me feel connected to all the multitude of generations before me who gathered around a fire. I could go on and on about that, but I'll spare you and get to the details.

Over Christmas break, I burned a fire in my mother's re-purposed iron fire pit almost every afternoon. I started this ritual somewhat out of desperation because Stella and Atticus, my parent's pit bull and my growing coonhound, destructively played all afternoon long and needed to be outside but wouldn't stay out without a human companion. As I enjoyed these afternoons, I started to think about building a pit in my backyard at school. It is much smaller than my parent's yard, but I figured that I had enough room. Not wanting to spend the amount of money that a nice iron fire pit costs, I decided I would see if I could build one. I looked on Pinterest, but most of the tutorials that I found were quite involved and almost as expensive as a big metal one would be. 

So, one nice afternoon, I headed over to Home Depot. I wandered around the landscaping section, pricing and brainstorming. I settled on 30 of these red concrete retaining wall blocks and a bag of garden rocks. These blocks came in a few different colors, but I stuck with red since the bricks around my herb and vegetable gardens are red.

Two nice employees loaded the blocks into the back of my Subaru, and I headed home as the sun was setting. I really wanted to get the blocks unloaded that day, so I raked away the leaves from the area where I planned to build the pit and turned over the soil in a rough circle, making sure to keep the ground as level as possible. We do not have much grass in our backyard, so I did not have to deal with that burn hazard. If you have grass, you'll want to remove it from the pit circle before you begin to place the blocks. 

I put on garden gloves and headed out to carry stones from the car through the house because we do not have an easily accessible gate to the backyard. Atticus was quite excited about the whole operation and kept up with me most of the time. The blocks were relatively heavy, but I was able to carry two at a time. I laid the bottom of three circles, consisting of ten blocks, with the back groove positioned down because I knew I wouldn't like the appearance of the grooves showing on the top blocks. 

Moving onto the second layer of blocking, I alternated them as brick layers often do. This helped with stability and aesthetics. I finished with the third layer of bricks, matching the placement of the bottom layer.

I put the pavers that you see in the first picture around the pit the next day to help with reducing the burn hazard and to give a dry place to walk since it can be a little muddy near the pit after a rain.

A rare snow in Alabama

Here's a break down of my costs: 

Wall blocks: 30 blocks x $1.91 = $57.30

Rocks: 1 bag = $3.98

Pavers (optional): 25-30 pavers gift from a neighbor = $0.00

            but these look similar (30 x 1.74 = $52.20)

My Total: $61.28 plus tax

Total (with optional pavers): $113.48 plus tax

So, without having to buy the pavers that aren't necessary, the total comes well below a nice metal pit.  I've been very pleased with the pit thus far. I've burned fires with friends and a few small ones on nights when it is just me and Atticus. I'm sure there will be many more nights around the fire this spring and fall. My father sent some pecan wood with my mom this weekend, and I can't wait to try it out on Friday night.

A Refurbished Dresser

When I moved across town to a new apartment at the first of August, mom and I decided that we'd take my Aunt Patty up on her very kind offer to let me use a dresser and mirror that were being stored in her garage.

before

after

Even though I have suspect wall painting skills, I thought painting a dresser couldn't be too hard. I mean, after all, Pinterest does makes it look oh so very easy. Well I am here to tell you that it's not easy, but it's also not impossible. Patience and letting go of my perfectionist tendencies helped me through painting the round edges and bottom rods and obsessing over the brushstrokes showing even after the paint dried. They give character, right? At least that is what I am telling myself.

Dad and Steve took care of most of the sanding for me, which I greatly appreciated since it was August in Alabama and hot as the dickens standing still much less working. We discovered that there were in fact two coats of paint already on the dresser, so the sanding took the good bit of an afternoon. We didn't get all the paint off, but the bottom layer seemed to not peel like the top. on the 6 long drawers, I covered the holes for the knobs with wood putty and sanded those spots down after they dried over night.

I started painting the next day, and it took me the better part of a morning to get the first coat applied. It went on well, and I wasn't too worried about brush strokes since I was going to put another coat on the next day. The paint went on the flat surfaces quickly, but the rods and legs proved to be quite time consuming, leaving me to conclude that no one was going to scrutinize the paint job on those parts because they are way below eye level.

The next day, Steve came over, and we painted the second coat. This is when I realized that the brush strokes were not going to dry smooth and tried to make the strokes less obvious by working in small sections and paying attention to paint in only one direction. That worked marginally better except for when I tried to touch up places that I had already painted, which caused a big grainy mess on the top, so I sanded and painted a third coat on the top that night.


On day 3, I installed the knobs for the center drawers, and Steve drilled the new holes for the pulls. After a few times marking and drilling from the front of the drawer, he decided that it would be easier to drill from the inside. I don't suggest this move; it made for splintered wood and necessary paint touch ups.  But after much sweat on Steve's part, angst on mine, and super glue for a broken glass pull, the knobs and pulls were all installed.


All in all, I love everything about my new-to-me dresser and am proud to have succeeded at a non-sewing DIY project.

Here's a photo taken right after we put the dresser together for the first time after painting. I love the color and hardware.

Thanks for the help, Mom, Dad, and Steve-O!