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Showing posts with the label diy

Adding Gravel to Pizza Oven Foundation Prep - Backyard Wood-Fired Oven - March 2024

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The last progress-report on our backyard pizza oven was earlier in March when I showed the cut-down concrete slab framing pieces (2x6's) that I cut to the final dimension s (Slab: 78" wide, 86" deep. 6.5' wide, 7'2" deep. Stand: 72 wide, 80 deep - 4.5 blocks wide, 5 blocks deep).  In that post, I talked about the next step is to fill the excavated cavity with gravel ahead of the rest of the slab prep. I went over to Menards and picked up 10 0.5 cubic foot bags of their multi-purpose gravel.  Each bag is supposed to cover about six square feet.  I wasn't sure how far these ten bags would go, but I figured that was about the limit that I wanted to push my car weight-wise.   I brought the ten bags home and hauled them (one-by-one) to the site and piled them up: Opening each bag and spreading it out, I quickly discovered that I was FAR short of the amount of gravel that I REALLY needed to complete the project.  Below, is what the site looks like after ten ha

Backyard DIY Pizza Oven Construction - Slab Framing - March 2023

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Over the weekend, I went out and picked up four 2x6x8 boards and brought them home to begin to figure out if I've done enough excavation for our wood-fired pizza oven project.  I've been using a tape measure to figure out how much I needed to remove and if my dig was large enough to support the slab framing - along with the necessary bracing.  But, that's an imperfect science, so I decided to just go out and cut the lumber down to the final dimensions and place them in the hole to see - without guessing - if I've excavated enough. As a reminder - mostly to myself - my final dimensions are based on 8x8x16 construction blocks:  Slab: 78" wide, 86" deep. 6.5' wide, 7'2" deep). Stand: 72 wide, 80 deep (4.5 blocks wide, 5 blocks deep) Leaving reveal of 6" total both dimensions. 3" all ways. This allows for 2" face brick and a 1" reveal. I cut the two side pieces of the frame to be 86" and the front/back to be 81" (to acco

Harbor Freight Cement Mixer - Pizza Oven Construction - Tools - February 2024

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After excavation, the first step of building my backyard pizza oven is framing and pouring a solid foundation for the oven to sit-on.  This foundation is going to be a 5.5" thick, reinforced concrete slab.  I've been probing for the boundaries of the in-ground drywell in our backyard ( post with photos here ) and have to decide on final location in the coming weeks.   Once that location is set, I can begin excavation.  Then, my brain will switch to construction material ordering - starting with bags of concrete/cement and concrete block for the foundation. The first consideration in that process is how I'll go about making/mixing the concrete.  One of the recommendations from the builder community on the Forno Bravo forums is to buy a 3.5 cubic foot cement mixer from Harbor Freight.  I went over to the local HF store this past weekend and sized the machine up.  Here, below is a photo of the cement mixer below: Here's the product page - shows the specs and the price : 

Digging To Find Drywell For Backyard Wood-Fired Oven - January 2024

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A few weeks ago, I posted a couple of items related to my 2024 goal of building a wood-fired pizza oven in our backyard including a look at a couple of locations , some brickwork inspiration and how I could build the stand out of cinder blocks - including corners .   With the snow melting away this week, I went out to look at one of the locations and remembered...that ahead of the snow, I was digging around trying to find the 'edges' of the drywell.   Below is a photo showing a number of locations that I dug down to see 'how deep' the drywell is located and how I was probing to find the 'edge' of the well.   The drop from grade to drywell is variable across this six-foot-by-six-foot section.  Surprisingly so.  I also found (I think) two of the 'edges' of the drywell.  Which...if I sited the oven where I *wanted* to, would have a small portion of the foundation OVERHANGING the drywell.  That would mean that I'd have to bring in some gravel - which i

Building a Floating Backyard Boardwalk - July 2023

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As far back as Summer of 2017 (the Summer we moved into our house), I've been posting, talking, dreaming and planning for the 'entrance' to our backyard along the northside of our house.  This post from July 2017 shows where we started - a small, narrow strip of land between our screened porch and our fence that has a grade down from our house .    In the six (yes...SIX) years since then, I've looked at this problem a ton of ways.  I've had pros come up with designs .  I found inspiration on YouTube that included a waterfall .   And, I began to address some of the issues with this spot.   What were those issues? 1.  Privacy.  We needed to add some screening along this fenceline to make our patio and screened porch usable. 2.  Access.  Getting from our driveway to our patio has been tough - the grade has been the biggest pain. 3.  Size.  It is narrow in there.  4.  Cost.  How can I accomodate the right mix of materials and construction to make the costs work. Now...

Cherry Pits - DIY Holiday Projects On The Horizon - 2020

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 Nobody:  what are you going to do with all your quarantine time when the weather gets cold? Me:  Have I shown you our forty pound bag of dried cherry pits? Back a few years when it seemed like I had more time, I would often try to DIY some of our holiday gifts.  Seems like we might have more of that, ummm, time this year.  And cherry pits are a key part of our strategy.  More to come when we get things set up and ready.

DIY Beginnings: Disney Parks Tinkerbell Lights via 258 Flasher Bulbs

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When we first went to the Magic Kingdom when the Babe was very young, I remember being struck by these twinkling lights that they had in the park.  At one point, they had a bunch of trees in the 'hub' - that have all been removed so people can view the castle/projection show.  On *those* trees were these twinkling lights that they turned on at dusk. I can't find a video of *those* lights, but I do have this one of what I think are the same lights up at Downtown Disney. Those lights give off a little bit of a firefly vibe and are what I remember. And, it isn't just *me* who remembers the lights, as if you put in the phrase [twinkle lights disney trees], you'll see dozens of forum posts all about buying or replicating those lights.  I've spent the past few months wading through them and I think I've come up with an approach that I'm going to attempt to DIY here at home. First, the bulbs and the fixtures. Again...based on wading through the

Summer Project: Outdoor Chair "Desk" Build

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Right at the end of last year, I posted a photo of a Wave Hill Garden chair and talked about how I was struck by the design of the chair - and the fact that it wasn't a traditional adirondack chair that you see everywhere.  We had spent some time in Luxembourg Gardens in Paris last year and fell in love with lots of things - including their chairs - and have been thinking about how I bring a chair or two to our backyard and garden.  The Wave Hill chair seemed to scratch me right where I itch. A gardener named Dan Benarcik has developed plans for the chair and is selling them for $35 (the updated plan version) on his site . I put the idea of creating a chair like this on my 2020 Gardening To-Do List .  #11 on the list is to 'build something' like these chairs (or a raised bed).  I haven't sprung for the plans (yet), but I've been nosing around the Web for some additional inspiration.  I came across this post on Reddit that featured a photo of a modified Wave

Setting Up A Three Bin Composter

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We've been composting in our yard since 2009 when we bought a Lifetime Compost Tumbler from Costco .    We've been filling it each Fall since (except for the two seasons we lived in Equation Boy/Man's house in Elmhurst) and by late Summer, we have a nice batch of black gold.  In the ten years that I've been composting, I've learned that composting is a 'batch process'.  Meaning....you have to build up a full 'batch', get the right mix of nitrogen and carbon and then wait for it to cook. That 'batch process' I'm talking about is the big part of why our current setup (with a single large tumbler) isn't working hard enough for us.  What we currently do is during the Spring cleanup and all through the early part of the Summer, I collect material and just kind of pile it up next to the tumbler.  Why?  Why not *in* the tumbler?  Because it is still FULL from the previous batch. About June or so, after we've had six or more weeks

2013 Faux Chocloate Easter Bunnies

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For the first time, we made some 'white chocloate' faux Easter bunnies.  The mold ( here ) was the smallest one I've worked with of the three years.  In the photo above, the white ones almost look matte, but they have the same shine on them that the chocolate ones do. Here's the 2012 edition . Here's the 2011 edition .

Cracker Barrel Selling Faux Chocolate Easter Bunnies

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Look at what I spotted at the Cracker Barrel?  A pretty tall faux chocolate bunny.  They've painted his eyeball, which is something I haven't done, but other than that they look a lot like the bunnies I've made in the past .  They wanted $19.99 for the large ones.  I have about $20 in the process to make three of them, so these guys have some healthy margins.  Granted....they're not using water putty to mold them as they're made of lightweight plastic, so they're probably even cheaper to produce. Is the faux chocolate bunny going to become a hot Easter-season item?

2013 Water Putty Bunny

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Here's the first bunny out of the mold.  After some drying and some Dremel-ing, we'll put a prime coat on this guy, then we'll have some fun painting him in a finish coat.  The Babe helped me make this one, so she wants to paint it her favorite color:  pink!

This Year's Bunny Mold: Sitting on a Stump

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I picked up a new mold from KHL Molds last week and started to make this year's bunnies.  I received a really sweet note from the owner of KHL Molds - and a special surprise - that I'll cover later this week. I've filled the mold already once with water putty and the cavity is a lot smaller than last year's and only requires one blend of material to fill the whole thing.  That means I can likely make *more* than I have in the past...

DIY Outdoor Candle Lamps

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Last night, I finished up the first - of eight - diy outdoor candle lamps.  The inspiration and design came from Mrs. Martha Stewart , of course. That's a two-footer there in the photo and I have four of those along with four three-footers. I used 2" PVC pipe along with a 1.5" galvanized flange (the foot) and a 6" 1.5" (diameter) nipple to give it some stability.  The light is a simple IKEA Hemma fixture. I primed the pvc with plastic primer than sprayed the pipe green.  Due to the low temperatures and the fact that our detached garage isn't super warm right now, it took quite a while to cure.  I brought them inside and within a few hours the paint had set up. Once that happened, I whipped out the hot glue gun and drizzled big globs of glue down the sides to replicate some faux candle wax which I painted white.  I topped it with a flickering bulb and it turned out great! I have the other seven to hot glue/paint white then to make a platform for t

Turning an Old Lamp into a Birdbath

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We've had this blue lamp in our garage for the better part of a month.  It came from Nat's Mom and we failed to sell it at our Garage Sale back in May.  It has a big crack in the side but still works as a lamp.  Unfortunately, it won't *work* for us in our house.  Just not the right fit. But, when I was digging around on the web, I somehow came across this tutorial for transforming an old lamp into a birdbath .  First thing you clip off the lamp fitting then get set to find a bowl to sit on top.  We don't have anything just laying around, so I'll try to get out to GoodWill in the coming weeks to find something that is suitable.  Maybe a white bowl?  Or a grey?  Once I get the hole drilled and the bowl set with epoxy, I'll get it out in the yard so our fine feathered friends can enjoy the water this summer.

Nephew's Birthday Gift - Mostly Made

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I put this cryptic white box together using some decking screws and a treated 1X8.  I have to do a little bit of detailing with paint, but after those designs go on, this thing should be good to go.  I tested the other part of it this morning and the test vehicle landed all the way in our neighbor's yard.  This *is* going to be fun to play with!

DIY Basketball Rack Cart

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This year, I had* Equation Boy/Man in our Christmas Grab-bag.  (By 'had', I mean that in my mind, I was to buy/build for him because I bought/built for my brother-in-law Shaun last year.  It appears that the guys-only Grab-bag may have fallen apart, but I'll soldier on, alternating between the two of them anyway.) Earlier this year, Equation Boy/Man had a really nice basketball hoop installed in his new driveway and I've spent many a late afternoon down at their place playing hoops with my nephew.  Everytime we play, the balls were scattered across the yard or garage.     Bingo!  I knew what I could build him - a rolling basketball rack/cart. I started with red cedar 4X4 beams for the corners.  The rest of the pieces are cedar 2X4s.  An adult basketball has a (just shy of) 10" diameter, so I made the rack 40" long to hold 4 balls.  3 levels means 12 adult balls. I'll have to grab a photo of the finished product (because I forgot to!) that shows th