Why I Oughta...

Earlier this month, I posted the latest update on the progress of finishing our backyard wood-fired pizza oven where I showed the continued application of brick veneer to the exterior to clad the enclosure in a finished material.  At that time, I had most of the back and some parts of one side/the front complete.   Fast forward a little bit and now the brick veneer is fully-applied.  I ended up using two types of bricks (a cost-cutting choice) that I sort-of have come to regret.  But, that's only after I began to grout the bricks.  I used a more expensive brick on the front that came with L-Shaped 'corners' to help provide the illusion of full-dimensional bricks being used.  I'm glad I did that.  But, I also used a far-cheaper brick veneer product for the back and parts of the sides of the oven.   I thought that they would be hidden (in the case of the back and most of the sides), so it wouldn't matter if the 'cheaper' brick was back th...

 Last month, I posted a couple of photos of doing some of the brick veneer on the pizza oven .  #5 on my 2026 to-do list is to 'finish up the oven' - which means finishing up the...well....finishes.  The exterior.  On the enclosure, that means brick veneer.   I started the veneer late last year before the temperatures dropped .  Didn't get far.  But, due to the temperature tolerances of the veneer mortar, I had to wait out the Spring .   With this being the first-time doing this type of work, I'm learning as I go.  I started on the back of the oven and moved around to the front.  Veneer isn't cheap, but there are higher-quality bricks and lower-quality ones.  My thought is that I could use the more-expensive veneer on the sides of the oven that people will see.  And, the cheaper stuff on the back.  Against the fence.   I ordered a bunch of boxes of the 'cheaper' veneer and over the past few weeks got to...

While most of my priority to-do items on my annual list involve horticulture, a few of them are different type of projects.  #5 is to "Finish the Pizza Oven".  Finishing it means the finish materials:  exterior cladding with brick veneer, trim around the roof and covering the roof.   Late last year, I began to play around with brick veneer. I started along the backside (just to get the hang of the materials) before Winter arrived .  But, one of the things I've been watching is the temperature tolerances of the veneer mortar.  I wrote about the temperature requirements earlier this Spring .  With the temps (finally) rising, we're in the window to work on the veneer. After getting the hang of the material on the back and one of the sides (Note:  I didn't complete either, just did a couple of rows.), I have moved to the front.  I'm using two types of brick veneer - one is about half the price of the other, but I prefer (surprise, surprise)...