Come On Baby, Light My Fire!

Sorry for the corny post title, but I just couldn't help it. We finally got to use our fire pit! Whoo hoo!

It's still not 100% done (even phase 1 still needs a few finishing touches, and it will be a while before phase 2 happens and we go back and put down paver stones or flagstones on the surface area), but it's finally a usable space.

We went from this three weeks ago:

To this on Sunday:

Just go ahead and ignore that big pile of dirt in the background. And the tree stump. The dirt pile will be going away (or leveled out and covered with leaves), and we're going to turn the tree stump into a little side table, once our supplies arrive in the mail.


But for now, let me just bask in the joy of {mostly} completing this 3 week long project with some photos from a few different angles!

Ok, now that I've got that out of my system, let's back up a moment.

Last Friday, I'd left off saying we didn't know what we were going to use for our phase 1 ground cover in the fire pit area (phase 2 to eventually be paver stones or flagstones, once we've saved up and can stand the thought of a lot more digging and leveling. We may also eventually build in a permanent fire pit, but for now we like that we can move the portable steel fire pit closer or further to where we're sitting). Well, obviously you can see what we ended up with in the above photos--bark!

Originally I'd leaned more toward bark over rocks, since it would blend in better and give us a more natural look like we wanted. But then my mom had pointed out that my dad used to light weeds on fire to kill them, and the bark would sometimes catch too. Well, not that we would be putting a flame directly up to bark (real safe, Dad!), but it was a good point, that bark isn't fire proof.

So that's what prompted us to look at our rock options last week. And none of them were what we wanted, something that would sort of blend in with the natural surroundings, since we didn't want our fire pit area to be super noticeable from across the yard on the deck. Even the "brown" stones available at local landscaping supply yards were too light colored for what we were envisioning. And my mom also pointed out that the darker brown rocks we used in our wedding centerpieces were like $70 per bag.

So with pretty rocks not to be found anywhere (and even if we did, they were probably way over budget), we went with plan B-ark.

And we really love it!

Not only was the chunky bark about 4 times less expensive than even the cheap drainage gravel we used, it is quiet under your feet when you walk and not at all slippery (the chunky bark is sometimes used on playgrounds too), and it blends in beautifully with the surroundings, giving us the natural feeling we were going for. The only downsides are that it won't last forever (which is ok, since eventually we'll be replacing it with more of a patio anyway), and we need to make sure we monitor the fire on it, since it has the potential to catch fire if things got out of hand. But we would monitor the fire anyway, and our fire pit itself is pretty contained. So we'll just keep a bucket of water handy when having fires and call it a day with our pretty brown bark!

And now, since I'm sure you all are getting pretty tired of hearing about our fire pit project, I'm going to cram our resources and budget break down into this post too.

I already sort of showed the steps we took to build our retaining walls in a previous post. So I won't rehash our steps in a play by play, but instead direct you to some great resources we checked out online before building our own retaining walls.

Useful resources for building retaining walls:

Better Homes and Gardens (this is my favorite, because it lays out the steps in a nice, simple format)
Lowes.com and a video
Family Handyman
Allan Block

Other than doing your research ahead of time, also make sure you check to see if you need a permit or not. In our area, you only need a permit to build a retaining wall 4 feet or higher, and ours are only 2 feet high, but it might be different in your area.

The budget:

Whew! After adding up 9 different receipts I've been saving in my purse, I'm glad we're on track with where I thought we'd be with this project. Although it's definitely a far cry from when I first asked my husband for a fire pit area as my anniversary gift. "Let's just put down some paver stones, it will be easy. We could probably get it done in one weekend for a max of $250!"

Hahaha, maybe if you've got a level surface to start with. But when you need to build retaining walls with wall paver stone blocks, it quickly adds up. We're really happy we did it though, even with the cost. Now we get to use a portion of our yard that was otherwise not very useful due to the slope!

Retaining wall and ground cover expenses:

324 Retaining Wall Blocks (2 were broken and not used) @ $1.18 ea. = $382.32
Home Depot Delivery @ $59 = $59.00
35 Bags of Paver Base @ $3.97 ea. = $138.95
45 Bags of Drainage Gravel @ $3.48 ea. = $156.60
4 Tubes of Construction Adhesive @ $6.99 ea. = $27.96
4 Drainage Tubes @ $5.41 ea. = $21.64
18 Bags of Bark Nuggets @ $3.15 ea. = $56.70
1 Ground Tamper Tool @ $29.98 ea. = $29.98

Total for our retaining walls and ground cover: $873.15 + tax

Decorative fire pit terrace expenses:

1 Steel Fire Pit @ $79 ea. = $79.00
4 Adirondack Chairs @ $17.98 ea. = $71.92
4 Outdoor Throw Pillows @ $9.98 ea. = $39.92
4 Citronella Candles @ $6.98 ea. = $27.92
7 Hosta (similar) @ $4.98 ea. = $34.86
5 Bags of Garden Soil @ $3.79 ea. = $18.95

Total for our fire pit terrace decor: $272.57 + tax

We also bought a few things I'm not including in our budget, like a wheelbarrow and a rubber mallet. But those things will be used on future projects/are just good to have around. The ground tamper though, I can't see what we will possibly ever use it for again, so I included it in our budget breakdown.

All in all, this wasn't a cheap project (which is why we're holding off to do the second phase with more of a patio ground surface). Nor was it easy. Like, at all. I would definitely say with all of the digging and dirt and stone hauling we did, it was a lot harder than scraping our popcorn ceilings. But so totally worth it in the end! And now we can sit back and enjoy it all.

Cheers!

(The kitty photo bomb cracks me up. She must have been looking at a bug or something!)

Do you ever save receipts for big projects to add up your expenses at the end? Are you ever surprised by the outcome, or do you mostly end up on track with your spending?