Make Your Own . . . Firepit

In the fall B and I traveled to Elijay, Georgia for a weekend getaway of Glamping at The Martyn House.  From this trip I developed a short list of projects for our house.  I am pleased to announce that one of those projects can officially have a check mark next to it!

As you can see from the Glamping post, we spent time around the fire every night before bed.  After our first night I added this to my project list and informed B that I knew just the place for a firepit.  Recently, B was reading where Mark Driscoll had said he enjoyed time reading and studying by a firepit.  This must have fueled B's fire (pun intended) because just a short time later he hooked up the trailer and took off to pick up the stone. Fortunately, Brooke and Scotty had stone left from building their porch.  So we snagged a few pieces, picked up a bag of cement, added water, and ta-dah, our very own firepit.

Basically, our plan was that . . . we really didn’t have a plan.  We laid all the stones out so we could see them clearly.  We thought it would help to see all our stones when we were stacking.  B put the concrete on the stone then I would spread it.  Next, we both worked to place stones layer by layer.  Really, it was like putting together a puzzle.  If it looked like a piece didn’t fit or was too thick and started leaning we would try another until we found what worked best.  

I included this picture so you could see kind of where we put the firepit.  It's right off our back porch.  

Now, I must confess this project didn’t really go as smoothly as it sounds.  We originally bought quickrete which is apparently different than cement.  (I must confess this was my fault, not B’s but he was very gracious to me for this mistake.)  Apparently, quickrete is not necessarily made to “glue”, so . . . we had to tear down the pit and redo it using cement.  But honestly, if we would have used the cement first we could have completed this project easily in an hour or two.  I don’t know why we haven’t done it sooner.  


We have thoroughly enjoyed several nights of coziness around the fire!  Whether it's bundled up enjoying a good read or even taking a Sunday afternoon nap we definitely are enjoying the fruit of our labor.   

Knox (and his dirty face) enjoyed the fire, and he especially liked throwing sticks in.  

For those of you who are inspired to build your own firepit, Lowe's carries stone that is similar to what we used.   You could also substitute the stone for pavers, bricks, or other such material.  The cement we used can also be found at Lowe's for $10-$15 a bag.  As far as mixing the cement, we just followed the instructions on the bag.