When we purchased our first home (in the middle of a world-wide pandemic), we both had our own wish list. Andrew wanted room for a garden. I wanted a suburban neighborhood. Together, we were really open to different styles and it took dozens of homes, to find what we both loved and really learn what we were actually looking for. It reallllyyyy helps to have an amazing realtor that pays attention to the things you love and hate from house to house. Without our realtor, we would have been lost. (Shameless plug – Lindsay at Lori Flynn Realty is the BEST in Indy.)
Once we got all of our boxes unloaded into the garage (with help from our amazing friends). The work began. We repainted every wall in the house before hanging a single piece of decor on the wall. In one weeks time, we got down to business. Got unpacked, decorated and settled. And then we realized… “This is ours. Let’s make it ours.”
The Fire Pit
Our first major project ended up being our fire pit. When we moved in, the house had an existing fire pit, which we loved! However, since we had already been living in a world that was basically shut down because of that icky C-word, we had become accustom to staying in, and being with friends in the back yard. So we wanted our back yard to offer the same kind of opportunities as our friends, which meant – we need more room for chairs around the fire.
We started brain storming, with spray paint and dreams. We wanted a nice bright feel that would be easy to maintain. Next thing I know Andrew says “Rock will be delivered Tuesday.” OH! Okay, so we are doing this. We went with river rock from Musselman Landscape Solutions, a local landscape company (we love to support local when we can)! Countless trips from the driveway to the backyard with loads of HEAVY rock. PRO TIP: When you’re doing an outside project, avoid the blazing summer heat. Looking back, this would have been a much better project for September/October…. but with any project. You live and learn.
Marking your project area: We had our already already marked out from the day dreaming stage. Since our yard already has a poured border that was there when move in, we wanted to continue the organic shape of that with the fire pit, so there wasn’t much technical thought behind it, just spray paint what looks good with the rest of the yard.
Removing the Sod We wanted to make sure to remove all of the sod, not only to keep the pit level with the yard, but also to prevent grass and weeds from growing up through the rocks. In addition we laid weed blocking landscape fabric down. I think removing the sod was just about when Andrew said, we should have done this in the fall. There are other ways to do this that are a little less labor intensive than a good ol’ fashioned shovel, like a sod cutter. But he was up for the task. In addition, he had to make sure it was level!
Rock & Border Installation was the next part. Load after load, pushing the wheelbarrow backkkk and forth. Again, July… not the best time for this, but we survived. Pretty simple concept when it came to the river rock. Load, wheel, dump, rake. Throw in a few “ow my back” comments and “man I’m getting old” and that takes care of that. The most time consuming part was laying down the retaining wall blocks. We used the same blocks for the fire pit ring as well as the outside border. It was extremely important to make sure this all stayed level, so block by block it was a game of finding the sweet spot. Leveling it out with leveling sand and then using construction adhesive to set it in place. After the border was completed, we filled the rest of the fire pit area in with the river rock and we were DONE! Added a few tiki torches and it was time to make memories!
Supplies:
Landscape Fabric – Lowe’s
River Rock – Musselman Landscape Solutions
Retaining Wall Blocks – Lowe’s
Wheelbarrow – The Home Depot
Construction Adhesive – The Home Depot
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