This Is: My Firepit

This is my backyard.

This is 715 antique brick pavers.

This is eight used railroad ties.

This is a manhole cover.

This is 2 yards of crushed concrete.

This is 1 yard of paver base.

This is 1 cord of wood.

This is my firepit.

This project started in April when I saw this stack of bricks on Craigslist. The stack I was hoping to score, which was much closer to home, turned out not to be for sale, so I went to Craigslist looking for my old bricks. These bricks aren't as easy to find as you might think, and even harder to find when you need a big stack of them like I did. I could have gone with a cheaper 2 inch thick brick that you can find at almost any landscape supplier, but I wanted the bricks with the words on them.

Almost all of the bricks I bought were the Metropolitan Blocks that you'll see pretty commonly in this corner of the world. There were a few Perkins Blocks, but most of them were Metropolitan. The seller said they came from one of the oldest streets in Kalamazoo: Academy Street. I had no reason not to believe him, especially since I got a good deal on them.

The week I found them, Tim happened to be on vacation. So I enlisted his help in going to get them. They were in Paw Paw, so it was a little bit of a drive. We loaded them in his trailer, and took off. You see those mud tracks on the road?

That's exactly how far we got before we bent an axle. I'd be surprised if we made it 100 yards down the road. Apparently, nearly 3.5 tons of bricks was a few tons too many. We called in a couple of back-up trailers and spread the load out so we could make it back to my house without further disaster.

After I found some old railroad ties (also on Craigslist) that had been removed from a vineyard in Baroda, I went looking for a manhole cover. Why? Why not? Isn't it cool? I couldn't find any online, so I started emailing public works directors in the area. The one in St. Joseph Township happened to have one I could have ... for free. It had some asphalt on it, but I didn't mind cleaning it up.

 I found Made in USA on the bottom rim.

And East Jordan Iron Works on the top rim. I was worried as I started chipping away that it was going to say East Lansing and I was going to have to throw it away and find a new one. I got lucky. (Go Blue!)

It looks pretty amazing among the bricks. I briefly thought of putting a concrete void under it to store treasures, but then I thought about how much work it would be and decided to just keep it decorative. I suppose I could always dig a hole under it later.

Anyway, enough about manhole covers. Back to the bricks. Or the backyard actually, because I had a lot of dirt to move before I could lay any bricks. Luckily, I know a guy who had a rotavator I could borrow to break up the top soil.

I chewed up a space that was 13-by-15-feet, and I needed to get down 8 inches to make room for the crushed concrete, paver base and pavers. If you're doing the math, that's a lot of dirt. Roughly 5.5 tons to be exact. I didn't want to haul all that dirt very far (like everything else in this project, it was heavy), so I removed a fence panel so I could store it behind the fence. It's a wooded area that I clean up every spring anyway, so I don't think anyone will mind.

I moved 99 percent of the dirt myself (one wheelbarrow full at a time), but Mikey and grandma came over one afternoon while I was working on it, so I let Augie and Mikey poke around in the dirt for a few minutes while I took a breather.

They didn't get very far, though, with all the roots in the soil, so I got back to work. It only took me two days to get all the dirt out.

Here's my hole in the ground. There were some spots that I probably dug down closer to 9 or 10 inches, but I wasn't too worried. I bought a little more paver base than I needed.

I tried out the hand tamp Tim welded together for me on the dirt, but I didn't bother compacting it all. I was planning on compacting the crushed concrete and paver base later. If you are wondering, yes I was too cheap to spend $30 on a hand tamp at Lowe's, and yes this one weighs a lot (35 pounds to be exact). When you have to use it three times, it gets a little tiring.

Next, I put down about 75 percent of the crushed concrete, which was somewhere between 2 and 3 inches thick.

Then, magically, the railroad ties were holed, cut and fit into place. Not really, I pushed and shoved those things around after Gretchen helped me wheel them to the backyard. With all the bricks and my tight border I didn't really need to anchor them in place ...

... but I found these cool spikes in the barn, and I couldn't help but use them. I needed to borrow a drill bit extender so I could get through the 8-inch thick railroad ties. It killed a lot of drill batteries (railroad ties are dense), but it was worth it.

The stakes really add a small touch to the cool factor.

Once the rails were in, I was really pushing to get the firepit done, so I skipped pictures of the paver base and of me laying the bricks (which took up most of my Memorial Day). Fast forward to the finished patio. It looks a little dusty because I've already filled in the cracks with the polymeric sand at this point.

Like everything else in this project, they came in one size: heavy (aka 50-pound bags).

However, I was willing to use it as opposed to standard sand because once it's wet down, it essentially turns into concrete. Weeds are going to have a really hard time growing between the bricks. They'd have an even harder time had I remembered to use the landscaping fabric I bought. Oh well.

When I was laying the bricks, I put the best side face up, leaning toward the word side if they were about the same. Early on, I asked Gretchen if I should put all the words facing the same way. She said yes, so I did. Of the 603 bricks I used, half of one brick is upside down. If you can find it, you win a prize. (Spoiler alert: The prize tastes a lot like s'mores).

Even the top row of the firepit is uniform.

Speaking of the top of the firepit, check out the cool old vent I found in the barn to use as a cover. I wish it fit a little more snuggly, but the bricks shifted outward some as the glue settled. So it still sits on top, just a little more precariously than I would have liked. You can't win 'em all.

Since the firepit area is my de facto man cave area, I also hung these signs I found on the back of a door in the barn.

And I turned a couple of old light covers into candle holders, for additional lighting when I'm firepitting in the dark.

We lit the first fire tonight, and got out the s'mores pieces.

Mom showed Augie how to get the marshmallows just right.

Augie was pretty stoked. He's been waiting awhile to make some s'mores. Gracie was already in bed because she was getting tired and whiny, so she'll have to s'mores another day.

I'm not sure Augie even liked the s'mores. I do know that he was a big fan of the marshmallows.

He was kind enough to save me a couple.

But I had to act fast.

So, there you have it. There's my firepit. Through hard work, a little luck, some good deals and free stuff that was laying around the farm, I managed to keep the project to just more than $500. If you're thinking of building yourself a firepit using antique bricks and railroad ties, here are a few tips: 1) Don't call me ... unless you're looking for advice. One patio/firepit is enough for this old man. 2) Don't expect to do it for $500. I couldn't have gotten everything I used for any cheaper. Even the bricks were the cheapest I have ever seen online. 3) Ignore my first two tips and do it anyway. Just look at how cool it looks. It's totally worth it.