The Fireplace is Taking Shape - Part One

So it has been awhile since the last update and I really have been trying to complete small tasks around the house so there have not been many large projects to report on.  One huge project I have been working on is my outdoor fireplace. Since this project is so big, there will be two parts.  Below are the details for the first part of the project.  

My brother and I have been working for the last 6 weeks or so building a full outdoor fireplace and it is really starting to take shape.  This is no small fire pit, but a full outdoor fireplace to create an outdoor living room.  Below you will see a 3D rendering of what I am trying to do.  It has changed slightly but the main parts are the same.  A pergola will be attached to the top of the beams but I did not draw them in for this picture. The round circle below the ground level is where my window well is located going into the basement.  

We started with a huge open dirt lot on the side of my house that originally housed two cars in a temporary shed when I bought the place.  Below is what I started with for the dirt lot.  This picture was after we moved a ton of dirt over to this area because it sloped down very steep originally and we graded it slightly.

So we could make sure that the dirt was compacted, we drove my truck over the area many times.  My brother blared the song “Redneck Yacht Club” while I did it just so the neighbors knew our intentions.  I am sure it solidified the perception my neighbors have of me as being crazy.  The next step was to make the frame for the cement pad.  The pad is about 14 feet long by 8 feet wide and the depth is a little over 4 inches thick.  Inside the frame we added welded wire mesh as well as rebar just to add support to the concrete to keep it from breaking since there will be quite a bit of weight with all the stone and cement used.  You can see this below. 

There really was not enough concrete needed to require a cement truck, so we used a little over 40 bags of concrete from Home Depot and mixed it all by hand in a wheelbarrow.  Here is the picture after the concrete was poured. The rebar sticking up in the corners is to go through the first level of cement block to help tie the blocks to the cement pad.

The next step was to add the cement block for the base since I wanted this fireplace to be strong enough where multiple individuals could sit on the hearth and it would not have any problems structurally.  We used a little over 130 cement blocks for the construction so we were pretty sore the day after we laid them all.  The corners were filled with cement up to the top so that it would add extra strength because the fireplace is also used as a retaining wall for the new patio area.  The blocks were laid three high but only two blocks will be visible above the ground. 

In the picture below, you will see blocks laid in the center of the cement pad.  This is to hold up the concrete slab that will be the bottom of the firebox. 

The slab of concrete is used for under A/C units and weighed a little over 200 pounds.  In the picture below you can see the pad along with the walls around the firebox taking shape. 

Once this was all in place, it was time to start the rest of the structure for the fireplace.  The frame was made from aluminum studs so that they would not rust.  The frame pictured below is screwed into the concrete and blocks with concrete anchors so it will not be going anywhere anytime soon.

We then started adding the sheathing on top of the metal frame.  This is the same exterior sheathing that I used on the columns on the front of the house.  I also used a piece of cement board for the center above the fireplace just in case the fireplace ever gets real hot, but since it is only a gas fireplace it should never get very hot.  I then added drainage around the front of the fireplace because water does drain down in front of the fireplace and I do not want it causing the fireplace to shift from water.  This drainage is the same as used in a few prior posts for the retaining wall and such.  You can also see in the below pictures where the ground level has now been brought up to the final height and now one level of cement block is below ground level. 

I then added the top portion of the fireplace.  In the pictures below you can see how I cut the metal studs to form the arch and attached the wood so it would match the curve. 

The next step was to cover the entire structure with roofing tar paper to keep out the water.  There is a minimum of three layers on the entire structure but some areas have as many as six layers just to be safe. 

Here is a picture of the area once the dirt has been leveled and some landscape lights added. This area will be covered in pavers next summer.

My brother and I are much further along with this project but since this post is getting long I will hold off on any more details and make that part two.  I will tease you with a picture of where I am at with the project so far and stay tuned for the details in the next week or so.  It really is turning out well.

  

Keep watch for the next update where I will show how I completed the brick and stone work along with how the concrete moldings for the fireplace were made by my brother and I. Well that is all for now.  

Time for a New Patio

I realized today that it has been quite a while since my last update but a lot has changed.  Back at the end of May I left my job working in student housing to move into a position with multi-family apartments.  I really decided that after 11 years in student housing it was just time to stop taking care of everyone else’s kids and I wanted to have a little less stressful job.  This career change gave me about five weeks to work on my house before my next job started which was great since I was working 65 hour weeks at my old job and was not getting much progress done on my house.  One of the big tasks was the retaining wall shown in a previous post, but I have also worked on installing a new window in the kitchen, re-landscaped the back yard, and added new sod to the back yard.  The biggest project has been the installation of the back patio which I will write about it in this post. 

First off, a little history of the back patio.  When I purchased the house there was a wood deck that was about six inches off the ground and was starting to get in bad shape.  My brother pulled it up last summer and we threw it out with our neighborhood dumpster day.  Under that deck was the original concrete patio and there was literally six inches of dog and cat hair on top of the concrete up to the wood deck.  A large tree was next to the patio and it caused the original concrete patio to buckle; which is probably why there was the wood deck on top of it.  Unfortunately it looks like I do not have any pictures of this so you will just have to take my word for it.  I do have this picture of the backyard with the old timbers and you can see the pavers that were used to extend the patio.  I sold these all on craigslist since my plan includes no pink pavers anywhere in my yard. 

Here is a picture of the tree that caused the patio to heave.  It was removed with the other old trees in the back yard and you can see a little of the old patio.  

A couple months ago my dad had a couple guys available at his office so he sent them up to my house and they removed the concrete.  It took almost two days with a jack hammer because of how thick the concrete was.  We found out that for some reason the back patio was poured with a footer as if it was to be used for the floor in the extension of the house.  This made the concrete almost 14 inches deep in spots.  Below are a couple pictures of the concrete being removed. 

The guys that removed the concrete had to temporarily brace up the patio cover because there was concrete under the posts.  I then decided I wanted to move the posts on the patio cover further out to make a bigger patio.  This involved adding brand new posts.  I had to dig down over 24 inches to get below the frost line and then poured concrete into the holes for the new posts.  I then re-built the header and added extra wood to make it a little stronger.

After the roof of the patio was re-built, it was time for the new patio.  This required adding dirt to the areas where the footer originally was and then removing some dirt from the high places.  The next step was bringing in a little over 4,000 pounds of road base (which is a mix of small rock and rock dust) to put down a four inch layer across the area where the patio would be.  My brother and I then used a gas powered compactor to compress the road base to make it level.  This will help with all the heaving of the soil that can occur from the thaw/freeze cycles that we see in Colorado. 

The next step was to add a sand layer on top of the road base to lay the pavers on top of.  I chose a 16” x16” square paver to give more of a contemporary look and also because you do not see it everywhere.  The drawback was that there was over 170 pavers needed for the project and they are quite heavy when they get that big.  We used metal conduit laid on top of the road base to use as a guide for the thickness of our sand which you can see in the below pictures.  You can also see in the pictures a string along the outside edge that I used to make sure everything was square as we laid the patio. 

I then needed to compact the pavers with a gas powered compactor to set the pavers firmly in the sand.  To keep from breaking the pavers, I rolled out old carpet with the soft side down and ran the compactor over the backing of the carpet.  It worked great and kept the pavers from chipping or cracking.  I also added a small grilling area off to the side.  This will eventually have outdoor cabinets built around the grill to make an outdoor kitchen.  Lastly I added some very fine sand to fill in some of the small cracks between the pavers.  You will always have some small gaps between pavers since they will not be perfectly square.  Also over time the pavers will settle and you will have to keep adding sand.  I did have to buy a paver saw from Harbor Freight to make the cuts for the rounded part of the patio and for the edges but they are fairly inexpensive.  You can rent one but for as much as I will use it, it was cheaper to buy one.  Below is the final outcome of the patio.  It turned out great and made a huge impact on the back yard. 

Here is a picture with my new patio furniture.  The couches are for another patio I will be building here soon on the side of my house, but they work fine here for now.

I still need to build a step coming out of the house and do some painting/trim work but that is about it.  Since these pictures were taken, I have added LED can lights to the ceiling of the patio and will also be adding outdoor speakers and then covering the ceiling in exterior plywood to make it seem more like an outdoor living room.  I will add pictures to the blog when that is all done.   Well that is about all for now.  I will do another blog post here shortly on some of the other projects I recently completed so keep a close eye on the blog.  Until next time….. 

PS According to HomeDepot.com, I have made 106 purchases with my credit card at their stores since I moved into my house one year ago.  Since I occasionally pay by cash or gift card I can say I have been there well over 120 times.  I am pretty sure I am there more often than the grocery store which is probably why a lot of the people at Home Depot know my name. :) 

Time for the Backyard!

It has been quite a while since the last update and I am now in the midst of a huge backyard renovation.  Below you can see the retaining wall that used to be in my backyard.  I decided that it was time for it to go because of the age and it falling down.  I also wanted a bigger backyard for grass. The three large trees in this photo were also removed.

I started to take out the wall myself but after a few hours I realized that I would need a little help since some of the timbers were well over 100 pounds and rebar reinforced. I also had a lot of dirt that would need moved. 

I found a contractor that had a bobcat tractor and for $300 he came and removed the wall and re-graded the backyard.  I took a time lapse video from my upstairs window so you can see how it was done.

This is what my yard looked like once the tractor left. 

After the old retaining wall was removed I decided to build a cement block retaining wall at the top of my yard so the slope of the yard would be less. Here is a picture of about half of all the old timbers.  I put them for free on craigslist so most of them are now being used in someone else's yard.

I started out by doing some additional grading to cut back the soil since the tractor was not able to do this.  Below was the result when I was done. The string is for the top of the wall so that I could measure across the full length of the yard.

For retaining walls, drainage is key because any water behind the wall could make it fall or will freeze in the winter and cause it to come out of alignment.  I started by digging 9-12 inches below the surface of the ground and 28 inches wide. 

I then placed a perforated pipe in the trench.  The pipe is covered in a sleeve in the below picture that will keep the dirt from clogging the holes.

I then filled the trench almost all the way up with ¾” granite rock.  This allows the water to flow down to the pipe and then flow away from the wall. The stone was then tamped down with a hand tamper to make the rock lock into each other.  

After the gravel was placed in the trench, it was time to add the cement blocks.  These blocks were purchased from General Shale here in Denver and are a higher grade of block than you would find at the home improvement stores and is specifically designed for retaining walls.  One block is 18” long, 8” high, and 12” deep.  The blocks also weigh 78 pounds each which made the total weight of the cement blocks a little over 6,000 pounds.  It took three trips in my truck to get them all. 

I placed the first level with my brother’s help and we had to make sure everything was perfectly level otherwise all other levels would be off.  We tamped down the stone as we went to make sure everything would be solid.   As we placed the cement block we added more gravel inside the cores and filled up the gap behind the wall.  Below is after the first of three levels. 

Here is after the second level.

This picture is after the last level.  We went through nine truckloads of 3/4” granite for a total of a little over 16,000 pounds of stone.  We had to haul it all in paint buckets to the wall location so my brother and I moved a lot of stone!

Before we put the top caps on, we laid a layer of landscape fabric over the stone so the dirt will not clog up the stone but still allow the water through. 

After the caps were installed on the wall, I backfilled with dirt and added a couple of pots I had around the house.  It took my brother and I two full days to build the wall but it turned out really well.  The next two pictures will show the final result. The total length of the wall is just under 45 feet.

I still have some grading of the dirt in front of the wall and then I will add a new sprinkler system and install new grass.  Lastly I will be building a stone column at each end of the wall that will look similar the the columns I built in earlier posts except they will have built-in landscaping lights.  I will post a picture once that is completed. 

Project cost breakdown:

Excavating: $300.00
Cement Block $450.00
Stone: $180.00
Total: $980.00

The next project will be installing a paver patio to the back of my house and I hope to have that started this weekend.  Well that is all for now. 

Let There Be Light!!

So I have been extremely busy with work lately so I have not had a whole lot of time to work on the blog or the house.  I have spent a lot of time deciding on what finishes I want in my house so now it is just a matter of collecting the materials before I really tear into things.  For this post I will focus on one of the big structural projects on my home. 

The family room in my house was always very dark. This post shows removing the door that the original homeowners placed in the family room after construction and we replaced it with a wall of new windows.  Basicly we moved everything back to where it was originally since the door didn't make a lot of sense being in this modified location.  Since this wall where the windows would be installed is structural to the house, I had to be very careful when the wall was re-framed.  Below is what the wall used to look like.  You may notice the slit in the drywall along the length.  This was to check where the load bearing studs were so that I could frame the windows around them and decide what size windows would work. 

I ordered all the windows online from Home Depot and they actually sent them via UPS to my house.  They are a high grade vinyl with LowE double paned glass so they are good for Colorado.  With shipping all the windows came in at about $400.00. All three windows are 36” x 60” so I will definitely get a lot of light into the family room.  With the windows in my possession, the first step was to remove the drywall and insulation.  Since it is still cold here in Denver, I completed most of the framing from the inside before I cut through to the outside.  

Below you can see where I started the framing of the two left most windows.  This just took a few hours and you can see where I had to add headers above the windows to re-distribute the weight of the house around to the outside of the windows.  I made these headers oversized because there will be a bathtub above this portion eventually with a lot of weight but it really didn’t need that much structure; it is just better to be safe.  I did all this work while it was snowing outside so I waited another week to actually cut through the outside of the house. 

With my brother’s help, we removed the existing door from the family room.  After we took it out, it appears that the door was actually the original front door and the side windows were framed in with plywood and the glass was single paned.  This is probably why my family room was always so cold.  You can see the opening below. When I did this step I wanted to make sure it was warmer and that I could get all the holes sealed up in one day so the house wasn’t unsecured overnight.  Once the door was removed the countdown clock started ticking away and we had to work quickly.  I actually sold the door on Craigslist for $40 which is good because I figured I would have to just throw it out - it was in pretty bad shape.  

With the door removed I went about re-framing the opening.  This involved removing all the vinyl siding from this portion of the house on the outside.  While I did that my brother cut through to the outside of the house.

The next step was to install the windows.  We had to apply a rubber membrane to the window sills to help drain the water to the outside and then use a window sealant to install the windows.  We did have to add some exterior sheathing to where part of the original door was since there would no longer be an opening in this location.  Once the windows were in place we hammered nails into the flanges and then sealed the flanges with a special rubber tape that is designed to seal the windows to the exterior sheathing of the house and keep moisture out.  You can see this in the two pictures below.

The next step was for me to re-install the vinyl siding to the exterior.  After re-installing the original siding and the Styrofoam insulation, I was ready to re-install the vinyl siding.  This was quite tricky because I had to add new vinyl J-Molding around the windows and then cut the previous siding to fit.  This took a few hours but as you can see below it turned out quite well.  The siding is really dirty because some of it was stored on the side of the house but all this will be cleaned and painted the tan color - hopefully this weekend.  There will also be white wood molding going around the windows just like what was shown in a previous post for the front side of the house.  As a side note, the vinyl molding was purchased from Lowes.com.  As much as I love the Home Depot, Lowes had better options for molding.  When I purchased the first batch of molding locally from a window company I paid almost $15 per 12 foot section.  With Lowes I only paid $4 per 12 foot section and they shipped it free to my local store.  It took about 10 days to get here but Lowes will ship almost anything to your local store for free so it is a good tool to use since this item is not normally stocked by them locally and they have a much bigger selection online.  

While I installed the siding my brother worked on putting the insulation back and installing drywall.  This is just temporary to keep the cold out since we will be doing a troweled plaster texture on all the walls and repainting at a later point.  I will also be adding molding around the windows on the inside as well. 

Well that is really it for that project.  With summer fast approaching I have started planning the work for the back yard.  My plans are to remove some trees, re-grade the backyard, add a retaining wall, build an outdoor fireplace, install a new paver patio on the back of the house, complete the exterior painting, and build a patio with a huge pergola for the side of my house.  I will have lots of work to do but I should have some really neat blog posts.  To leave you all, below is a picture of the greenhouse.  These plants are for my house and my brother’s house.  Most of these are from cuttings of plants last year or seeds.  My brother has really been working on this but it should help make a neat yard this summer.  Keep watching for more updates!