Hello from Texas

[aurik]

Hello everyone!

Yet another Texan joining up here. Yes, I'm from the Dallas/Fort Worth area (but how many of you actually know where Caddo Mills is?), but no, I'm NOT a native Texan, so don't expect many "Hey y'all's" out of me.

I stumbled across this site a little while ago while looking into ideas for an outdoor kitchen and brick pizza oven, and I've been spending (probably too much) time reading about lots of great ideas and viewing plenty of pics of awesome builds.

I'm probably about 12+ months away from starting my build, so right now I'm looking for ideas and figuring out what we want to do. I'm sure I'll have *LOTS* of questions when I get closer to doing my actual build, including "How do I justify *this* to the wife??"

Thanks for the veritable encyclopaedia of knowledge!

[gdest]

Re: Hello from Texas

Hello aurk

I am also from Texas, Houston area. As to how to solve the problem with your wife I suggest you do the same thing I did. I did a lot of research and e-mailed a lot of people who actually built thier ovens, both Barrel and Pompei types. Most were helpful and were willing to share costing information.
What I did was take the lowest quote which was about $950 and used that.

Now as I have posted on a different thread, I have just contracted to have a tree removed from where I want to put the oven for a cost of $500 so in theary that leaves me $450 for the remaining oven. Now you may ask how I plan on doing this. Its easiy if you follow the following three easy steps.

1. Don't keep a running total of the money you spend
2. Lie
3. If caught, say you made a mistake!

If the above three items don't work, what you need to do is take the total amount you spend and then estimate the amount your home value went up due to building the oven and show your wife all the money you made!

Good luck

[PlanoPhil]

Re: Hello from Texas

gdest - Too funny. So I guess a Quicken subaccount to track oven expenses is off the table. Damn and I'm soooo addicted to that tool.
I promised my wife a water feature and a fireplace (I'm thinking a water pistol and a campfire) so she agreed to the oven. Actually she loves pizza and entertaining so it wasn't a hard sell.

aurik - I'm in Plano and it sound like you and I are on the same path although I would like to start my build this fall, right after the summer heat wave and finish before Xmas. I'm currently between contracts and like you am spending way to much time reading all of the build threads. This site rocks! I'm fired up. Lets stay in touch. Maybe we could help each other out. Google maps says we are about an hr. apart.

This snow today is very cool. Think I take a break ond go build a Snowman in the front yard. I just gotta build something.

[jjerrier]

Re: Hello from Texas

Hey guys - I am also in the Dallas area. I have an oven in my backyard and a mobile oven catering business (ilcanerosso.com). We've opened a guerilla restaurant at the NW corner of Preston/Forest (near The Mercury and Little Gym) that we open Thu - Sat from 5pm til we are out of dough. We use our mobile oven to make authentic Neapolitan pizza. Come by and introduce yourselves if you get a chance!! Jay

[reuvas]

Re: Hello from Texas

Hi i m new here. and hope to enjoy here.

[DimTex]

Re: Hello from Texas

Hey guys, I am down the road in Austin. I finished my WFO in September and hardly a weekend goes by that it has not been fired at least once. I spent a fair amount of time lurking on this site before I had the nerve to start. I am so glad I did as it was a great father son project. I still have to finish the outdoor fireplace I promised my wife.

I must warn you that once you start a transformation will slowly take place. This project will take over your life, all you will begin to think about is cutting bricks and mortar mix. You go to the beach and all you do is look at the sand and wonder if it will make for better mortar than what you're making now. Fridays will come and all you do is paw the ground until you can run outside so you can lay a few chains of brick. Time is measured between courses of brick. Once finished you will simply transfer your obsession to firing the oven as in what makes for the best firewood, how long to age it, split or rounds, etc.. Then move on to obsessive dough making, ideal sauces and where to find the right kind of cheese.

Your spouse may find herself wondering what kind of nut she married....

Mind you, the kids love the pizza and calzones and their friends love the chance to get invited. Its all good, enjoy it and the great support you'll find on this forum.

[aurik]

Re: Hello from Texas

gdest - Too funny. So I guess a Quicken subaccount to track oven expenses is off the table. Damn and I'm soooo addicted to that tool.
I promised my wife a water feature and a fireplace (I'm thinking a water pistol and a campfire) so she agreed to the oven. Actually she loves pizza and entertaining so it wasn't a hard sell.

aurik - I'm in Plano and it sound like you and I are on the same path although I would like to start my build this fall, right after the summer heat wave and finish before Xmas. I'm currently between contracts and like you am spending way to much time reading all of the build threads. This site rocks! I'm fired up. Lets stay in touch. Maybe we could help each other out. Google maps says we are about an hr. apart.

This snow today is very cool. Think I take a break ond go build a Snowman in the front yard. I just gotta build something.

Phil,

Yeah, an hour is about right, give or take. I actually work in McKinney, and usually make it in ~45 minutes. I'd love to do my build this fall, but unfortunately we've got a lot of other priorities on our plate right now (paying off our wedding from 2 years ago being at the top of that list... we've put it off and put it off and decided that it *had* to get done before we made any other big investments).

[Millstone Man]

Re: Hello from Texas

I do in fact know Caddo Mills! I'm over in Prosper (just west of McKinney). Great to see so many neighbors on board. I'm in the process of working out my outdoor kitchen pavilion and hope to get started soon. We will need to compare suppliers and share local info.