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  • Not quite a kitchen

    Sometime around the first week of Sept (08), I realized the summer had slipped by without me making any progress on my little project. As I lay in bed one morning, I decided it was time to do it, or wait till the following spring.

    Here's a few pics of my post-oven work. Its not quite an outdoor kitchen build, but its gone down pretty much as I first envisioned an oven and bar/BBQ here a year-and-a-half ago.

    Some of my problems in getting started on this was that I wasn't sure which barbeque I wanted, so I needed to get that decision made and get those dimensions built into the plans. I messed with the ideas of a refridgerator and a keg and tap system. I didn't really have a need for either, and all I could imagine was that the kids would either ruin them or abuse them. I opted out of both ideas. Once I picked out a grill, I finally got going with the build.

    Anyway, I stacked and restacked concrete blocks for over a week I think, trying to find just the right size to give me room for the bar, BBQ, and pizza prep area. I was quickly pushing towards the start of October before I mortared in the blocks, poured concrete in the cores, and set forms for concrete countertops.

    Since I was worrying a bit about the cold weather coming in, I poured the concrete countertop piece for the bar section off to the side of the work area and let it cure while I worked on the rest of this. I didn't take any pics of that work, but it was pretty straighforward work, and similar to the pics here.

    I pretty much was free-wheeling on my color mixing with the concrete on the counter tops. I thought these would be easy to pour, but there's a lot more messing around trying to get the colors in so that they will expose correctly when polished. Leveling the forms was easy. Leveling the concrete was a bitch. Regardless, the final pics show the pour after I reluctanly walked away.

    More later....
    G.
    GJBingham
    -----------------------------------
    Everyone makes mistakes. The trick is to make mistakes when nobody is looking.

    -

  • #2
    Re: Not quite a kitchen

    Work in progress....but I can see it working in the future,
    by George!
    sigpicTiempo para guzarlos..... ...enjoy every sandwich!

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Not quite a kitchen

      Sir George, you need help from a like mind: allow me to flip through my tiny book, eh.
      I'm sure there is a kindred spirit for this particular disorder.

      Sit! stay....... good boy,

      Good, Sir George; good boy; easy now - easy. there, that feels better, doesn't it; stay at ease while I search the archives

      Apologies Yer Lordship - nothing but Mushy Minds from Google. Apparently you may be out of my reach. Same same London.
      Best wishes with the build young feller,
      Jeffie.
      (as X Jim affirmed - "by George" indeed.) jh.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Not quite a kitchen

        Cool!

        It'll be very interesting to see how that top polishes up. So you just keep polishing and polishing until you hit a layer you like? Sounds like a lot of work...
        "Building a Brick oven is the most fun anyone can have by themselves." (Terry Pratchett... slightly amended)

        http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f8/p...pics-2610.html
        http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f9/p...nues-2991.html

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Not quite a kitchen

          I'm way past this point. I just ran out of gas last night. More pics tonight.
          G.
          GJBingham
          -----------------------------------
          Everyone makes mistakes. The trick is to make mistakes when nobody is looking.

          -

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Not quite a kitchen

            I think George is going to finish his kitchen before me!!!

            Looking great so far! - I've been in and out of contact more or less for the last 3 weeks on business travel and missed this thread.

            Good to be back home. China was nice but I'm done with mushroom and pork blood soup for a while...

            Christo
            Last edited by christo; 02-20-2009, 12:46 PM.
            My oven progress -
            http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f8/c...cina-1227.html
            sigpic

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Not quite a kitchen

              Remember Y2K? All the hullabaloo and prophesies of doom and gloom and yet the world didn't end when the clocks ticked past midnight on Jan 2001 - everything still worked?

              Well, here's my P2K. Somehow, I think the the effects of my 2000th post will be quite similar to those nine years ago. A lot of BS in the build-up to the big day, but when all is said and done, nothing happens!

              Anyway, time to post progress pics again. I haven't really done much work recently. These pics are from a couple of months ago:

              - After the forms for concrete counter tops are removed, I mounted the upper counter top with epoxy and mounted iron brackets underneath for additional support. My daughter trusts it enough to walk on it!

              - I spent somewhere around 40 plus hours or so polishing the concrete in my raincoat/pants suit, often when the temps were in the low 40s. When my fingers got numb, I'd take a break and warm up awhile, then hit it again. This is absolutely mind numbing work as well. A couple of hours a day was all I could handle without loosing any more of my sanity. There is debris from the polishing process on everything in the vicinity by the time I put the grinder away.

              - Polishing virtually complete. I used a concrete sealer on the upper bar/countertop. Once dried, it turned out that it was fairly easy to scratch, and had a fingernail polish type appearance. I think this occurred because the concrete was so smooth that the polish has no porosity to lock itself into and thus, is somewhat easy to remove. I used carnuba wax on the remainder of the concrete. It looks really nice when its buffed out, but when the weather is cold, excess wax buildup has a very hazy look to it. I think it needs some more work.

              - I used a product called Quickrete Quickwall on the outsides of the concrete blocks. It can be applied like stucco, but is much stronger, and actually adds quite a bit of additional strength to dry stacked CMUs. I was well into late November, so I did a quick single coat paint job and did a partial installation of the grill (I can still pick it up and out of the cut-out) and sink (not yet plumbed), just to get the area through the winter, while being functional for grilling.

              - Heres the first plan for brick trim work, which I decided against. I didn't like the corners as picturedc. Since this pic, I went with just a single row of brick at the base and installed terra cotta porcelain tile inside the workspace. I'll get those pics up soon (read: sooner or later ).

              That's all for now. Have a great week!
              GJBingham
              -----------------------------------
              Everyone makes mistakes. The trick is to make mistakes when nobody is looking.

              -

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Not quite a kitchen

                Wow, your daughter is a real sweety!

                ...and the kitchen thing is quite nice, too.

                No seriously: I watched that oven being built last Winter, whenever I came in to thaw my own brick scarred fingers. So its really nice to see it settling in with its new surroundings. It looks great! That looks like a very happy oven to me. And with some twirly bits, too. Cool!
                "Building a Brick oven is the most fun anyone can have by themselves." (Terry Pratchett... slightly amended)

                http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f8/p...pics-2610.html
                http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f9/p...nues-2991.html

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Not quite a kitchen

                  I like the outdoor space a lot, George. But I think your daughter's better! She's beautiful!

                  The yellow walls look really nice with the counters and the oven. Does the quickwall product come colored already?

                  I can't wait to finish my project- I just need a little more warm on a consistent basis and I'll be there!
                  Elizabeth

                  http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f8/e...html#post41545

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Not quite a kitchen

                    Your daughter is absolutely adorable!
                    Your outdoor kitchen is looking good too and, like Elizabeth, I'll have to look into that Quickwall stuff as I still have considerable finish work to do and that might be just the thing for part of it. No one sells stucco around here but I'd rather not mix my own if I can avoid it! (Maybe another drive to Syracuse ...)
                    Lookin' good George - on all fronts!

                    Sarah

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Not quite a kitchen

                      Way to go George!

                      Who is cuter? Your daughter or your oven? :-) We're starting to think about gardening -- may a couple of climbing shrubs behind the oven. We planted camellia in the beds across from the oven to match two that were there. They were covered with concrete and stucco, but they didn't die and they've really come back.

                      Looking good George,
                      James
                      Pizza Ovens
                      Outdoor Fireplaces

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Not quite a kitchen

                        Thanks everyone. My daughter is my sidekick at least eight hours a day. Its wonderful to be able to spend as much time as I want with her while she is young. She's well into her terrible twos at just 21 months old. We have a great time together, even when she is scolding me for not giving her candy.

                        Elizabeth - here's the link for Quikwall. It comes in white or gray. You can color it with concrete stain or paint it.

                        http://www.quikrete.com/ProductLines...dingCement.asp

                        James, were starting the gardening around here too. I build four raised beds for vegies last week. They've been covered in snow each morning for the last three days. Despite the somewhat typical March weather, the buds on the apple and pear trees are starting to open already.

                        Someday, I hope to get the entire area landscaped around the deck and oven. A paver patio with vertical rock walls for borders, a pond, plantings......... Probably a pipe dream!
                        Last edited by gjbingham; 03-09-2009, 06:55 PM.
                        GJBingham
                        -----------------------------------
                        Everyone makes mistakes. The trick is to make mistakes when nobody is looking.

                        -

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Not quite a kitchen

                          just cleaned out my raised beds, too. Planting onions, garlic and herbs this year. Tomatoes go on the deck this year to see if we can keep the deer away.

                          Really impressed with your countertops and a bit distressed at all the labor of love that has to go into them.... making me rethink my countertop plans!!!

                          Christo
                          My oven progress -
                          http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f8/c...cina-1227.html
                          sigpic

                          Comment

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