Treehouse Pizza

[Toiletman]

Well I lucked out and it didn't rain again today. So I am now completely done with the pearllite render. I am very glad to have finished this step. I also feel like it went on easier yesterday than today. Not sure what the difference is? Oh well I am just glad to be done with this step. The kit came with a Styrofoam float that was curved to fit the dome. I could not get that to work for the life of me. So I just used my pool trowel and it came out fairly decent I think. I guess I almost don't want it to be a perfect sphere as the rest is a bit rustic and that is how I envisioned the thing in the first place. Not sure what I was doing wrong today but the render just was not staying in place as well as yesterday. It was rougher texture yesterday so that probably helped. Oh well it is done now and covered as we are supposed to get like 4" of rain in the next few days again. Now that I have this step done I may still have a chance to make pizza on July 2 for my sons birthday. I guess time will tell and we will see just how many days it rains.

Randy

Congrats on finishing it, now it's time for a countdown to curin' and cookin' ! And I see you have a large todo list for thereafter already too... the work is never finished.

[RandyJ]

Toiletman the countdown is over. I started the curing fires this morning. I spoke with Ben from the fire brick company yesterday and he said thai using charcoal was a good and acceptable method for the first day or 2 of fires. So i ran out last night and bought 32# of charcoal. This morning i lit it up. We have like a 5 or 6 hr break in the rain so i am going for it and getting the curing fires started.

Randy

[Giovanni Rossi]

The smoke milestone! I'll bet your son is getting excited now...

[RandyJ]

Well I kept the oven at close to 200F for most of the day. Roughly 12 hrs. So it will be fun to try to get it a bit warmer tomorrow morning and hold it there. While I was doing that I decided to try to get my grinding of the counter tops done. I managed to do all the grinder work with the cup wheel finished. I also started using the wet polisher I bought. I got all the way through the 50, 100, and 200 grit disks. I am trying to decide how far I want to go with the grits. The kit came with up to 3000 grit. But I think I am going to cut it off at either 400 or 800. I worry that if I go to much farther than that othe flaws will become more apparent. I am shooting for a more rustic look so I don't want it polished shiny.

Randy

[UtahBeehiver]

Be sure to use a "food" safe sealer on you polished counters. Your winters are like ours here in Utah, tough on concrete. I have quite a bit of failure spots on my glass embedded concrete counter even though I sealed the counters. Probably going to taventine over some day.

[RandyJ]

I finished polishing the counter tops to 800 grit this morning. I am glad to be done with that. Step. It is such a sloppy messy job and makes a huge mess of everything in the area.

On the other hand I can't believe how well they turned out considering that i simply used sack mix concrete and dye. The variety of colors is crazy and i can not wait to see it once all cleaned up and sealed.

Does anyone have a great suggestion for a sealer?

Randy

[RandyJ]

2nd day of curing fires is in the book. I went ahead and burned charcoal again today. I managed yesterday to get to and stay at 200F for close to 12 hours and this morning it was close to 125F and so at about 830 this morning I started the fire again. I went a bit bigger today and I have managed to get to and stay at about 300F. I am just past 12 hrs today and this batch of charcoal is still going strong. I will put the door on tight before I go to bed. Then tomorrow I will have to start again after work.

Randy

[NewEnglandNewb]

I have used a couple of different products to seal concrete countertops. Since you are looking for a rustic look, I’d recommend using the Chen water based food safe sealer. Here is a picture of one I made and sealed with that product. I’m currently grinding concrete countertop solutions G40 off of my outdoor kitchen top because I wasn’t happy with the finish and will be using Cheng on that one too.

[RandyJ]

I am now on day 3 of curing the oven. I got home at 3:30 and immediately started the fire. I had left the tray of charcoal in the oven last night with the door in place and it must have continued to smolder as the oven was still at over 200F on the dome and like 160F on the floor this afternoon. So the oven has been warned for over 48 hrs at this point most of wich was at 200f or a bit better. I am doing my best to keep the fire on the smaller side but as we all know that is a bit challenging. I am seeing dome temperatures in the low to mid 400F range. It is almost kind of hard to keep the temp down. I am hoping that means the oven is curing nicely.

Randy

[Toiletman]

Clearly on schedule for the birthday pizza party! Nice work on the concrete countertop as well, and indeed great luck on the coloring of all the sand/grit.

[RandyJ]

Well curing fires number 4 is in the books. It went well and was very uneventful wich is good. I am not sure I will make fire number 5 tomorrow as I have a shutdown to go to for possibly 12 hrs. I am not sure it will actually go that long but that is what I agreed to.

In other news I got a message that my stone veneer showed up. So being a mixture of dumb and cheep I went to pick it up myself instead of having it delivered. I also picked up 3 bags of mortar for it. I got 4 of the 6 corners covered and finished unloading all of it. I am ready to be done dragging thousands of pounds of stuff home again. There is a few things left to go though. Like 24 to 30 bags of concrete for the footings unless i spend big money and get diamond peirs and then there is all the 6x6 posts for the pavilion. At least the list is getting shorter and i think i may put off the patio till next year.

Randy

[RandyJ]

I got a bit of a short 5th fire in today. I got out of my shutdown a bit early so I decided to quickly light another fire. So far I don't think the oven has dropped below 150-200F since I started curing fires on Saturday morning.

I also finished getting all 6 of the outside corners clad in veneer. I am very excited to get that step complete as then it will start to look more like a completcompleted project. Having the corner done also convinced me I made the right call on counter tops overhang. They are 1 to 2 " farther then the veneer.

At this point I am feeling good that I will make the pizza deadline for my sons birthday. Kind of amazing that just as I needed it to stop raining it did. I almost feel like I could send it to pizza temperature tomorrow and have no problems. I am not going to do that but with the oven this warm for this long I feel like it almost can't still be wet.

Randy

[RandyJ]

So does this count as first pizza?

[RandyJ]

Well I had another curing fires today. That is either 5 or 6 depending on weather or not I count the one on Wednesday. I started it at around 9:40 this morning and kept it going until about 7pm tonight. I think the dome is curred as it was starting to clear on spots. I did not have a very big fire going at all but kept it pretty consistent and after 8ish hours spots were clearing that were close to the fire at that time. I looked close and I am not seeing any signs of cracks so I am feeling pretty good so far.

I also got some more work done on the stone veneer. That is a very putzy project. Fortunately I like to do putzy type of work. I think I am going to have to get the wet saw out tomorrow though so I can getcsome of the front done now too. I also got the wood in around all the openings. I used ceader tone treated pine. I went with the treated because that is what the pavilion is going to be made of and that is what the treehouse is made of. I am just wanting it to all match. Plus it will not rot or fade really so it will keep looking good for a long time. I am relieved to see that my opening for the mini fridge is still large enough to fit but small enough to look like it was meant to be there and not a after thought. I have about .5" extra in both directions so it will be just right.

Randy

[RandyJ]

I got another day of work in on the stone veneer. It is such a slow process but I am happy with how it is turning out. I now have the front and both sides completely covered. I also had another curing fire today. I am going to consider it fully cured as the dome was pretty much fully cleared. This was the 7th fire and I again ran it from like 10 am to7 pm and just slowly brought up the temperature.

Seeing as the oven was hot I decided to wing it and did some salt and vinegar chicken wings. They turned out fantastic and i will have to try that recipe again in the future.

Randy