DIY: Bonfire Pit

Anyone who lives in Newfoundland knows that our beautiful weather is far and few between. While most of Canada is starting to enjoy the signs of spring, Newfoundland today is a whopping 1 degree outside and foggy. Depressing, I know. So while this post may be more summertime appropriate, I just needed to post something to remind me that the sun does exist and that hopefully my favourite summer pastime of sitting around a bonfire is just around the corner.

Last summer I was faced with a backyard that was a big blank canvas - no grass, no garden...just dirt. So when I was trying to figure out what to do with my backyard, I decided that incorporating a bonfire pit was a must.

I came across two pictures in particular that really inspired my vision for my bonfire pit...

Source: homedesigncollections.blogspot.com

Source: thisoldhouse.com

I told myself, "I can do that!" and started my research to figure out how. My effort to find step-by-step instructions was proving difficult, so I decided to just figure it out as I went along. Totallllly not something I normally do. If you know me at all, you know that I get anxiety if I don't read and follow exactly as an instruction manual tells you. Approaching this project blindly was a big step for me folks.

Anxiety and all behind me, I borrowed a truck from work one day, made my way over to my local lumber yard, picked up some 12 foot long pieces of wood, some corner brackets to screw them together and then got a whole lotta pea-gravel delivered from a local landscaping business.

Here's the mess I started with...

I spent an evening or two levelling the area and used some fine sand and my tamp to level beneath the wood pieces. I screwed them together using my corner brackets and then moved on to the pea gravel.

I had soooo much pea gravel to move, so my dad allowed me to borrow his tractor for the weekend to make the process much faster and a LOT less labour intensive. The child within me was dying at the fact that I would get to drive a real tractor. That's a picture of me in the tractor below -  I was pretty bad-ass I gotta say.

After working on the project for a week or so (and getting quite frustrated at times!), the bonfire pit was complete. I was soooo impressed with the outcome. It was pretty much exactly as I had envisioned!

What gardening or landscaping projects are you dreaming up for this summer? I'd love to hear about it! Share in the comments below!

~Emily Grace