The evolution of my grilling area

[WNC]

The wife and I built our house about 4 years ago, so it's taken me quite a bit of work to get here.
When we first moved in the whole yard was just red clay until some grass started coming in, so I started out grilling on cardboard boxes just to stay out of the mud. Now about 4 years later and some 85 tons later partially covered pergola with reclaimed brick patio! All done by myself, friends, and family.
The earliest photo I could find

The dog and grills before there was a fence or anything, some grass though

Here's a lot of the weight, about 2000 bricks dug, collected, and cleaned by the wife and I. An easy estimate is everyone of those bricks was moved at least 6 times.

Here's the pergola, a lot of this was with help from the father in law

Some details of the notching and he, my brother and I getting it done

With the MBH collection

Next steps will be hanging some string lights and eventually we'll paint it white and grow some flowering vine over the non-covered part. Thanks for looking !







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[JEBIV]

Beautiful craftsmanship! The fact that you your wife and family collaborated on this has got to make all of you feel grate when y"all are out there cooking. Do you need my address to hone your skills on mine?

[Mr.CPHo]

Damn, that's friggin awesome, WNC.


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[HoosierKettle]

Nice work!  Makes my little project seem tiny in comparison.


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[captjoe06]

This is so far beyond anything in my skill set. You should be proud, that's gorgeous!

[SixZeroFour]

Excellent job Justin!! Both the pergola and kettles look great 👍

Hope all is well!

[Travis]

That's a heck of a transformation. That's some serious skill, and to have the family help build it is awesome. Great job, Justin!


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[VivaTerlingua]

How cool is that!  Wonderful job. Always a good feeling when you look at something you've done by your own labor. Congratulations


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[Kneab]

That looks great.
Beautiful work.
Makes me wanna knock down my deck and build a patio.

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[Don_]

Wow! Excellent space you've created!
Thanks for sharing!


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[Brain_STL]

Dude, you got skills🤟


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[k8kg77]

Very nice, cool older colored kettles. My son still has my 1986 Big Red!


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[crowderjd]

I absolutely love it.  @WNC where did you get the bricks?  They look aged...did you find them over time or did you buy them all at once?  I'm thinking of expanding my grilling area and doing something similar, which would also be a long term project.

[WNC]

Hey guys, sorry about being late to respond, but thanks so much for the kind words!

Jason, we actually got the bricks for "free". We needed about 2000 of them and the best price I could find for reclaimed bricks was about $0.50 a brick.
There was a Craigslist ad for free bricks at a local community college where they had torn down an old building years ago. So the wife and I rented a uhaul and drove out there. It was just a huge pile that had been covered over with dirt and grass over the years.
So it was basically being shoulder deep feeling around for whole bricks, pulling them out, throwing them to the edge of the pile, coming by with a wheelbarrow, stacking them up in the truck (to keep count), driving them home (which just about killed the uhaul), load them back in the wheelbarrow, dumping them in the driveway, laying them all out to power wash, then move to the back yard, and finally putting them in place.
We like to joke that all it cost was $98, two backs, four arms and four legs...

I absolutely love it.  @WNC where did you get the bricks?  They look aged...did you find them over time or did you buy them all at once?  I'm thinking of expanding my grilling area and doing something similar, which would also be a long term project.

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[TheKevman]

This is amazing work! Definitely something to be proud of! The brick work especially looks great!