Firepit Types

Do you love spending time outside? I can’t relate. However, if I must be outside, I must
be comfortable, and nothing quite says outside comfort like a firepit. Especially, if you
must be outside in the winter, when it’s cold outside there’s nothing quite like sitting in
front of a firepit. So, if your thinking about building a firepit here’s a couple of styles you
could get.

Naturalistic Firepits

Rock Firepit: It’s traditional and pretty simple to DIY. You know what I’m talking about.
It’s the circle of rocks that you place the wood in middle and voila, fire pit. If you live
somewhere where you can get decent sized rocks it would be easy to forage them for
yourself and you can, in fact, buy rocks and Home Depot or something like that.

Pond Firepit: Did your property come with a nice, quant little water feature that you’re
completely unwilling to upkeep? Fish are a lot of work for living decoration. Turn that
pre-existing, rock-lined, hole in the ground to a firepit.

Salvaged pit: This kind of pit uses things you find in your own yard. Rocks, stepping
stones from a path you didn’t really want, leftover bricks and stuff from a build or the
construction of the house if you’ve just built. You can use salvaged wood to build
benches or other features.

Constructed Firepits

Tree Ring Firepit: Simple DIY build. If you don’t know, cause I didn’t, there are these
curved brick like fence… thingies that go around trees. They’re super good and
convenient material for building a quick firepit in about an hour. Make two circles, one
inside the other, Use the scalloped ones so they’re easy to stack, bottom facing up,
top facing down. You can use a small grill in the middle if you're super lazy.

Outside space: If you’re really going for it than go for it. Select a good amount of space in your yard, and section it off. At this point, if you’re really going for it, look at google images and Pinterest and get inspiration. Really build out the entire area. Stone floor, brick pit, built-in seating, etc. REALLY GO FOR IT.

See, mostly simple and can kind of be done on a whim. If you’re going to be outside, be warm and comfortable outside. Gathering around a firepit can also be great for parties with friends. If you get no other pleasure from a fire pit at least think about the s’more possibilities, you’ll gain. There’s nothing like a good excuse to make s’mores. Your taste buds and probably your friends will thank you.

Saving Money on Firepits

Do you like firepits? I do… I mean I don’t like being outside but if I’m already out there I might as well be
comfortable and sitting at a firepit. One thing about firepits though, they can be a great big time and
money hole. Seriously while you’re working on the firepit you might as well set your money on fire
while you’re at it. So, how can you get that beautiful firepit without it turning into a money pit?

First, if you’re trying to save money you should probably DIY the entire project. This isn’t the type of
project where at the end you’ll look at your bank account and find out you spent more money than
the quote you got to get it built out for you. Getting a firepit built will almost definitely cost more than
doing it yourself. You can even get firepit kits for around 200 dollars. Go ahead and build out a patio
while you're at it, it’s just an outside floor. I believe in you, watch a YouTube video, you can figure
\ it out.

Second tip, make a wood burning pit and not a gas burning pit. You’ll a thousand percent have to
hire several people to make a gas burning pit work safely (please, don’t burn down your
neighborhood). Also, a gas pit will add on to your utility bills… and why would you want that? If you
must have a gas burning pit make it close to your house. This will cut down on the plumbing bill
of running a gas line to your designated location. The further you get from the house, the more it
will cost.

Finally, keep the customizations down to a minimum. Built in seating will cost you and they cost a lot.
If you don’t mind using chairs then you’re solid. Besides, a lot of built-in seating is
uncomfortable. Also, unless you’re an artist and are making all of your own tiles (which is still
expensive) try to keep the unnecessary customizations down to a minimum. Getting super fancy
with a firepit could very quickly cost you upwards of thousands of dollars.

You’ve been sufficiently warned. Go build a firepit. Go outside (if you must). Have fun.

How to Maintain Your Outdoor Kitchen

So, outdoor kitchens are a thing, a cool thing, potentially a cool thing for you to own. Backyard grilling
would instantly become the best thing. You’ll be the envy of all your neighbors. What could be the
downside? Well I’ll tell you.

I’m not trying to tell you not to install an outside kitchen or that cool feature on your new house you got
was a mistake. I’m saying that there’s a great deal of maintenance that comes with an outdoor kitchen that
doesn’t necessarily translate over from indoor kitchens.

First, it’s outside. Yeah, duh, that’s the point. I get that but that means weather, as in temperature. Do
you live somewhere where it gets super cold, or super hot, or both! You can prep properly for the winter
and you should. Disconnect your appliances from their services, empty and clean the fridge, cover the
furniture, drain the pipes of standing water. When you go to use your outside kitchen again you need to
check the various systems and appliances to be sure they’re all working properly. Make sure everything
is in proper working condition when you go to use it, every time, you never know. Preventative measures
can only go so far… it’s outside, the temperature is what it is.  

Second, it’s outside. Yes, I know I already said that. I said what I meant and I meant what I said. Outside
means nature, and nature means dirty. You can’t control the cleanliness level in your outdoor kitchen the
same way you can in your indoor kitchen. Shoot, keeping an indoor kitchen clean is nearly impossible.
You can only do so much outside, but you should always keep the grill as clean as possible. It’s what’s
going to kill all the germs on your food, grease also attracts animals that you would rather keep away
generally, especially while you’re cooking. Also, it’s just generally safer to cook on clean things when
using open flame.

Finally, once again, you’re outside. You’ll have to deal with a different kind of wear and tear outside
than you’d have to deal with inside. The materials installed for the floor and counter should be pretty
durable… you’re outside, I’d certainly hope so. However, there are a few things you should do for the
sake of upkeep. Get your counters, I’m hoping they’re stone, probably granite, resealed every three to
five years to protect them from the with sun and the rain. Sweep regularly the floors and wipe down the
counters regularly, it’s easier to miss dirt when you’re already outside but there’s nothing appealing about
eating in a visibly dirty environment. Power wash as a part of your spring cleaning to get rid of any year
long build up.

Winter Pool Maintenence

Let’s be honest whether or not you live in the south, swimming is or has already come to an end. If you own a pool it’s about to lie completely dormant during the fall and winter months and your pool maintenance is about to become a chore with no tangible pay-off for the next couple of months. You can’t just stop maintaining your pool altogether… I mean you could try that, but it’s not a particularly good idea, so what are you going to do?

The first step is to Winterize your pool. This means doing one final thorough cleaning of your pool, getting rid of any debris and dirt from inside or around it. Make sure your filter and pump are clean and in good condition. Check your pools chemistry, and if you have a cover, clean it off and cover up the pool.  

After this point your maintenance schedule changes a bit. It lessens significantly, so there is that. Still clean the area and check on the pump at least once a month to keep your pool clean and the mechanisms in good working order. The next change in your maintenance is to check your water chemistry once every other week. Stagnant, standing water is a breeding ground for bacteria, mold, algae, and mosquitoes so run the pump for a couple of hours, once a week to keep things from growing.

Use an enzyme product to help break down non-living contamination and prevent a waterline ring from forming. Adding this product will save you from having to scrub your pool tile or finish when opening your pool in the spring.

Upkeeping pool maintenance during the winter may seem tedious and pointless, especially since it’s not currently being used. However, it’ll save you a lot of money and a whole lot of trouble in the long run. Leaving a pool unchecked over the winter months is a good way to let structural damage and filth build up without notice, causing a giant headache come spring when you feel like taking a dip in the lovely pool you paid for that is anything but lovely now. Keep up with your maintenance over the winter, I promise it’ll be worth it.

Pool maintenece

Summer is coming quickly to a close for those of us who live in the south. It’s too late for most of y'all who
live any further north than North Carolina, but it’s still 70 degrees in Georgia! Which means we have one
last chance to enjoy summer activities. Yes, it’s time to take our final trips out to the pool. However, after
a long season swimming and frolicking in our respective pools, it’s far past time to wonder, what kind of
shape are they in?

I’m hoping that you’ve been maintaining a fairly regular pool maintenance schedule. If not… ew, but it’s
not too late to start. Pools actually don’t require a lot of care, if you have been keeping a schedule. If not
well… it’s a royal pain in the butt and most of your equipment is probably in tatters and needs to be
replaced. So, here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to write out a schedule for you and you can decide
if or when you’re going to follow it or not. Making you do maintenance for your pool isn’t my job, but
I can eliminate the planning step for you.

Every to Every other Day

Spot clean: Get your weird fish butterfly net thing with the long handle and remove the random junk from
your pool. I suggest doing a quick sweep every day to keep it from building up or every other day if your
yard and pool doesn’t collect much debris.

Check Water Level: Your pool is outside and it contains water. Water evaporates and it rains. Just do a
quick check to make sure that the water level isn’t too low or too high for your equipment to run properly.

Clean out the basket. The basket is like a filter it doesn’t necessarily need to be changed but it does need
to be cleaned. This can also be done a little less than every other day as well depending on how much debris
regularly ends up in your yard or pool. So, if you don’t have any trees you may be lucky (if you’re not
bothered by the lack of shade).

Weekly: If you already have a regular once a week cleaning day then just add these to your list of chores.

Clean the perimeter:  All the dirt collecting outside your pool will eventually migrate into your pool.
Again, ew. Do you know how much of that water ends up in your mouth? Let’s just avoid as much of that
as possible.

Vacuum the pool bottom. Get all the stuff you weren’t fast enough to get during the week and has now
ended up in the depths of your pool. Pay special attention to the corners to collect all the build-up, ‘cause
ew. Then collect all the stragglers at the bottom and your done.

Shock the pool. Your pool is standing water, think about that. Standing water readily collects and grows all
sorts of thing like algae, mold, bacteria, etc. Raise the chlorine level to 5 or 10 ppm just to kill off anything
nasty multiplying in your water and on the water’s surface.  A DPD test kit can help detect levels of
combined chlorine, you can break it up by shocking the water to a level 10 times the tested level when
combined chlorine exceeds 0.3 ppm.

Check pool chemistries. There’s a lot going on in your pool on a mineral and chemical level. At least once
a week you need to go out and test the chemistries in your pool. You can even leave the tests to do their thing
as you get other chores done. Just once a week, make sure your pH, total chlorine, alkalinity, calcium,
cyanuric acid, and saturation index are on point.

Clean your filter/Check the Pressure. Check your pressure gauge. I say to do this weekly because the times
you may actually need to clean the filter could fluctuate. Just check the pressure and if it’s between 5 to 10 psi
higher than normal, it’s time to actually clean the filter

Monthly:

Look for tears in the liner. A torn liner means leaking water and unstable water levels and other various
problems. If you don’t get it fixed fast enough the problem can exacerbate itself. When you commit to a vinyl
liner you commit to patching up any holes it may collect in it.

Clean the pump room. Yeah, do that. Dust off the mechanics and their surrounding areas and keep
everything running properly.  

Clean your skimmer. Using a scrubbing sponge and soap, clean the scum and dirt out of the skimmer’s throat
and well.

Check all pump seals and safety equipment. You actively need all of these things to be working for safety reasons. Tighten all the bolts and such. Just a once around to make sure everything is in working order.

Exterior Painting Tips!

One of the most unfortunate parts of exterior maintenance of a house is keeping the paint looking nice. NOBODY wants to pay someone to repaint or have to repaint the outside of their house themselves. Paying for it would be expensive while doing it yourself would be difficult and time consuming. Besides, how do you know it’s going to last if you do it yourself, how do you know you’re doing it right. Well here are some tips on how to make the process a little easier and make sure your not doing it again next summer.

Choose when you paint and what side of the house your painting on! Summer is coming to a distinct end here in the south, it’s already over in more northern states. So, your going to want to get this done before the cold really sets in. If it’s still warm where you are there could be nothing more heinous than doing hard work in direct sunlight. Paint on the dark side of the house. Wait until shadow is cast on the side of the house you need to work on and do your best to keep up with the shade. If it’s already getting chilly where you are you might want to follow the warmth and paint on the bright side of the house. Put on some sunscreen because direct sunlight for extended periods of time isn’t good for anybody’s skin but staying in the sun will keep you from getting chilled.

Do your prep! Prep work is an essential part of painting if you want it to last. You may want to pick a completely separate day for this in order to break up some of the work and jump right into the painting process when your ready.

First, strip off chipping paint. Get something with a sharp edge, something like a putty knife. If you’ve gone through the painting process before and there are several layers of paint already on the house, you can also pressure wash flaking paint off. If you’re dealing with something that’s more delicate than paint thinner on a rage will do the job getting the old paint off.

Next, remove and replace anything old and rotting. A new layer of paint won’t fix things that are fundamentally unsound. Replace window sills, slats on the shutters, siding, etc.

Finally, primer, Primer, PRIMER! The step everyone wants to skip. You may want to take another day just to do this. You could get a two-in-one paint and see how that works out for you (I’m not a paint expert you tell me). Either way primer is a must if you’re looking for longevity and it’s just a step that makes the whole thing look nicer.

Building a Fence Part 2

The concept of building a fence isn’t all that foreign to us. It’s something that people would talk about on tv, and in cartoons, or sometimes characters in a book will build a one to fence out their annoying neighbors or keep pesky wildlife out of their gardens or something. How many of us know what goes into building an actual fence? Where would you even start? In the last article, we went over a lot of the paperwork side of building a fence. Yes, there’s a lot of paperwork. If you were unaware go back and read part one. Unfortunately, you shouldn’t skip that part. You may want to, but you shouldn’t.

So, material, what do you want to use and how much do you need? Well, let’s start with your personal needs and preferences, or the guidelines set laid out for you by either your neighborhood or local government; whichever is applicable in this case. Why are you getting the fence, is it for privacy? For your pets? Keeping wildlife out of your goddamn vegetable garden! You need to have that in mind when you're picking out your materials. We’ll be covering your choices of materials in part three of this series.

After you know what you're going to use. It’s time do a little more physical planning before you can go out and buy anything. Meaning, planning post position. How far apart do you want the posts to be? How wide do you want them to be? How many are you going to need to actualize that vision? We do this so we don’t end up with weird to far apart gaps or a janky section at the end where you needed one more post but the spacing wasn’t quite right, so you had to saw one down. No, you can’t just eyeball and guesstimate and have the product that you wanted.

Next, it’s time to dig. You need to make sure you have the proper height for your post you’re going to need because your posts need to go pretty deep into the ground to be relatively sturdy. Up to 30 inches into the ground, yes, over 2 feet depending on the stiffness of the type of soil you have. With the posts planned, it’s time to dig. You may also need to backfill the hole with something strong to keep the posts from moving, something like gravel. Take a break after that, apparently, your posts need to settle or whatever that means.

Final steps, put up your horizontal cross rails.  The side you put them on depends on preference or government-based guidelines. I don’t know.