Everything's Finished!!!!! (sort of)

I started working on the bbq at like 10am this morning and finished around 7:30 pm. I did take a lunch break and a couple beer breaks :)

Final total is spent is $264.94; however, with the trailer selling for $240, I only spent $26.94. Pretty good if you ask me :)

The only thing I would like to do is to add a little shelf on the left side of the bbq so I can have some room to grill. This will definitely be done later though (unless I randomly find more bricks). I have around 40 bricks left over, but I'm gonna need like 50 more to make the shelf.

BBQ walls

Building the walls of the barbecue was surprisingly difficult. I decided to put it really close (but not touching) the fireplace, so laying down the mortar on that wall was cumbersome.

BBQ hole

I decided not to take a week off and we're going camping in the morning, so I figured now was the best time to finish. Since one of the brick loads I scored where coved in mortar, I ended up with a giant pile of mortar dust. In the spirit of recycling, I used that as the foundation. I also got some hardibacker from some lady on CL and I put that over the mortar dust. Then I build another wooden guide to help me stay lined up.

More bricks

119 more bricks scored today. This should be more than enough to do the bbq; so much for the break :)

FINISHED!!!!!

Fireplace section is finished! I'm gonna need like 50-70 more bricks to finish the bbq portion, but I'm gonna take a break for a week or so :)

Chimney Time

Chimney was really tricky, but I finished it. I wanted to go a couple more rungs up, but Autry had baseball practice. I may add them later.

BBQ

The second stage of this fireplace build is to add a BBQ to the side....well, I got one on CL today (for free). The plan is to dismantle the legs and the racks, leaving only the BBQ with the lid and the controls. Then I'll brick up in a "U" pattern and then I'll attach the BBQ--leaving a space at the bottom for the propane tank, or I'll turn it into a charcoal, or I'll look for a 55 gallon drum and make one. Not sure yet.

Anyhoo....here's the grill I found.

The ROOF, The ROOF, The ROOF is being built!

Building the Walls

I'm (cue DC Talk) Building up the wall...walls, walls, walls...

Base complete

Base Build....sort of

I started on the base and nearly finished, but I ran out of mortar. I finished it a couple days later. It took just under 3 hours and my back hurts :)
Three pints of my homebrew fixed my back up nice.

I only used 1 bag of mortar (around $5) which I already had purchased, and I laid around 80 bricks. I have two more bags, so I'll probably only need to buy a couple more!

The next step is to brick over the top and start the walls.

Financial update...I decided to sell the trailer. I put it on craigslist for $300 and sold it for $240 I'll easily cover the price of this project. This, of course, makes me happy :)

more bricks

Guy on CL said he had 50-75. He actually had just over 200. This score puts me at around 500 bricks. I should have enough.

Foundation Dug and Filled

$15 more spent, but I used most of it to line the dirt spots in the wife's garden...so, I could really count the $15 as a present to the wife :).

Ready to build.

First brick load

I found a guy on craiger who had a couple hundred bricks. The trailer worked well enough, but I need to buy some trailer lights since getting a ticket would really increase the price of this supposedly "free" project.
I'm stoked on the brick, but I need probably 4 times as much.

Free trailer

I've been looking for utility trailers on craiger for a while and I found one in Lake Oswego for "$100 or trade but you have to dump the stuff in it."
I emailed the guy to see what he wanted in trade, he said I could just have it if I came out there today. SCORE! Since it was in Lake O, I figure it was going to be kinda nice. The guy, who had a heavy hillbilly accent, told me it was "really tricked out," so I was even more excited. Anyhoo...I raced over to his house after work and here's what I saw.
Now, you'll have to use your imagination a little because I've cleaned it up a bunch since I got it, which isn't saying much. When I got it, it had a bunch of ghetto spray painted pictures and crude sayings on it.
Total cost so far:
$44 to dump the crap
$10 in black spray paint
$15.88 on trailer lights
$69.88 total...a great start.

It begins

I decided to build and outdoor fireplace/grill since I have the summers off. The catch is, I'm such a miser I don't want to actually spend any money to do so. I'm sure I'll spend some money, I don't know where I'd find masonry mortar that isn't used; the point is to use as much recycled or free material as possible.
I'm scouring craigslist in search for:

• Brick
• Cinder block
• More brick
• Fire brick
• Even more brick
• Fancy decorative rock/brick
• And, you guessed it, more brick

I figured I'd blog my progress.