Welcome to Del and Diane's

Outdoor Kitchen Project

Pictures 8/16/05 through 8/28/05

8/19/05 Update:  Visible progress is coming quickly now. The roof is on the oven and the chimney is framed. Still have stone work on the chimney, tile on the roof, stucco on the back, and some miscellaneous vents and things to do.  Hopefully, we'll have first fire in the oven early next week.  Boni also installed the planters on the left side of the oven  and on the right side of the oven as well.    They're about 10" deep and 14" wide to the face of the block.  Gives us about 10" of planting width.  Unique kind of cement block that they used to make them.  I've never seen anything like it.  Hard to describe, but I'll try to include a pic of the raw block next time.  You can still see the water pipe that comes up in them for the drip irrigation.  They'll drain through holes out the back.  Also have electrical outlet boxes in the front of both of them. 

We planned several small and large planters into the space for several reasons.  One, we just like having plants around.  Two, with all the hard surface we wanted something to break it up.  Three, it allows us to introduce some more colors without them being permanent. And, finally, the planters on either side of the oven will be herb gardens.  They all have drip irrigation piped into them 

Here is the beginning of the planter on the end of the smoker enclosure.  It will also have a pair of tiki torches coming out of it.     The two tubes coming out of it will be lights shining down on the patio floor.

This shows the planter that is at the beginning of the seat wall that curves around the outside of the space.   And here is the continuation of that wall with a second planter.   The seat wall will be faced with stone (started already), have two umbrella sockets in it (the white pipes currently still sticking up), the two planters (one with a pair of tiki torches coming out of it), and will be topped with a double bullnose brick for seating (thus we call it a seat wall :-)).

So here's the overview of the project as it stands on Friday evening, 8/19/05.   

Stay tuned!  It's happening quickly now.  Thanks again for joining us on this journey.  Would love to hear from you with your comments, questions, or thoughts.  Just drop us an e-mail.

8/23/05 OK, have to show you one more "view" picture.  Diane took this last night about 6:30 PM. Facing east we get to watch the sun "set" moving from west to east.  It's always beautiful to watch the shadow of the hills where we're sitting move eastward across the valley floor.  This is rapidly approaching that "golden hour" when the light is just so warm and wonderful as the sun drops to the unseen horizon behind us.  The bright "glare" spots are the sun hitting the reflective coating on the freeway signs

So, on to the project. Here's a high-res version of the overview picture on the home page taken this evening for those of you that would like to be able to scroll through the whole site and see details a little better than we normally publish.. (WARNING:  THIS IS A LARGE FILE) Click here for the "regular" size pic we usually post. 

The stone, brick, and tile work that Ulisses' guys do is just remarkable.  Here's a close-up of the fire pit with the stone and bullnose brick on top.  They tapered every brick so that the mortar joints are even all the way around.  Here's another view of it with the planter and seat wall.   The two white pipes coming up are two more umbrella sockets (that dark brick is going to get very warm in the sunshine!).  They will, of course, be cutoff flush with the surface.  Since I'm a woodturner, I'm turning "plugs" for the holes that will fit tight into them and also lap over so you don't see the white pipe.  I'm also turning bushings for the umbrella poles.  The lower one will make them fit the pipe exactly (holding them straight) and the upper one will also sit on top of the counter/wall setting the depth.  I'll post pics of them when they're done.

We had originally decided to do the "back" face of the seat wall and planters in stucco rather than stone.  Once we saw how it looked though, we quickly decided to do both sides in stone.  It just has too many angles where the back is viewed along with the front to split it.  Fortunately Ulisses could still get enough stone to finish it out (we're using a discontinued color that matches the house).  This is another view of the wall, planters and fire pit.     The nearest planter that doesn't have the brick top yet will have two tiki torches coming out of it.

Here's the planter on the end of the smoker enclosure.   It will be stuccoed and also have two tiki torches rising up out of it.

The last two of the six tiki torches will come straight out of the ground to the far left of this picture.  Here you can also see some of the vents for the grill and how the planter on the counter looks from the back.  This one is cantilevered out from the island to make sure we have room to open the grill hood.  I was really paranoid about that after hearing a story of someone who built a beautiful outdoor kitchen with a $4,000 plus Viking grill and found, after it was all done, that the back wall was too close to the grill to open the hood more than a couple of inches. :-((.  That's the kind of thing that does actually keep me awake at night on occasion on this project.

The tile work is done and partially grouted on the bar height circle on the end of the grill island as you can see here.  The umbrella socket pipe in the center has also been cutoff.

The tile work is completely done on the sink island and the sink basin is installed.    In this view you can also see the redwood trim around the opening for the doors, drawers, and refrigerator. The doors and drawers will be inset within the frame so that water dripping down will flow down the outside of the door/drawer.  The tops of the frames and the tops of the doors/drawer fronts both have a 2-3 degree bevel on them to make sure the water flows out rather than to the back of the door/drawer front.  I'm debating whether to try to seal the doors with a weather strip, but will definitely do that with the drawer fronts. 

Well, that's about it for tonight.  As you can see, the visible progress is accelerating.  The plumber and electrician are also back doing their thing, so that's coming also.  Stay tuned.  Drop us a note, if you'd like, with comments, questions, or thoughts.  Would especially love to hear from those of you that have been tracking this project with us.  Thanks again for joining us for a ride on the Il Regalo express. :-)

8/28/05 Well, seems like we're moving towards the finish line now.  Lots of finish work, plumbing, and electrical going on everyday.  The roof was tiled on Wednesday and then Boni finished up the chimney stone work.    He also finished up the slate tile on the oven entry shelf.

The firebrick on the inside of the smoker enclosure was also finished this week.    We were originally going to put stucco in that area, but changed it to firebrick after hearing what happened to another large smoker owner who also semi-enclosed his smoker and stuccoed the wall.  The heat from the firebox (which hits very close to 1200 degrees Fahrenheit at times) popped all the stucco off the wall.  This should take care of that.

The grill and side burners were installed Friday.  The guys very neatly notched both of them into the counter, flush with the wall.   The sink and garbage disposal are also installed but waiting for electrical and plumbing underneath.  The barbecue light is also now installed on the smoker enclosure.    We're waiting for the second one to come in.  It will go between the grill and the side burners.

So this is what it looked like this morning at about 6:45 AM when Diane took the pic.   

Had to throw in a couple more.  I can hardly wait to do a breakfast out here when it looks like this.     And dinner won't be so bad either, will it?  

Should have the patio poured this week as well as the water and gas plumbing and, hopefully, the electrical finished out.  Lots of low voltage lights still to install along the fence and around the house though.  Still have the arbor and drawers to build for my part.  Doors are done and should be installed for next update.  Stay tuned, and drop us a note, OK.  Thanks for joining us.