We're trying to document the process as we go along so you can see it as it emerges.

These two photos were taken from approximately the same place in the yard.  This one

is facing almost straight south and you can see the fence that will be behind the oven. 

This one is looking west from the same location and shows the original patio and entrance to the house.  The doors bring you into the dining room.  If you asked me to design a house around a dining room, I'd never even think of it.  In this case, though, it works very well.

After finishing the design and waiting five weeks for permits, we finally could get started in mid June.  This is how it looked after the first week.     Another view of the fire pit forms. 

From that point it still took about three weeks to get the inspections and finish out the electrical conduit and plumbing lines that had to go into the walls.  But then the walls began to come up quickly.  Here's the overall view.    and here's the firepit coming along  as well as the smoker enclosure

Next came the countertops for the center island    and the long island for the grill and burners  

At the same time the first of two pours for the base for the wood fired oven was done and then the arch way shown in the drawing was formed.   The space under the oven is for wood storage.

And that's where we are are as of Thursday, July 28, 2005.  Stay tuned for more as the project continues.

Sunday, 7/31.  Here's one (of many) example(s) of why NOTHING can interfere with the view.  This is about 8:30 PM  . 

OK, now onto the progress on the project.  The oven enclosure is built on a three layer base:  a six inch slab of concrete (shown above) on which sits a six inch layer of packed sand and then another three inch layer of concrete (yet to come). All this provides the thermal mass necessary to balance the heat in the oven and works to support a convection flow throughout the oven.  Friday they also poured the countertop on the grill and burner island.  This shows the cutouts for the grill on the right and the side burner on the left with some of the forms still in place and the cutouts for doors below.  

The smoker will be enclosed on three sides as shown here You can also see the anchors for the arbor in this view.  The other end of the arbor will be anchored into the wall of the oven. Leaving the back open on the smoker will allow it to be moved (it's on wheels) for cleaning and to get to the firebox.  That's about it for Sunday.  Stay tuned.

Sunday, 8/7/05.  About 6:30 AM.  When the morning sky looks like this,  we know it's going to be hot (probably about 95 today).

Sometimes things are even more complex than one would think.  The final layer for the base of the oven is a complex concrete pour because the integrated shelf for the front has to be higher than the base for the oven.  This makes the firebrick floor in the oven the same level as the oven floor.  After many calculations, Ulisses' crew poured it and finished it absolutely dead flat and perfectly level.  Only problem was that in calculating the relationship between the shelf and the oven base, he made a mistake and the oven base came out two inches think instead of three.  Fortunately we discovered that while the concrete was still green enough to tear it out reasonably easily.  Ulisses, as always when something isn't right, doesn't try to do a "work around" or "make it work".  He simply tears it out and redoes it.  That's the integrity I talk about.  Anyway, here's the finished, now perfectly flat, perfectly level, and three inch thick oven base 

This shows a close-up of the grill island with the cut-outs for the grill and burner as well as the door openings in that island with the first coat of stucco applied.    Since I'm doing wooden, raised panel doors, we're framing the openings with pressure treated wood.  That gives me a square straight surface to which to screw the hinges.  The small opening below the burner cut-out will probably end up two drawers rather than a door.  It ended up too narrow to be much use as a door.  Here's an overview of the whole project .  You can even see Big Bubba (the Lang 84 smoker) in the foreground. He'll get a work out today.  We're doing baby back ribs, fresh Alaska sockeye salmon, and chicken for about 40 people tonight.  Here's a close-up of just the kitchen area .  You can see that almost all the counters are now complete (only the raised circle on the end of the grill island left to pour).  We'll install the oven kit either tomorrow or Tuesday (I'll post a refresh of that process as soon as it's done), and the electrician will be doing the wiring this week.  More as soon as the oven kit is in.  Thanks for sharing this journey with us.