Fire Pit Under an Awning: Heat Goes Straight Up
My sister Marnie walked onto my back porch two winters ago, took one look at the little steel fire bowl I’d hauled up from the yard sale on Wheaton Street,…
Sandstone Fire Pits: Pretty and Layered
I built my first fire pit out of raw sandstone slabs I bought from a landscape yard on the east side of Indianapolis, and I want to be upfront that…
Chimineas on a Deck: Put Something Fireproof Under It
I logged it, obviously, because that is the kind of person I am: fourteen googles for “can you put a chiminea on a deck” between September and January, four of…
Gazebo Fire Pit Debate: Does a Roof Change Everything?
My friend Dana sent me a photo at eleven at night of her brand new ten by twelve gazebo with a fire pit table already glowing away underneath it, captioned…
Fire Pits in a Neighborhood: The Rules Nobody Reads
My neighbor Dale texted me a photo of my own backyard, taken from his kitchen window, no caption, just the picture, at 9:47 on a Tuesday night. Smoke was drifting…
Concrete Under a Fire Pit: The Marks It Leaves
I have scorched concrete under my patio table right now. Actual permanent black moon shaped shadow, about eighteen inches across, exactly where the base of my fire pit sat for…
Fire Pits on the Beach: Sand Is Not a Free Pass
I was standing on a beach in South County a few Octobers back, at the point in the evening where the sky goes that particular shade of purple that makes…
Patio Heaters and Canopies: Heat Rises Right Into the Fabric
The reputation here is that this is a nothing question. Ask anyone with a covered patio and they’ll wave a hand and say “of course you can put a heater…
Outdoor Floodlights Indoors
I was in the garage on a Tuesday night trying to fix the pull cord on the shop light, the cheap clamp one from the hardware store that’s been hanging…
Bringing Outdoor String Lights Indoors
I counted them last week, mostly out of curiosity and slightly out of dread, and it’s fourteen. Fourteen strands of outdoor string lights currently living in a tote in my…