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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Radial Pergola Outdoor Kitchen

Farm Fresh Outdoor Kitchen?

In the beautiful surroundings of a country farm lies a custom outdoor kitchen w/ a twist....or more a "radial" pergola. Using Aspen stacked cultured stone, a nice western red cedar stained pergola, and a fire pit of course comes a beautiful creation that shows a lot of what we can do.  This homeowner did some extensive planning when putting this all together and you can certainly see how it turned out!  Now....where is the ice cold lemonade?


side view


front view

side view w/ decor
front view 2nd pergola w/ Outdoor Farmscape!

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Fire Magic: Grill Review

When people ask me, "What kind of a grill would you recommend?

I often respond with, "What kind of grill do you have in your indoor kitchen?"

Let's face it, you can find ovens that are 500.00 dollars and you can find ovens for 5,000.00 dollars and as most of us know due to customer education through visiting the various appliance stores throughout the years when you start to look at the higher end ovens they just do a lot more right?

Well, outdoor cooking has also expanded in terms of culinary capabilities and there in lies the next series of questions:

"How often do you use your grill now?" 
"If you had a better grill would you use it more?"
"If you had a grill that allowed you to do exactly what your doing in your indoor kitchen would that change your lifestyle in outdoor living?"

Well, enter Fire Magic......

Fire Magic Diamond Echelon


I looked at a variety of grills in this price category before settling on this one.  If you look around the internet this grill ranks at least in the top 5 of most grill reviews and in a lot of cases number 1 based on its price category.

Here are some of the well documented features of the Fire Magic grill line:

Heat
FireMagic grills just get hotter than other grills.

Most talk about btu's per burner - but that has no relation to the size of the cooking surface. FireMagic grills are perfectly balanced to ensure proper cooking, so you will either get more burners or the btu's will grow with larger grills - or both.

While you get a lot of heat - you also get control. Control knobs allow for precise heat control. On low you can slow cook, on high it's infra-red. Heat and control.

Even Heat Distribution
Cast Stainless Steel E Burners are part of a whole system to ensure even heat distribution so the are no hot spots or cold spots. This gives you greater use of the space relative to others.

Flavor grids, Depth of firebox, and our cooking grids also contribute


Shallow Depth Backburner
Ours is made of Stainless Steel - unlike the ceramic of others. This allow us to both be shallow depth allowing more room for your food and is more durable - ours wont crack.

Combined with our 12" deep firebox and tall hood, this allows the greatest flexibility to cook on your rotisserie, up to 20" in diameter.

Lights Every Time
State of the art ignition ensure that your grill is ready when you are.

Echelon Diamond series use Hot Surface Ignition (shown) which will even light in the pouring rain. Aurora uses battery operated electronic ignition.

Echelon and Aurora both feature push to light technology.

Cast Stainless Burners
Our Cast Stainless Steel E Burners are 4-5 times thicker than others and are warranted for life!

 
Oh yeah...and the knobs light up with blue LED lights.....that just really cool.

You can find great deals on Fire Magic here:  




Fire Magic Profile

Fire Magic Front View

Fire Magic Grill provided by Family Leisure!








Saturday, May 19, 2012

Outdoor Movie Night?

One of the things trending right now in Outdoor Living is Outdoor Movies!

Here are some examples of some really neat Outdoor Theaters both completed and concept!

Outdoor Theater Built into the Cedar Posts
Outdoor Theater Concept
Extreme Marhmellows!
I think I could get into this movie....or in the pool?

 
I like the view!

As you can see, the materials that are being used in Outdoor Living have vastly improved over the years.  True exterior design has become an important feature to the value of your house and, more importantly, allowed folks to make more use of what they have already!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Decorative Concrete - Outdoor Living Space with ALL the bells and whistles

Side View Before
Full View Before
Custom Fireplace w/ Wood Boxes
Front View including Fireplace and Outdoor Kitchen
Posts Up
Project Complete w/ Patio Furniture

What a great space!  A 22 x 16 Pergola w/ 6 Posts, Full Stone Columns, Decorative Arches, Custom Decorative Concrete, and a great summer ahead!
Brought to you by www.familyleisure.com

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Flag Stone Outdoor Space Complete!

There are multiple types of flooring you can use for Outdoor Living. Pavers, Concrete, Travertine Tile, and another popular trending looking is Flag stone. Here we are with a Flagstone patio and a cultured stone base pergola with a half moon firepit/bar and grill. Take a look at what we did here to give it that vertical presence in the backyard.

Flag Stone Before/ Concrete Footers Poured



Flag Stone Wide View

Flag Stone w/ Cultured Stone Bases and Rough Cut Cedar Pergola





After the final touches had been added you have a complete outdoor room with a half moon bar, rough cut cedar pergola, copper caps, decorative arches, and a grill area! These folks are all set for the summer!

Saturday, May 12, 2012

From Deck to Decadence in three weeks

 We tried to work this client into the end of last year, but with timing it just didn't happen.  So the family moved to one of the first projects of 2012!  What we did here was take a 350 square foot decaying deck (with some unfortunate surprises underneath) and change it to a permanent part of their outdoor living space.  With over 8 tons of dirt brought in and 12 tons of stone to form the base and make the grade of land flat this is what we did.  You can hardly recognize from where it was three weeks ago to where it is now!

Here is the beginning pictures with the deck tear out.

Bi-Layer Deck

Flushed to the 3 seasons room

The next step was leveling the grade, bringing in dirt and pouring the footer for the Fireplace
stone and dirt brought in to patch some long term water damage under the deck

6 inch thick concrete fireplace footer
The third phase was to bring in the fireplace and than start building the patio foundation with a lifetime warrantied product (Reading Rock)
We also added a rounded step off the patio for a beautifully cut serpentine sidewalk that allows better access to and from their driveway

Cutting Paver Stone, laying of the pattern to the fireplace

Almost there
The last phase is where we did the grouting, clean up, and brought in their outdoor kitchen complete with a rounded 82 inch bar ledge for additional seating

Adding Lights to the rounded seat walls to the fireplace/ hooking up electric

Completed Project !  Just look at the first picture and scroll down to this!
The products used were the Chardonnay Stacked Cultured Stone for the fireplace, Bull Grill and Components in the Kitchen, Reading Rock Halfmark Series, and the little blue chairs were provided by the client :)

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Pool is Open for the Summer!

Recent Project:
Outdoor Kitchen w/ Bull Angus grill
14 x 14 Venetian Pergola w/ Rough Cut Cedar
Pavers by Reading Rock
Custom 3 prong fire pit

Before Pergola by the Pool

Before Pavers/Pergola by the pool

Long Shote Before Pergola and Pavers

High Grade Shot Before Fire Pit and Pavers
Bull Grill Island/ Finished Pavers

Long Shot of Pergola with Pavers and Doggy!

High Grade Shot

Saturday, May 5, 2012

New Project Design - Custom Bar and multiple fire features with clear polycarb roof


Custom w/ Outdoor Sectional Couch


Custom Overhead dims for concrete pour