Brick and Rock Fireplace

This is a simple-moderate difficultly fireplace that can be made with around the yard supplies!! It may be a lot of work so be prepared! I for one think its for sure worth a morning or afternoon of work and ready by the evening for relaxation!! Good luck!

First off you need to find a place for this to go, I chose an area that was a few feet away from our porch and away from nearby trees just to be safe!

This didn't cost me anything as I already had all the materials on my backyard. I used a round head shovel, a outdoor broom, square head shovel (optional) brick, gravel and lastly, time!!! (If you choose to do step 8 you'll need about 6 iron rods and a hammer)

I made mine at a width of about 2 ft and a depth of about 2 ft but if you have enough materials it can be as deep or wide as you want it!!

In my case I used the square head shovel to shape the pit in kind of a octagonal shape so it's easier to lay bricks down! (My puppy wouldn't get away from the hole)

They key to this is having a strong and level base! I made my base a square but you can make it pretty much whatever shape you want! As you are making the base you may need to fill in some holes in the brick with the dirt you just dug up or to keep it level and steady! After you have a strong base to apply more bricks on top and fill in any extra or unwanted holes! Eventually it'll start looking like this, depending on what shape you chose!

Now that you have your pit with all the bricks payed down, get the broom and push the dirt to form a circle around your pit. Now grab some more brick and start laying them on the outside of your circle, one layer will be fine! (Make sure they are slightly raised to avoid them being buried when a dust storm comes through)

Once you have your circle of brick set its time for the gravel! You can get it pretty anywhere or in the desert at a nearby river bed, since my backyard is a desert this is where I got it from! I layered mine about 2 in thick.

You can either leave your fireplace at one level or step it up a notch and add a second level! You'll just need to grab your hammer and rods and nail in a rod about every 3 bricks or so and then stack the second level. (The rods are for supporting the second level so it stays upright ) This will make it look a little more fancy if that's what you're going for or you can ignore this step!! I personally like having a two layers brick wall so mine looks like this!

Now you can sit by your new fireplace and enjoy roasting hotdogs or making s'mores with the wife or family!! You can also grab your hose and wet it down to get the extra dirt off the gravel and brick but that's optional!! Hope you enjoy!