Every house has its story. What's yours?

If you have ever read any of my previous blog posts you'll be familiar with the large backyard deck I built a couple of years ago. I completed it pretty swiftly, but it took me a couple of years to decide how I wanted to build a place for a cozy fire. Sweden can have some chilly evenings in the summer (not even going to mention spring and fall) and it's also a handy way to keep these damned mosquitoes at bay. Anyway, I'd left an open corner in the deck for just this purpose and my neighbor had lovingly welded a metal container for a fire pit for my birthday a couple years back, so I finally decided what I would do with my fire space.

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My wife and I decided yesterday would be a good day to do something with the big pile of dirt we had by the back of our house before winter arrives, which it does suddenely here in Sweden.

I'd been busy the last couple of weeks shoveling the pile down to backfill where we had just put in drainage around the house. Whilst backfilling I kept in mind that there would be settling over the winter and I anticipate that I'll have room for about 6 inches of sand so I can maneuver the slate around how I want it.    » read more »