This was a massive project so I’m going to break it into a few phases to be more digestible and less daunting for me to assemble it.
The background: We had an area behind the house that had an existing minimalist barbecue counter but was also a southwest exposure, so it was blazing hot and sunny most of the day with no relief, making it totally unappealing to use. On top of that, the barbecue setup was marginal at best and essentially just a mouse housing unit. I threw a small shade roof up a few years ago for a quick solution, but it did little to improve our enthusiasm for using the area.
My wife suggested we build a real outdoor kitchen instead and began getting some quotes. Once I heard $50,000+, I told her I’d just do it myself. I ended up doing it for about $20,000 including all appliances.
I had put a hot tub in and built a cedar surround that also hid a cold plunge, and we had a barrel sauna up against the house. The sauna we sold because we never used it and it took up too much space. The hot tub I expected to relocate but didn’t decide on the exact plan immediately–I left that for another phase.
Step one was to disassemble the sauna and get it out of the way, then tear down the old barbecue. I saved the actual barbecue unit, the burner, the small stainless drawer and the stainless access door for reuse in the new build. The sink was pretty nasty so it went in the trash, and the fridge was a cheap replacement for the original that had died, so we gave it away.
Once the space was cleared out, the next step was to build a legitimate roof over the space so it would be usable all year round. It had to be built first because of accessibility, but also fall was rapidly approaching and I knew I’d need it so I could continue building once the rain and snow started.
Next Up
Next part will cover the roof build.
Great start, we are on a new house build and I received the same BS bid for an outdoor kitchen and plus would have ot give my builder 15% on cost plus. I am lucky to have a woaklout basement with a covered deck above for kitchen cover. Builder will leave me gas, water and electric in the exterior wall and Ill get started in SPring.