The extra mile

The difference between the Real Garden Oven People and other garden oven companies is that they want you to love your oven as much as they do.

It's the extra little touches that make each oven unique and special.  Our proving oven is being lined with 100 year old terracotta tiles that Bryan just "happened to have lying around".  Yesterday Alan tried an experiment to cut a circular slab into quarters to make the chimney shelves.  They didn't quite fit so he'll try something else.  We are involved in every decision and it's a collaborative process to get exactly what you want.  If you are going to look at something out of your kitchen window for years to come, the last thing you want is to think "oh, I wish we had done that bit differently....."

I do already but I can guarantee I will be looking out of my kitchen window for years to come thinking "I love my garden oven!"

The Mess

Let's not be under any illusions here, having a garden oven built is a major construction project and it will make a mess.  A skip, building supplies and a cement mixer will take up most of your drive, if you have one.

We are lucky enough to still be able to get one car on the end of the drive, the other has to annoy the neighbours by being parked opposite our drive.  We live in a small court of 9 houses and parking is a sore point at the best of times!  We have tried putting the other car on the front lawn to get it out of the way but it threatened to turn the lawn into a mini Isle of Wight festival and the name "Onslow" came to mind :)

The dust from mixing mortar and cutting bricks and blocks has a life of its own.  My poor plants are covered in it and no matter how much you keep your windows and doors shut, it will get in and you will feel it crunching under your feet as you walk about the house.  Having a small dog who wants to keep an eye on proceedings doesn't help either - did I mention it's the wettest summer on record?!

But the mess is only temporary, a garden oven is permanent.  It will still be there long after you are gone.  Neighbours can be placated with the promise of a pizza party and the dog can soon have his garden back.  Just make sure your hoover works before you start!

The Talk

I am an E-Learning Specialist by trade which means I write and develop online learning.  By chance, 2 years ago I was the instructional designer for 3 modules of an E-Construction course charged with writing the modules on bricklaying, carpentry and tiling.  There are some samples at this link if you're interested :)

http://www.elearning-shop.co.uk/

As the instructional designer, I get to write the words for the voiceover and on screen text as well as suggesting the images and animations to go with it.  The real magic however, happens when the developers bring my Word document to life!

Little did I know how useful it would be.  It's amazing how throwing a few choice phrases around can make you sound like you know what you're talking about so here are a few pointers......

Bricks are laid in courses, not layers or stripes, and the pattern they are laid in is known as the bond.  The most common is stretcher bond where the perp (perpend) or vertical gap between two bricks sits in the centre of the brick above and below.  You will probably see your builder laying the bricks out first, don't worry, he does know what he is doing, this is known as dry bonding to work things out.  Take a look at your house and you will see that you didn't really get a choice where the windows and doors go, it was down to where the bond could fit them in.  Be careful though, you will end up looking at every house you see!

Mortar is muck, stones are ballast and the wooden frames to hold openings are formwork.  The dent in a brick is known as a frog and bricks can be laid frog up or frog down.

The most important phrase you can learn however is....

"How do you take your tea?"

The First Test Fire

The interior dimensions of the oven are vital if it is to draw properly and reach the right temperature.  Once the interior has been built you can have your first of three test fires.  I can't tell you how exiciting this is!

As each oven is unique in design and location, the aim of the test fires is firstly to help dry the oven out but also to work out where in the oven the fire will work best and in which direction the smoke will travel.  Our fires will be in the back right corner and the smoke drifts away from the neighbours' houses.

Smoke is actually a really good point.... Real Garden Ovens only smoke until they reach the right temperature.  Once they are hot there is a faint whiff of wood smoke which compared with the clouds of gas from lighter fluid and fire lighters you get from barbecues is actually very nice.

The Base

More wet weather meant the project was getting even further behind, reinforcements were called for!  One Thursday, 2 extra brickies arrived, Ron and Bob.  Yes really.... Bob the Builder!

They were lovely guys from the North East who worked like trojans all day on the one hot day we've had recently.  I've never known two people drink as much tea.  They very kindly spoke very slowly when they spoke to me - well I am blonde after all - but when they spoke to each other it was like a foreign language :)

Bob assured me that he wished he'd taken up bricklaying years ago and that he had only been doing it for 6 months.  He reckoned he'd been stacking shelves in Tesco for the last 40 years.  I almost believed him.......... but he was too good at his job to keep up the joke for long.

So this is half way.  Base, log store and proving oven built, "just" the main oven, chimney, insulation and roof to go......

The Foundations

Real Garden Ovens are incredibly heavy and therefore need good foundations.  Unfortunately digging a hole during the wettest summer on record means it soon fills up with water!  Comments on Facebook included "Is that a moat for the dog castle?"

It wasn't meant to be like this but the skip that should have turned up on Saturday.... Monday..... Tuesday and eventually arrived on Wednesday meant Alan and Bryan had missed 3 dry days.  Oh well, a dryer than usual mix meant we soon had the foundations ready to begin building the base.

The start...

I have wanted a garden oven since I first saw one on holiday 25 years ago.  It doesn't matter that I don't live in the Mediterranean and that this summer is the wettest on record, I still wanted one.  And then my husband started working at the same company as Bryan..........

Bryan and his brother in law Alan are passionate about garden ovens.  They have done hours of research and decided that the only way to learn was to build one.  They both now have one in each of their gardens!  Over time they have worked out the optimum design and after building a few more, they are building one for us :)

I am now helping them in return to build up their business.  Their USP is their passion for the ovens and after researching other companies, we decided they were the "Real" garden oven people, hence the name.

We've got as far as registering the domain name.  The next step is the website with some photos of the ovens themselves and some of the fantastic things you can cook in them.  Think pizza, bread, casseroles, roasted meat and vegetables, even your Christmas dinner!

Ours should be ready to cook in by the weekend so I'll keep you posted :)