A Design .. At Last!

I have spent endless hours looking at Brick Ovens on the internet. I have joined Yahoo groups where members are way more obsessed with brick ovens than myself. I have read endless books about the process ... but I could never get my arms around a design that I liked.

Here are my goals:

• I want to use only 'natural' products. We have field stone and pavers in our current outdoor area, and I didn't want to 'commercialize' the oven look. No man made facade. 
• Once the oven is done, I don't want to wish we would had done something different. So I was trying to think through the design as much as possible. 
• Scott and I would like to include concrete countertops. We like the simple look and feel they will hold up well outside.

On Sunday, while in the Menards parking lot, I came across the following picture on my phone (internet) and fell in love with it! This is what I'm basing our outdoor kitchen on. It isn't going to be as big, and ours will  curve, but I like the general idea. I've been struggling with a hearth .. do I get a granite slab? Rock? Now I'm going to create a form and make it out of concrete, including pigments to match the concrete countertops. Perfect.

And as I told Scott, "I'm going to put a fake plant in front of it, just like the one below!"