It’s fair to say that most people reaching a certain age and having a little more time on their hands start to enjoy the outdoor experience. First it was the garden shed then it was the hot tub and outside bar area and more recently the Pizza oven experience has become the new modern outdoor shed.
Well for us it’s no difference. We first flirted with this idea way back in 2010 when we converted an outside chimney into a pizza oven in our garden in Whitmore, staffordshire. If I am honest it was a good effort but not perfect.
The lesson learnt from converting the chimney in Whitmore would stand us in a better place when we bought our dream Italian house in the rolling hills of Umbria. The house situated between Viceno and Benano and nestled in the hillside some 500 meters above sea level had an outdoor Pizza shack. Yes you heard me Shack. The previous owners had built a really large Pizza oven at the side of the and sort of covered it with a flimsy bamboo roof hence the reason I called it a shack.
It was about the time Nic joined us from Milan, our first girl workawayer who was due to stay a month and some two years later is still here. So I digress, we needed to improve this and build a more permanent structure that embraces the outdoor experiences with some mod cons and comfort. I had originally thought of Karikkoe, Beer on draught and big TV for football nights but the constant ringing in my ears from my partner shouting WTF i decided to settle on fridges for prosecco, a bluetooth speaker and some nice lights. I am still considering the TV.
So the structure was the first port of call and more importantly, replace the bamboo roof so the shack would be no more. Gradually and over the next few sunny days we put in a solid wood roof and then just to finish it off we put in a plastic slatted finish. I would have preferred to do the real deal with spare roof slates but they would prove too heavy for the wood structure.
Once the roof was completed we moved to the inside completely redesigning to include a table for 4-5 people and lots of work space, hand washing and a revamped BBQ and Pizza oven. As well as the thrill of working on the Pizza house we still had to finish the wall and the steps which led down the newly renamed “Man Cave” Some simple worktops from Ikea and a little bit of carpentry and we were on our way to installing the fridge and seating. Summer wasn’t to be an issue with heating if anything when it’s 35 outside and similar inside it would be like working in a blast furnace. For the winter period we are fitting doors and windows which will allow us to use all year round and maybe storage in the cold months. My final little addition, no not the TV yet, was a recycled piece of hard cedar wood which I converted into a lighting system and the addition of some retro Italian wire finished it off.
