Mumbles dream pizza oven SA3
Mumbles dream pizza oven SA3
I was invited over to Livio’s house in February 2022 as his back garden was being landscaped from a back yard into a modern kitchen garden with raised oak sleeper growing beds and sandstone paving throughout. He talked through his ideas, some of which were drawn up on the garden plan he had been given by local garden designer David Hastie.
He wanted a pizza oven and large grill incorporated together with granite worktops and space to store logs. The space was surveyed and a design drawn up for agreement. After a few iterations, the plan was agreed and a start date set for better weather after the landscaping had been completed.
The Mumbles dream pizza oven project was booked in for the following year and got started on site on a sunny week in May 2023. Fortunately for us, the sun shone the whole time we were on site and were able to make good progress with setting out and building the brick base units ready for the Four Grand-Mere 950 brick wood fired oven and Solus grill. Originally the grill was to be a simple affair of adjustable grill with space for a wok and hot plate but later
I introduced Livio to the Solus range and persuaded him that he could have everything he wanted in one pre built unit. He didn’t take that much persuading as it ticked all the boxes for his requirements.
There is always a sticky period when clients are cagey about how much money they want to spend and Livio was no different, however his enthusiasm for the project was palpable and he really couldn’t wait to get cooking so budget slightly went out of the window in order that he achieve his end goal without any compromises.
As Livio was a lecturer at the University, he was around a lot during the build working from home. He had acquired a baby dachshund early on in the build so that was a bit of a distraction from the ongoing task of building walls. He was very small and called Archimboldo or Archie for short and came out to investigate our works regularly but as he was still wary of strangers he played a run around game with us hiding and barking until Livio came out to pick it up and take inside for reassurance.
The Mumbles dream pizza oven project came together very quickly and as it was a short drive from the Travelodge in town during the first week and the AirBnB near the Mumbles sea front in the second week we were on site early each day. Its a beautiful area that seemed to have its own sunny microclimate so the late afternoons and evenings after work were fun exploring the sea front and pier. During the working day, we found an excellent cafe just round the corner called Rag and Bone that did the superb coffee and breakfasts and seemed to be a bit of a hub with locals including a very attractive beat policewoman who dropped in every day.
After you’ve been working for someone for a while you find out a bit more about their habits and obsessions, sometimes freely shared sometimes just realised through what they say. We were invited for dinner one night and it came out one of Livio’s passions was very heavy thrash metal music mostly but not exclusively from Finland and France. The other was Vikings, of which more later…
The Mumbles dream pizza oven was eventually finished and signed off by a very excited Livio. We had given the oven a few conditioning fires to dry the structure out but it was now up to him to take over and enjoy the fruits of our labour. He had a large stack of firewood all ready so we said our goodbyes and left for home. I had planned to return at some point to take some more photos so when I eventually did I found a small pile of Viking paraphernalia ready to fix to the walls of the base units- plastic swords, helmets, skulls and a pair of crossed axes!
Mumbles dream pizza oven SA3 I was invited over to Livio’s house in February 2022 as his back garden was being landscaped from a back yard into a modern kitchen garden with raised oak sleeper growing beds and sandstone paving throughout. He talked through his ideas, some of which were drawn up on the garden […]