New patio ideas: Pizza oven? Pergola? Fire pit?

[TuttiFrutti]

We are designing a new patio at the moment and of course everyone in the family has their own ideas about what it should contain.

Is a fire pit a good idea? Or does it just smoke a lot and not give off much heat? Does anyone have a pizza oven, and do you actually use it?

What about one of those outdoor bar counter areas? Are they actually used?

Funnily enough I’ve just read another posters response on another thread

1) Fire pits, no, unless your nearest neighbours are at least half mile away..in the average garden you risk clogging up your neighbours lungs and making their fresh washing stink. If everyone had a fire pit we'd be back to Victorian London style air quality.

I hate it when our neighbours light their one as it fills our living room with the stench of smoke, they aren’t even that close to us!

We have a pizza oven and use it a lot. Probably use it more than our bbq now.

Hot tub
Gas bbq
Very comfy seats

I think that you would be best off having as large a flat, multi-purpose area as possible. You can then add (and later discard) freestanding items as gardening fashion dictates.

I have the same concerns about a fire pit being too smoky and wind sending sparks flying but my husband has his heart set on buying one! My parents have a chiminea. I don’t think Chimineas look particularly lovely but their little one blasts out heat all evening and smoke has never been a problem.

We have a very large deck at the end of the garden with a six seat dining set. It’s great for dinner during the summer but not really somewhere where we’d spend the day lounging. Now that we’re looking at getting an outdoor sofa we’ve realised so many come with dining tables. With hindsight, we should have bought the comfy sofa version of the dining table in the first place.

I wouldn’t go for a built in pizza oven as they apparently take hours to heat up. We’ve got an Ooni and love it!

We have a very large deck at the end of the garden with a six seat

OMG I read it that you had a large dick and a sex seat

Lockdown has finally got to me.

@ocsetldil omg that's made me laugh, mind you it mind give op some ideas she might be looking for sex seats now .

Ooni pizza oven recommendation here too

@Ocsetldil

We have a very large deck at the end of the garden with a six seat

OMG I read it that you had a large dick and a sex seat

Lockdown has finally got to me.

🤣 It reads like that if you have a kiwi accent.

We want a fuego, but pricey!

Our neighbours have a built in pizza oven it was expensive and they use it 2 or 3 times a year, pp is right it takes all day to heat up, she does come round to tell me though beforehand so I don't put washing out then, and they do always make us a couple of pizzas which do taste amazing but I think they're a lot of time, money and effort for not much usage.
We have a pergola, it's pretty but doesn't have a purpose as such but you can get the ones with pull over shade if you wanted it for that reason.
Fire pits, hmm I don't know really I used to like them but I'm not sure if they're a bit past popular nowadays but obviously that's personal thoughts, I think I'd rather be inside if it was cold enough for one, what's your garden area like? South facing? Close to the neighbours? Large or small area etc what about a fancy shed or a summer house?

I’ve been debating a pizza oven. We cook pizzas from scratch at least every two weeks. Since lockdown it’s more like every Friday... Interesting to hear that they take so long to warm up. I love the look of a traditional oven but was already debating the Ooni because they’re cheaper. Think you’ve helped me make up my mind. Now to convince the husband that it’s a bargain...

We love our fire pit, as long as you also have a log store to keep the wood super dry otherwise it will be very smoky. Haven't got a pizza oven but very tempted so following!

@MilduraS our ooni was the best purchase I made during lockdown last year! If you’re cooking for more than two people then I’d recommend getting one of the gas ones. The wood pellets will cook 2-3 pizzas before cooling down and needing a bit of time to warm back up to temp. Gas keeps a more regular temp in the oven.

We have a wooden, mobile bar thing and it's used whenever we have a few people over in the summer. Great to put bottles, spare glasses, nibble, etc on

[quote BitchIAmFromChicago]@MilduraS our ooni was the best purchase I made during lockdown last year! If you’re cooking for more than two people then I’d recommend getting one of the gas ones. The wood pellets will cook 2-3 pizzas before cooling down and needing a bit of time to warm back up to temp. Gas keeps a more regular temp in the oven.[/quote]
It’s normally just the two of us but I was eyeing up the gas and wood combo because we’d forget to buy wood every once in a while. So glad to hear it was a good purchase!

@MilduraS, DH and I never tired of collapsing in smutty giggles when friends or neighbours in NZ remarked our our very large deck 😀

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I think you're right and a "very large deck" (can't think of that phrase now without a New Zealand accent) is a good idea with freestanding pizza oven and possibly fire pit. I haven't heard of an Ooni and will go and investigate.

MilduraS, what is the "comfy sofa version of the dining table"?

@TuttiFrutti 😀
Sounds great

@TuttiFrutti

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I think you're right and a "very large deck" (can't think of that phrase now without a New Zealand accent) is a good idea with freestanding pizza oven and possibly fire pit. I haven't heard of an Ooni and will go and investigate.

MilduraS, what is the "comfy sofa version of the dining table"?

Something like this: www.whitestores.co.uk/nova-left-hand-extending-cambridge-casual-dining-rattan-corner-sofa-set.html?product=W18027&gclid=Cj0KCQiAvbiBBhD-ARIsAGM48bzVMXbEFkd7VM_hXxbhydpFIjFztSAbruLIHBKeCGUAYPPM-vyxImAaAlfpEALw_wcB#fo_c=575&fo_k=b7b7006467a9df88bf365e0e18bdbb50&fo_s=gplauk

We have proper outdoor dining chairs. They are nice enough but I don’t want to sit out in the sun reading a book on one for more than 30 minutes. At the same time, I don’t want to get rid of the table and chairs because they’re perfectly good so now we’ll have a dining table and chairs on one side and then a sofa with something for heat on the other side.

Aha, now I get it MilduraS. Yes, that looks really nice.