Blanco Bungalow Kitchen Reno: Week 3 (Building the Outdoor Pizza Kitchen)

THIS POST IS SPONSORED BY AUTHENTIC PIZZA OVENS. ALL IDEAS AND OPINIONS ARE 100% MY OWN.

So yes, it is week 3, however the kitchen construction has to come to a quick hault this week. We own Little Coyote Pizza here in Long Beach California, and our backyard hasn’t felt complete without our own pizza oven. So over the past few weeks, I’ve been sourcing pizza ovens, and came across the perfect oven from Authentic Pizza Ovens . They’re handmade in Portugal, and the Lisboa, with white stucco and terracotta tile is so perfect for The Blanco Bungalow. So we ordered one, and it’ll be here in a week! So therefore, this week we’re building the Outdoor Pizza Kitchen!

Despite the fact that I’ve always wanted my own pizza oven, I’ve been dying to cover up this eye sore of a “faux” garage door. For some reason, the previous owners thought to extend the garage door, by adding a faux extension about 6 feet to the right of the door. Pretty strange to me, and it’s also the first thing you see when you step into the backyard from the house. Strader was super stir crazy a few weeks ago, and wanted a project, so I said, “Why don’t you take off the door, and let’s see what’s underneath.” I was expecting stucco, but sadly, no.

Once we took it off, we found plywood and framing that needed replacing. The massive hole in the stucco also catapulted the pizza oven hunt. We had to put something there, so might as well put a pizza kitchen! But before we do anything, we have to reframe the opening and re-stucco the wall to match.

Thankfully Bardo is really fast, and is replacing the framing and prepping the wall for fresh stucco all in one day.

And once the prep is done, the first layer of stucco goes up.

While the stucco cures, we’re starting on the pizza kitchen construction. I’m kind of figuring this out as we go, because let’s face it, I don’t really have a plan:)

The dimensions of the Lisboa oven are 39” deep by 39” wide. but once we lay out the bricks to the appropriate depth, a side counter at the same depth feels huge! Because isn’t the standard counter depth 25”? The height has been a bit tricky to figure out though, because we don’t have the actual pizza oven here yet. It’s hard to tell how high our base should be. We know we don’t want to be reaching up to the oven door, so if anything, it’s better to be on the lower side. We started with 5 bricks high, but took off the top row, and now we’re going with 4 high. Much better!

And as for the depth and width of the sides, we’re a little stumped on this one as well. Putting our heads together to come up with a solution here. Since this is right next to a frequented corner, we don’t want a sharp corner sticking out, so we’re thinking we’ll cut out the front a little.

Anther tricky part is the depth of the cubbies underneath. I want storage cubbies for idk, pizza stuff:) But I also don’t need them 39” deep! So I had an idea. Why don’t we design it so we have the big cubbie directly underneath the oven for wood go all the way back. The two small front cubbies on either side would go about halfway back, leaving space to make two more cubbies that face outward to the sides. This will make more sense once you see it built (I think:).

Here you can kind of see what I mean. We’re dividing the side cubbies so we maximize storage.

So now that we have that puzzle figured out - literally! It’s time to pour the concrete for the counter top.

We left today and let Bardo do his thing, and when we came home….

Voila!

And look what’s finally here? Our Pizza Oven!

Okay, now it’s starting to come together.

We’ve been searching online where to rent a jack to lift the pizza oven onto the platform, but there is literally nothing available. We rushed all week to get the kitchen built in time for the oven delivery, and now that it’s here, we can’t install it! Go figure:)

Tap HERE for a link to the Lisboa Pizza Oven.

And save $100 with my code: BLANCO

So here is where we’re leaving off for Week 3 of our Kitchen Remodel. Which technically is not part of the kitchen, but sort of since it’s our outdoor kitchen, right? Stay tuned for Week 4! And you can reference the other weeks here:

DESIGN PLAN | WEEK 1 | WEEK 2

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