Built kitchens and fire that keep the yard open into October

An outdoor kitchen only works if the layout does. There has to be landing space either side of the grill, somewhere to put a drink down, and a seating relationship that keeps whoever is cooking in the conversation instead of stranded at the far end of the deck.

We build the counters in stone and masonry that carries through from the patio and the walls, so the kitchen reads as part of the landscape rather than an appliance run parked on it.

Fire does the same job at the other end of the season. A built fireplace anchoring an outdoor room, or a low gathering pit set into the paving with seating around it, is what keeps a Minnesota yard in use well past the point most people go inside.