My wife and I sold our swingset since our kids have been too old to play on it, and we would like to know any good ways we could use our 14' by 14' sandbox as a cool fire pit for our kids to use when they have friends over? We are talking about the kind of fire pit that you use to sit around a fire with. The fire pit itself is 3' by 3' but we want to surround it with maybe some landscaping blocks and maybe stack them a foot or so high to maybe let the kids sit on. So I am kinda asking is anyone has a good idea of what I should put around the fire pit so the kids will enjoy it more. My kids are 14 and 17 if that helps at all.

-- Eric York (bvilleyork@hotmail.com), August 26, 2001

Answers

I took large blocks of fire wood peeled the bark off. Then added two inches of foam rubber covered the seat with naugahide. Makes a cheap padded stool still using them after five years. Yhey have sat out side by the fire pit summer and upstate NY winter. Still one of the first seats taken. Jase

-- (jsweeney@northnet.org), August 26, 2001.

I made a bench,,, with 2 stumps of wood,, and a log,,that I notched, to sit on the stumps,, its pretty sturdt,,comes in handy as a work bench also

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), August 26, 2001.

You probably won't want to use this idea, but we had such fun with it I just had to share. A close friend of mine had a firepit and a bunch of us used to go over there every Wed. night no matter what the weather with the exception of a huge downpour. Well, we got tired of sitting on the ground and one of the guys suggested we haul an old toilet out of the garage for at least one seat. Well, one thing led to another and we all started bringing over old toilets. We arranged them like you would seats in an amphitheatre because we were on a slight grade. It worked wonderfully for about 10 years until his wife decided she just couldn't stand all those "thrones" in her yard anymore. Ah, well all good things must come to and end I suppose...

-- debra in ks (windfish@toto.net), August 26, 2001.

Debra, I laughed so hard I almost needed one of those thrones.

-- daffodyllady (daffodyllady@yahoo.com), August 26, 2001.