I grew up watching my father and my brother building things, sometimes helping myself, but mostly just admiring them. Here are some photos from the last 20 years:

Now that we have our own home, we have started learning how to build thinks ourselves. We first learned how to set a foundation for a shed, which then became very useful at the time of building an Argentinian grill with bricks in our back yard in Lincoln Park.

Building a Solid Foundation

We decided to build a shed in our front yard, and so we needed a solid foundation to put it on.

We had to excavate a trench of undisturbed soil for the required bearing, lay the Step 1 and Step 2 foundation bags, then the cement tiles making sure they were horizontal (enough) and then make the shed.

We set up things to make the foundation during one day. A beach tent kept Nikolay entertained with toys, and allowed him to watch ups build things from scratch. He now wants to be an Architect and a builder! (and a scientist and a painter and so much more!).

Parrilla Argentinian

We have a beautiful back yard (not so common in Lincoln Park, we’re indeed very lucky!

To honor our Argentinian heritage, and to continue my father’s tradition of Sunday Asados, we needed to build an Argentinian Parrilla there.

After making several sketches, we proceeded to make a lego model, of course.

We then emptied the whole space from plants and soil, it was quite some work, and prepared the ground for a 5’ foundation base.

Our fantastic contractor Maurizio (and his team, and his uncle!) have been teaching us so much!

Once the the foundation was dry, we were ready to start making the legs and the counter.

After the upper level was done, we waited for a warmish December day in late 2023 to add the fire bricks that should make the grill ready to be used next spring!

Now that we’ve been almost a year in our new home, we have finally (quasi) finished pour Argentinian grill! On a warm halloween week, we built the chimney using a wire structure and cement.

In late October 2024 we made our first asado - we all loved both the food, and the fire / set up! Come and join us for our weekly asados once the weather allows us in 2025!