After a little over a year I’m proud to say my oven is finished. Everything is built attached, and sealed, ready for years of fabulous food, and good times.
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That’s beautiful. I love all the details. Awesome job. Have you cooked with it yet?
Is the bottom door attached?
Thank you, yes I’ve been cooking in it while finishing it. The door just sits in so it can be moved out of the way while cooking
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@Bill Fabulous job, I love the stone and brick veneers, looks professional. The chimney top is a really nice touch too, is it made of concrete? The door looks awesome too! Congrats and enjoy the great times ahead with the your beautiful oven.
Thanks for the compliment’s, the chimney crown is concrete. I built a form and poured it then placed it on top I haven’t sealed it down yet, I think it should cure a bit more first
First class job, Bill! Besides looking absolutely gorgeous, that oven also looks like it means business. Tasty, delicious business.
I like what you did with the crown. When it comes down to it, many people will not see the hearth or the hard work that went into making your oven a pizza boss. But everyone’s eyes are drawn upward with a structure like this, and you’ve got a statement there for them to see.
Congratulations, and many awesome apizzas to you and everyone you host.
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Thanks Matt. So far we’ve hosted 1 larger get together. I’m proud to say the oven performed perfectly. We baked 15 pizzas, and 3 pans of cinnamon rolls in just under 2 hours
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@Bill I have my first sizable pizza party coming up, 12 people and I figure at least 8 pizzas. Any tips for doing that many in one evening? Up to now the most that I’ve done is 4 in an evening.
Thanks!
If you’re having everyone make their own pie’s I’d have a couple extra crusts, and toppings just in case one hits the ground. I also started the fire about 2 hours in advance for a good long heat soak, and had plenty of wood on hand for the flame over while the pies are in there. We also bought a couple short handled wooden peels so a couple guests at a time could build their pizza, then transfer to the long handled peel for the oven.
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I regularly make 6-9 in an evening. The main reason is when the oven is hot might as well use it(the extras reheat well in the house oven at 400 degrees for around 7 minutes)
Tip: get yourself a pair of leather welding gloves (generally under $20). Besides looking oddly cool, they will protect your hands and lower arms while you slip pies in and out of a very hot oven. They also slip on and off very easily. Your guests will enjoy your oven work more if you’re not going “arghhh” every time you try to turn a pizza. 
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Plan AT LEAST one pizza per person. Teen age boys count as two people (sometimes more).
Agree with Bill that you should plan for a couple failures. Torn dough, pies falling on the floor, etc. always seem to happen.
For bigger groups having one person dedicated to making pies and another person dedicated to cooking them works well. I bought a marble pasty stone for making the pizzas on. They slide easily onto the peel from the marble and this allows me to use one peel.
Enjoy
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Good luck Bill and the brick you used is Endicott brick I almost used that color
but i used the one that is more black Beautiful
One word of advise Patience - take your time learn how your oven heats, know the best spots to cook your food. And the thing i found is floor temperature is the key to pizza
Saturate that floor as much as you can. So that when you slap a 70 degree pizza that you just stretched onto that floor is fluffs and cooks quick. Get an instant read thermometer to check to temperature and go from there I find 675 to 735 ideal over 750 is bit too hot
and lastly build the fire front to back saturate that back 1/3 of floor with red hot embers
push the fire to the left and get the pizza in the back corner with a max flame rolling over the barrel It is the way to go
Good luck and remember “Give me Pizza or Give me death”
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Thanks Dino, I learned pretty quickly on heating the oven properly, it took 3-4 attempts. Now I don’t even use my laser thermometer. Just started fire burn for 1,1/2-2 hours depending on the temperature outside, then start baking pies. I’m proud to say I can successfully make a true Avpn margarita pizza in 90 seconds.
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