Happy ending for a sad bbq

Many years ago, my uncle gave us a bbq grill for either my graduation or house warming gift. I think we've had this grill for at least 9 years. First five years it was stored inside the garage but the last four years, it has been moved around in our yard with no cover. For a grill of its age, its holding up phenomenal. We almost never grill because we are lazy to clean it. We have used it only a handful of times so everything works perfect.
    Before fourth of July all of our relatives started buying new grills and it inspired me to get a new grill fix up our old grill. At first, Binh insist on buying a new grill.  I, on the other hand, said nothing is wrong with our old grill, so lets keep it. And honestly, newer grills might not be as well made as our old grill.  I'm not really interested in another simple portable bbq grill. I was really looking into the nicer built-in kinds but there was a small issue with those... they were way way out of my price range. We aren't really grilling type of people either so I didn't want to spend more money on something we don't really care about.
   After looking at a few bbq islands, I spotted this one from poolwarehouse.com and knew "it" was the one for me. Here's the link https://www.poolwarehouse.com/shop/diy-6-grilling-island/  
The one for me was also listed at $6,000+ starting price. Even if they took away one of the zeros, it still would be over my budget.

Long story short, I turned our grill (picture below) into something similar to the above grill. 

    In the previous post, I wrote about creating an area in our yard for the built in bbq grill. After we finished the pavers and pergola, we built a simple box frame on both sides of the grill. I wanted a portable built in bbq. If our grill ever breaks down or we just decide on getting a new grill we can just replace the grill without having to tear down the whole thing.

I decided on porcelain tile instead of stone or stucco because I like the smoother look and feel of tile. Something about having rough stone around my kids scares me. I'm afraid one day they will slip/fall and get all scratched up. I don't know if tile is any better because its just a smoother surface but it makes me feel a tad bit better. Stucco looks too plain for me. And I consider myself pretty good at tiling so it was naturally an easier option.  I finished tiling the bbq in under two hours. I only tiled the front and sides. The back is completely empty. It butts to a block wall so I don't think anyone would care to look behind it. Plus its a little lighter without the extra tiles in case we ever need to relocate the bbq. 

I was able to buy a used piece of granite on offer up for $25. It was a steal. One side was already finished with bullnose shape. My dad and Binh helped me cut the granite to the correct size. I had to bring the left smaller piece to a shop to finish off the edge because my dad didn't have the tools for it. We added plywood to the base and glued down the larger granite piece to the right. FYI: for outdoor use, you're suppose to use granite not quartz. I was shocked when I was told by our fabricator.  I trusted him and granite is cheaper than quartz so it was a win for me. 

Here are some finished day time pictures. I added some temporary dollar tree plastic baskets we had around the house. I'll eventually change them out to something nicer but they will do for now.  Its nice to have extra shelving to store random things you don't want on the countertop.  

Here are pictures of our bbq island at night. It definitely shines at night compared to day time. 

Cost breakdown:

-cement board and wood for framing $60
-porcelain tiles $40 (two boxes with plenty left over)
-vinyl edging $20
-granite $25 + $60 for finisher to complete one piece of granite
-construction glue $15
-mortar and grout- already owned
-black high heat spray paint - already owned (left over from fireplace makeover)
-metal shelf from Lowes $20
-solar lights $30


I think I did pretty good for spending under $300. Buying a new grill would have cost us at least $300 for something half decent and of course it wouldn't be as nice as this one I fixed up. So before you toss out that sad old looking grill consider giving it a makeover instead. Now our old grill sits in our yard shining proudly with all the solar lights glowing around it.