Steve I believe that they first found me at our Masonry Heater Association web site. I am a active and founding member of the MHA http://www.mha-net.org/ You might be interested in a outdoor pizza workshop I gave at one of our annual MHA meeting in NC http://mha-net.org/msb/html/bakeov17.htm There are a number of oven builders in the US, and after they talked to all of us, they chose me to build their oven. I will travel most anywhere to build or study bakeovens. I have studied masonry heaters and bakeovens in Finland & Sweden a few times. The process of building ovens away is fairly straight forward. Once I have designed it to my clients needs, I order refractory materials (firebrick, refractory cement, etc) from one of many refractory dealers nation wide for delivery to the job. All the other materials, brick, sand, cement, etc are bought locally, and tools like a brick cutting saw rented by my client. Usually my client(s) perform the duties of a tender, mixing mud, hauling bricks, etc. It is also the responsibility of my client to provide me with a place to stay, in Matchbox's case, they put me up at the Red Roof Inn a few blocks from Matchbox. Most of my work is in Maine, but once a year or so I travel out of state to build an oven or heater. I had no problems with the powers that be in DC, but generally it is the clients duty to have details taken care of with local code/zoning people. I enjoyed working in DC, but as usual, I spend most of my time working, and not seeing the sights. I did try to reach you when I was in DC building the Matchbox oven (Nick gave me your phone # in NY), but I never got past your answering machine. Maybe next time.
