Outdoor fireplace

Hey guys, I'm new here. Thanks for reading my thread. I started an outdoor fireplace project over a year ago, and to say the least, it was quite a daunting project. Prior to this project, I had never laid a brick in my life, so I spent plenty of time reading online and watching youtube videos. Long story short, it rained shortly after I wrapped things up one day while I was working on it, and the mortar ran down the face of the bricks in spite of being covered by a tarp. To say the least, I became disgusted with the project and I have put it off for long enough. Its time for me to either finish the thing or tear it down and get rid of the rubble.

Basically, I'd like for you guys to give input on weather or not you think the design and methods that I used are even worth me trying to clean it up and finish it. I have a total of about $100 in the whole project. A neighbor gave me the bricks, so it's not like there is much of a financial loss either way. Just a heck of a lot of time. I have used muriatic acid the clean a couple of the bricks, and with some elbow grease, it does seem to come off, but I was afraid to just go to town with it for fear of killing my grass with any runoff. One option was to stone veneer over the bricks in order to hide all of the ugliness, but this would generate substantial expense.

I'm about to hire a contractor to build a cover over my porch. If the fireplace stays, it needs to get finished, and the cover will have a cutout that the chimney goes through.

Photos are attached. Any input is greatly appreciated.

I can't comment on the brickwork, i don't have experience . But I wonder if you have put a fire in there; does it draft properly? That would be the first thing to know if it's worth keeping.

to the site.

You could always finish it and skim coat it or use a concrete stain on it.

Oh yeah to House Repair Talk!

Worthy of stuccoing if it vents properly.

Thanks for the input, everyone! I have built a fire in it. It drafts the smoke great. If I continue the project, I will likely build the chimney up two or so more chimney tiles which should increase the exhaust velocity even more. I'm definitely not familiar with Stucco. Is that pretty easy? How expensive is it? Also, what is a skim coat?