When I built mine I suggested to my wife we just blow out the back wall of the kitchen and add on a bit to house the oven.
She suggested I put it in the back yard back against the tree line.
After I had it built and we used it a bit she said “too bad we didn’t build it closer to the house or next to the deck”.
I said “I built it where I was allowed to” 
Then I had to build a patio around it.
Flag down on the play: attempting to blame wife for logical consequences to her rules…
Well comically they did a hybrid, they knocked out the entire wall of the kitchen (which is on the second floor) and had it craned in (after steel i-beams were sunk from the floor through the foundation below) and then a new kitchen wall was built…
My wife admitted afterward that she didn’t think I’d finish it so she figured it would be better where the woods could reclaim it like an ancient artifact. (I had never built one from the ground up and it was all my design so I didn’t have instructions to rely on - but I did have a guy in Italy running all over the countryside looking in people’s back yards for how their ovens were built so I was confident. 
)
This reminds me of my recent ceramics classes, where we would half-bury the pieces we didn’t want to take home out in the wooded area behind the studio. The graveyard. There are some pieces out there from those who went on to be celebrated ceramic artists.
I have a slab and the base built and the firebrick in dry, outside storage. I got stuck on finding refractory concrete (which is a little ironic as seven blocks away is a company that relines the furnaces and pipes of power plants and refineries with a slightly higher grade) and haven’t gotten back to it.
I just googled it. It may be more available than it once was.
I designed mine not to use refractory concrete. As you’ve found, it’s not too commonly available. I used a custom mortar mix of fireclay & mortar. The good thing is it has the same thermal coefficient as firebrick so it expands & contracts at the same rate which minimizes cracking and spalling.
James, if you are okay with it, I wouldn’t mind knowing what your custom mix was. I’m hoping to get back to this project soon (my boys complain almost daily, wanting the pizza oven I told them I was making). If you’re not, that’s okay too 
Me too. I helped build one entirely the old fashioned way, with firebrick only on the bottom, but I’m not sure that’s what I want for home.
If you Google “Jim Hatch pizza oven” you’ll find a link to a PDF with complete instructions, photos, etc. I did it about 15 years ago for FornoBravo and supported it for a few years directly. Since then a bunch of folks have taken responsibility for editing and updating it. I was getting emails from people all over the world with questions - it was like this forum
Nice 
thank you.
I did more research into the thermal properties of masonry and the composition of various materials (I had a whole treatise on firebrick up there) than anyone who isn’t in the trades really should. But I was trying to figure out what the trade-offs were between commonly available materials and the more specialized & even exotic ceramics.
Absolutely none of it used after that project But my oven still stands as do hundreds of others around the world. I’ve helped a few local folks build theirs too and it’s always fun driving by & seeing them standing in their yards 
That’s great! For the record, it turns out it was your PDF that inspired me to build a brick oven in the first place! hadn’t looked at it in a year or so, like I said, money went elsewhere and haven’t been able to start back…yet.
Well that’s cool. You can see my build in there as well as my son. The whole family left their handprints in the mortar coat I put around the dome. Someday when someone goes to take it apart they’ll find them.
Where are you? Maybe a road trip is in order to build yours out 
BTW, after I was done I did the math to figure out how to cut the bricks on 4 sides (vs single straight vertical cutoffs) so they all lock into place without mortar Each ring is different and it takes more bricks but it’d be a mortarless self supporting done.
Also, I redesigned the hearth on one I helped a friend build. The original has more thermal mass in the concrete later than needed. I created an “island” of thermal concrete under the actual oven footprint (42" circle) and used the perlite infused insulating concrete for the rest of the surrounding slab. When you restart yours, just ping me and I’ll give you pointers at least and a hand possibly.
And if you make your way up to Boston, I’m sure my cousin would be happy to show off his beast as well (now with Glowforge created signage)
Another benefit is the stink is high above the ground and dissipates quickly!
There is no “stink” from a wood fired pizza (or bread) oven!
god no, it smells heavenly, charcoal and baking pizza smells amazing… When I am walking up to the house I start salivating…
Haha, that was directed at the OP… 
The fireplace blows it out the roof so no worries about choking out the neighbors.
That would be fun, but I don’t know if the wife will approve a road trip from South Texas Connecticut 
Though I’ve never been there, I think DC is the farthest North-East I’ve made it thus far.
I’ll definitely try to pick your brain a little when the time comes. I’ve actually been hoping what I’m going to be doing with the Glowforge will create a little extra expendable income (though, more realistically it will probably go towards my oldest son’s college – He’ll be a senior this fall and it’s looking more and more like he’s decided to attend UT Austin, it’s killing his mother considering she’s a Sooner (OU) alumni 
and it’s killing me ever since I saw the price tag!)
Anyway, I’ll just say while I have the chance, thank’s for that PDF and all the information. One of these days I’ll be enjoying a nice brick over in large part because of your generosity!