Ever since we moved to Gburg and I was pregnant with Evie in 2007, I have struggled with insomnia. I have good nights and bad nights - sadly it's a chronic thing. Trips especially mess me up, as does pregnancy. I had a good sleeping record with Samuel's pregnancy, but not with Ezra or Evie. When Ezra was born things improved but September was a particular struggle for me. I was having a especially bad night when I just became fed up and decided something had to change. The bed simply had to go.
Terry and I have had the same bed since we got married 10 years ago. And Terry had it from before that time. And before he had that mattress, he had the bed frame. Terry's parents originally had this waterbed frame from the time Terry was a young boy. At some point, when he was still little, they gave it to him, with a queen size mattress inside of it. Terry worked out the math, approximately, and he had been sleeping on that bed frame for about 25 years!!!
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| the waterbed frame |
It was one solid piece of workmanship, that is for sure. Here you can see the headboard a little better. And look at little orange baby Borg Samuel! AWWWW! And little Evie and Noah! Geesh.
So yeah, I pretty much convinced Terry it was high time for a new bed. I only wished we had done it sooner - like the last three times I was pregnant and had such a difficult time on that hard bed. Plus, he had crazy bad back pain and we were pretty sure the bed had something to do with it.
We finally made up our minds about this investment, went shopping and purchased a new bed (that's when Samuel sliced his finger). At the very same time we were randomly able to sell our old bed as well! Terry likes to browse the facebook classified page for our area. Someone was looking for a queen size mattress and Terry said we had one. She visited that night or the following, committed to buying it and came and picked it up the very next night. She even paid us! Hehehe. Thank you Lord!
Since our old bed was gone and our new one wouldn't arrive for a week, Terry and I slept in the dungeon on our big couch. It wasn't so bad. It was better than the old bed!
And then that glorious day dawned and our new bed arrived. Yay!
It has proven to be a good bed and we are happy with it. I was even happy with it on the floor but we didn't want to leave it there forever. So, the weekend before the Fall Retreat Terry got to work making a homemade storage platform. He only spent three hours at Menards making up his mind about lumber...
Here is Terry and Gumby's wife (or maybe Elastigirl?) going over the Ana White plans (look at my weird bendable arms!).
Ana White. Back to Ana White. Ana White is awesome. I seriously want to make everything on her site. It could be our secondary stream of income. Ana White is what my brother and I used to make our school table.
Before we ever bought or sold a bed, I did a lot of research into what we were going to do. Spend $2000 for a new bed frame? I think NOT. That's where Ana White comes in. Make it yourself! She gives you the plans! Totally awesome. Here are the plans we used. I'm planning on submitting my own brag post :)
That weekend was just gorgeous. It was perfect for working in the garage. And that's what we did for approximately 24 hours. After Terry bought the lumber on Friday, he continued late into the night making the end storage bench. Actually, this part didn't take him that long.
It was the confounded drawers that took so long!
But in the end, by like 11pm that night, he finally finished them. But he wasn't happy with them. He didn't sleep very well b/c he was calculating how to improve them the next day.
And improve them he did. Drawers are picky. They have to be extremely square and accurate. So Terry stepped up his game. Here he is making the next to two side storage benches.
By that night, Terry had come a long way!
In the original plans, the side benches do not have drawers. But Terry wanted to add some since he figured out how to improve upon his first attempt. So that's what we did.
His last project for the night was constructing that support thingy in the middle. In the plans you're supposed to screw it into place. But Terry screwed little boards under it so that the support itself could just set on top and not have to be screwed in and out if ever we have to move our bed (fingers crossed that we never have to).
The following day, Sunday, was supposed to be the easiest day, and perhaps it was, but he still worked for about eight hours. He cut all the nice trim boards and nailed them down to finish it off.
Oh yeah!
He did it! My husband is awesome!
So then it was my turn. I am in charge of finishing finishes. But I could not make up my mind! I really like the Weathered Oak but also the white stain we used on the trim in our dungeon.
In the end I went with the Weathered Oak b/c we already had a white duvet and I didn't want to overdo it on white. Plus, I just really liked the Weathered Oak. Once I made up my mind, staining was easy peasy.
After two coats of polyurethane we bought the bad boy upstairs to our room. It's a monster!
See how the boards go over that support so it's all one clean level area?
And...BAM! It's done!
I love the Weathered Oak, especially with the white duvet. And I love those drawers. I still have to put stuff in them though... That's another project.
Yay for our new bed!
Go Terry and Eva :D
