The Bunk is Done,

  Later today the Swedish family arrive and the little girls get to sleep in their own beds. I completed their bunks on Saturday but was too tired, and busy to write the blog then. Yesterday was filled with church music and house cleaning so now the blog.

  I have not taken a bunch of photos of me measuring and cutting boards, that makes for better video than written blog.

   I do have a few photos to show the unique features of these bunk beds and why I needed to build them rather than buy them.

  

  You can see the bunk bed is in our guest room that already has a queen sized bed in it, so floor space is in short supply.  These beds are narrow, the mattresses are only 30 inches wide and 72 inches long.  The mattresses are plenty big enough for two little girls and will be big enough for a few years of use.  By the time they are too big for this bed they won't want to sleep with their parents anyway.  The narrow mattresses meant that the bunk bed had to be a custom size.  Also the bottom bunk is a bit higher off the floor than usual, so the youngest can see Mom and Dad in bed easily.  You can also see that the bottom bunk  is high enough that suitcases will fit there out of the way. 

  

  I built the two end sections and the mattress platforms in my shop in the basement and then moved the four sections into the room ( two floors up) and begin screwing the pieces together. There were many trips up and down the stairs measuring and cutting etc. Since the bed is a narrow and a bit tall I wanted it to be very sturdy and stable. My heart would break if something I built lead to a grand kids getting hurt so this is over engineered.( my heart breaks when any thing bad happens to any kids, relations or strangers.) The long side braces made the beds  perfectly solid but I added four steel angle brackets under the upper platform to eliminate all possible wiggle. 

  The basic plan is for this bed to be used for a couple of years and then taken apart,  so it is held together with screws alone.  The ladder is held on with three screws that can be taken out and the ladder put up out of the way when the beds aren't in use. 

  Another feature, borrowed freely from IKEA. The top back rail is affixed with a nylon loop to the wall. I made these beds so that two fun little girls could both climb on the same side and the bed can not fall over.  

  When you look at this project you see a labour of love.  I want the little girls to have their own beds at Oma and Opa's house in the same way that their cousins have their beds down stairs.  I feel very strongly that all people need to know there are places that theirs and where will always belong. 

cheers, and Merry Christmas

Ianw