Jon and Emily build a bed
I know I know, what am I thinking? The last time I was involved in construction of sleep furniture, my roommate and I ended up feeling like we were sailors because our beds swayed from side to side. It was... not the most solid construction. It appears I did not inherit my father’s knack for construction and being generally handy.
So what prompted me to rejoin the bed construction business? Well. In September I moved into a new house that was unfurnished. I had always lived in previously furnished places before, so this meant I had to purchase a bed. Because I am frugal and do not like wasting unnecessary money, I decided that a queen size mattress and box spring would do just fine. Why do you need a bed frame anyway? When I was little, my bed frame was paint cans(true story. And i used a freezer lid as a sled)! So, I didn’t buy a bed frame and continued to sleep on just my mattress and box spring.
Well, little did I know this was unacceptable behaviour for a grown adult woman, which I suppose I am now at the ripe old age of 24. I was informed this by my coworker and by the guy I’ve been dating, Jon. I had many debates with both of them about this, adamant that a bed frame is an unnecessary cosmetic feature of which I have no need. And then I decided to build one from scratch.
How did I go from vehemently denying my need for a bed frame to constructing one out of lumber from Home Depot? Well, one weekend Jon and I were brainstorming fun things we can do, and because he’s a bit of a handyman, he suggested we build a project. Somehow, the suggestion came up that the project could be a bed frame. For some reason, re-framing (ha!) the activity into a fun project seemed like a good idea. Buy some lumber and build a bed over the weekend? Why not!
Well, that was my first mistake- thinking that we could build a bed in an afternoon. That misconception was far from accurate. After rushing through Home Depot right before closing on a Sunday night to buy all the materials, we started planning the project. I don’t even remember if we actually cut wood that night, let alone made any progress on the bed frame.
Over the next few weeks, we turned Emily’s garage into a wood shop and continued to slowly work away at the bed, hand sawing boards, getting a Miter saw and cleaning them up, sanding, staining, cleaning impossibly sticky stain off of my hands, staining again... the entire project characterized by Jon saying we should do something to assure a high quality finished product and Emily thinking it’s unnecessary, Emily knocking things over and generally being uncareful and unaware, Jon sighing at Emily, and Emily generally having no idea what she is doing.
And then it came. Finally, it was the night to put it all together! Excited, we got to work and started to lay out the bed frame to see if everything fit together.
Everything seemed to fit, until... we realized our one measurement for the facing board was off. However, after Emily was done pouting, Jon figure out that we could still put it together and put on the finishing touches at a later date.
With a renewed vigor and the hope of Emily sleeping on her new bed that very night, we continued working... and working... and working... and eating pizza... and working... until 1:30 am. Emily groggily screwed in the final screws, and tada! It was finished. I now sleep a soaring 3 feet off the ground!
And that, my friends, is the story of my new bed frame. Completely unnecessary. But a fun project nonetheless :)