Scarlett's Loft Bed

For some reason, I decided it would be a good idea to build Scarlett a loft bed. Four factors were happening to cause this.
1. Scarlett is getting too big to fit in a toddler bed.
2. We are trying to potty train Felicity, and she never was very good at climbing out of her crib (Scarlett got her out).
3. We have a new baby coming, so we have to get Felicity into the toddler bed, which means Scarlett needs a new one.
4. Scarlett really wanted a bunk bed, but Kristen was worried about ladders combined with darkness combined with kids, so the ones available weren't great. Also, I built our headboard, so how much harder could a whole bed be?

This took way longer than I thought it would, mostly because I used crappy wood (since I was planning to paint it, and wanted to not spend a zillion dollars on it). Said wood had a lot of twists and bends to it. Not having a planer or a jointer, that left me to learn how to use a hand planer I got at a garage sale. Spoiler alert: it isn't super great for furniture. Long story short, it took a while to get the wood how I wanted it (and it's still not quite how I wanted it). Oh, and have I mentioned I hate sanding?

Anyhow, I found some plans online, modified them, and built the bed. For the stairs, I made my own plans based on similar stairs I'd seen. I built it mostly with 2x4's and 2x6's. I also used 2x2's for the cleats, and 1x2's and 1x4's for the slats and railing on the stairs. The railing isn't painted, because it was done really quickly, and I'll probably replace it with 2x2's later (more sturdy).

Let me know what you think!

I originally wanted to make this easier to take apart, so I drilled holes, bought bolts, etc. Because of the twisted nature of my wood, that wasn't happening, so I abandoned the attempt and filled in the holes. This was the first pass - I filled in smooth and no one can tell now.

Partially assembled (upside down). Kristen helped me get the pieces in the right spots

I later realized that some of the pieces were off significantly, so I had to take them apart and re-attach.

All put together

I painted it fully assembled, let it dry, then disassembled for moving up to the girls' room.

Here it is all painted

I cut slats out of 1x2 and 1x4 wood to support the mattress, then screwed them into the cleats.

Here are the stairs with Felicity for reference. I actually painted these before assembling.
The stairs were made to have nice storage areas underneath.

A shot of the stairs (you might see an unpainted spot at the bottom - I messed up and put the
bottom brace on the front instead of the back, so I had to switch it. I'll do touch-up paint later.

Here is the bed fully assembled with stairs

With kids :)

Car Posts

I have purchased four used cars in the past two years. You might say I'm getting to be an expert on it. That's what my cousin thinks when I help her with used car buying, anyway. I look at cars as a vehicle to get from point A to point B, so I don't tend to care how pretty they look (i.e. the golf-ball sized hail dents in my Subaru Impreza Outback). I also tend to be cheap, so I buy older (but relatively reliable) cars. If I can get a car for fairly inexpensive, and only need to do simple maintenance/repairs on it, it more than pays for itself.

For example, I purchased my Malibu Maxx almost two years ago for $2000. The purchase price of that (so far) is $83/month. Aside from standard maintenance (oil changes), I've had to replace the brakes and rotors on it, the headlights, and the struts. I did all of the replacements myself, buying OEM or better quality parts (better than I probably would have gotten at a shop), with a total cost for all three of $538.66. That brings my total cost for the car up to $106/month. Not a bad deal, considering the average cost for a lease or car loan these days.

As I mentioned, with buying older cars, I've started to teach myself how to fix things, using online forums and YouTube videos. I've drained and filled a transmission, replaced brake pads and rotors, changed differential oil, replaced brake light and headlight assemblies, fixed a brake light switch and an in-vehicle entertainment system, fixed a moon roof roller blind, and just this weekend swapped out strut assemblies. As a result of all this knowledge I've tapped into, I wanted to give back a little bit, so with a couple of my recent repairs, I took some time to make some "how-to" videos as well. Hopefully others will benefit from my experience.

2005 Chrysler Town & Country Brake Replacement

2005 Malibu Maxx Strut Assembly Replacement