Achievement

I finished building another elevated "loft" bed for a child.  This time I took a slower pace and had more assistance from children in sawing, gluing, and assembly. 

For some reason the 2x6 lumber that my husband bought for it earlier this month was of much better quality than the wood for the previous loft in the fall.  I don't exactly know the cost, but it was reasonable enough for a piece of furniture that is needed now and will be used for years and years to come, and possibly recycled into something else after that.

I made some improvements in loft-building workflow this time around.  It is important in my loft design to have accurately-drilled holes, especially where I have to drill into a 2x6 from each side and meet in the middle. I gave up trying to use our heavy-duty electric drills (discarded by an electrical contractor), and set up three hand-powered drills:  small bit in the eggbeater-type drill for a pilot hole, and then medium and large bits in two bit braces.  Tightening the bit braces is a Process, at least for me, that involves using large vise grips around the chuck, with an additional pair of pliers to tighten the vise grips just enough (without cracking the chuck). I try to avoid changing the bits in those.

So I was drilling each hole three times with three different drills, but each one was easy to do, aside from the largest (3/8") bit, which tends to dig in too quickly.  I often had to pull up on the bit brace while drilling downward.

When it was was all finished, I discovered that the box spring I intended to put up there was a few inches too long for it, so I had to dig around in the garage for a different support for the mattress.  The seat frame of our futon couch, which doesn't fit in this house, turned out to be a good size for the little Ikea mattress, which must be about a decade old by now.  On top of that I put a doubled memory foam mattress topper that had been handed down to us.