We built a thing

We were given a very nice/old bunk bed a while back, however it did not include a ladder. As such the top bunk has been a place used only for playing as even my daredevil doesn’t want to wake up and have to contend with figuring out how to scale the thing at night.

I came up with the idea of storage stairs about a foot high. I came up with it myself. Nobody ever has done this ever. I keed, I keed. We went to Home Depot, I had a general idea of how much wood was going to be required from a rough sketch, so we plunked down $20 on wood and got it home and did some maths.

Maggie figured out how to divide some numbers by 3 by drawing some circles and then putting a check in each one one by one. It wasn’t the fastest way to do it, but as they have not learned division and multiplication yet this was unexpected.

Assembly didn’t go quite as planned. We’d forgotten to factor in wood thickness. This hadn’t been an issue when we were looking at maybe half an inch thickness, but at 1.5 inches or so the thing ended up being 3 inches higher than we wanted and each step is 1.5 inches too high.

Oh well, we’re adding two mini stairs which will also add to the storage later.

ALong the way discovered the wood was warped. No, the piece that looks warped you’re looking at isn’t, that’s some weird photo issue, but there is some warping that I’m hoping the screws will correct.

There’s a tie at the top that prevents the stairs from separating from the bunk bed. It’s just a tie, so no drilling. I tested it to a little over 100 pounds straight out pressure and it didn’t budge.

We’re not using it yet. It can support weight, but I’m putting in a backing to prevent any wobble and a rail of some sort. It also just has to be painted purple before use.