Post 31-Why the Swiss are after me...

First, and most importantly, Mom is doing a lot better, she's definitely going to live now, but for a while it was a little scary.  She's home recuperating nicely (if slower than she'd like) and I thank all the outstanding family and friends who all came out and helped during our most trying time of need.

Electrical and Insulation inspections are done, a bit ago but I'm just now getting around to posting.  The house is much warmer with the insulation in.  I had some electricians come out that were just great, the electrical codes and standards have changed dramatically since my (admittedly low level) electrical skills were used on a jobsite and there's no way I could have gotten through the inspection without their help.

I've got about 3 projects I want to do before I close up the walls, but we're about at that point.  I made a kind of "Murphy Bed" (significantly more on that below) as one project, but I also want to do a bit of (re) plumbing in one area, modify one side of a bench to accommodate a wood burning stove instead, and also tighten up my stairs a bit before I rock it in.  I have it on good authority that the kitchen is about to be renovated significantly as well, more on that later.  I like the Murphy bed design, and am trying to convince the boy to let me convert his suspended bed into a Murphy model like ours but he is liking it where it's at it seems like.

So, without further ado, here's a bunch of pictures:

Here are 3 pictures of what was probably the prettiest sunrise I've seen, at different levels of zoom and within a few minutes of each other.

Ok, so you're probably wanting to see my awesome "Murphy" type bed that inspired the odd posting title.  Ok, if you look closely in the below picture, you can see my "hinge" setup, which I though was rather clever.  The  "hinge" parts are made from common materials you can pick up at lowes for about $35-ish.  Cost of the bed frame will vary by material and grade of wood you use.  I got a little fancier than I needed to on a couple bits because it's a stain grade finish, and I spent just at @ $200 for the bed frame, the support frames, the hinge assembly, the bench, and the rolling chest/bench thingy.  You could probably do it for significantly less if you wanted to a paint grade finish, or more if you wanted to use a lot of fancy oak or something.  I intentionally used  lighter woods so it wouldn't weigh as much lifting and reclining it.  Here's how it went together in the various stages....

(Above: Note the bar at the bottom, and if you look closely you can see the inner bar sticking out on left.)

(Below: note the big long hinge on the back side and the wheels)

The rolling chest quintuples as a chest, portable bench, bed support, table, and half of the "Big giant comfy couch"/reading nook.  If you're an OCD space efficiency nut, re-read that and let it sink in.  IKEA is probably sending envoys to the Swiss right now to inform them of this design.  Just saying.

Note that the sides of the chest are still "open".  I'm going to match them with the benches when I put the fronts on the storage portion of them, so I haven't closed it in yet.  That bit will be paint grade, not stain grade.  There will be drawers that slide under the fixed bench/bed support at the head of the bed.

Below: Configuration for eating, or laying back with feet propped up watching tv.

(drawers will slide under the bench on the right)

The portable bench option, for entertaining...

and, seen below, down to sleep on, both bench and chest turn into supports.  If you look closely, you can see a canvas strap on the side of the bed there.  There are 2 of them, and a 1x4 at the head of the bed to form a lip to support the mattress and keep it from shifting when the bed is flipped up.  Neat, huh?! :) That's our <$200 murphy bed.  If you're seriously interested in doing one, I'll be happy to give you specifics and a quick blueprint sketched on whatever's nearby.  

I'll put up pictures of the "Big giant comfy couch"/reading nook later, and paste them here with some form of witty dialogue. 

NONE SHALL PASS!

 Ok, granted: It's a bit more Harry Potter-y than Gandalf-y, but still, we all thought the icicle was pretty cool.  Hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading!

More to come soon-ish.