More Bunk Beds

These turned out to be pretty interesting. I was contacted by the chairman of the deacons at my church about building some bunk beds for a mission that supported refugees. They had plans and a few people to help build, and just needed me to lead through the process. Ok, no problem, let's go!

I was not a huge fan of these plans. They were kind of confusing and didn't look like the finished product was going to be that stable, but in the end it makes sense. Build the ends, and some rails, then cut plywood for the base. We never did figure out the stairs to get up to the top bunk. But what we did take care of, made it back to the church for some middle schoolers to sand and stain.

Tripp and Wilson on the cut line

First we assembled the ends

Essentially we cut & notched out enough 2x4's to scrub together 4x4 posts with places to attach the rails, then built up 2x6's to connect the posts together.

Tripp caught me on the saw

Tripp and myself

Assembling the posts

Cutting plywood with Wilson

the stack of plywood and 2x2's for the rails

It only looks wonky because of the ground we assembled. Everything really is square

It's 3/4" plywood attached to 2x2 cleats on the 2x6 rails that actually support the body weight. That just doesn't feel as sturdy as the slats I've been using recently.

Overall this was a fun project, and a great time spent with friends. This refugee mission tries to get people as soon as they get into the country. I hope if someone spends their first night in the US on one of my beds that they can find comfort.

One other fun event happened again, I got to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity again with a team from work! Habitat events are the best way for me to spend my RE Cares days and a good way to bond with teammates.

Adding sill plate to wall framing

It's a good day for framing

This really makes me want to give more effort to charity.Really I want to start with the bunk beds. I've got the Etsy store up and going, and placed a Craigslist ad to sell custom bunk beds. For every $1500 in beds that I can sell, I'll build and donate a twin/twin bunk to some kind of charity. Might be this mission with the church, or a homeless shelter or something else entirely. This is going to be good. And if you can donate something, go out for a day with Habitat, you will not regret it.

Extra Curricular

Outside of our regular posts about the front porch project, I got in some extra fun stuff.

First, I got to volunteer for a day building houses for Habitat for Humanity again. I literally was breaking up some rocks in the hot sun like I fought the law. Eventually I got to build a shed roof over a little outside storage area with a couple of my coworkers and that was fantastic.

The new shed-style roof

It did get really hot, and I did talk about the porch a lot. Habitat is a great cause and I'm lucky that my company gives each employee 2 days a year to volunteer as we choose. I'll go back for another day in the fall.

There's a guy in that tree - cutting it down

Now that's a big stump

One of the things that has plagued the front yard is the large dead trees. We finally found a tree guy who could get those down for us. We had two red oaks and two pines (from one stump) taken down. They left the logs that were good enough in 12' lengths, I'm trying to find a portable sawmill to come cut them up into lumber for me. There are about 9 logs, mostly pine. The really dead parts of the trees aren't usable, but the rest should be ok. And these were four trees, about 70' tall. Should be a lot of lumber. But this isn't a very accessible part of town to bring large equipment so I'm having a hard time finding anyone to return my call.

Habitat

I love construction. Boatbuilding is great, furniture is a lot of fun, but residential construction has always been where it's at for me. Habitat for Humanity is an incredible organization. They provide housing for people in need, and to keep it affordable they build solid houses with volunteer labor and some donated materials.

My company is great. We get 2 days per year to go do volunteer work. And there is a guy who coordinates with Habitat to get crews from LexisNexis out there! It's a match made in heaven for me. I get to take a bunch of my developers out there and show them how to swing the hammer. This is fantastic!

Framing!

Part of the crew finding shade

My rockstar James

The tough part about this volunteer day was just the work we had to complete. Sheeting a roof isn't easy to begin with, but it was 102* outside that day. Full sun, no shade, no clouds, no breeze. They cut us loose about 2 pm because the heat absolutely put everyone under the waterline. It was easily 120* on top of that roof. it didn't play games. Still a great day and I'm grateful to be out there with some great people.