The Bed Frame pt. 2

Fall season is right around the corner which means recruitment and fund raising take priority over not having a bed. Fortunately today is a rather easy day so I managed to get a little further ahead. Right now I'm working out the kinks in how to build up the frame for my head board but for now I got the interior pieces done.


All the pieces have been cut and numbered, important since I'm building four different "window shutters" and I want them to each look a little different. Think rustic. Numbering and recording now means that when it comes time to put them together I won't be trying to figure out what goes where. Remember kids, Anthony Bourdain says "Prior preparation prevents piss poor performance."


Beginning to set up the head board. The space I'm working on is only about about 4 feet wide but each piece will be separated by about 3 inches.


A closer look at this "window shutter" design that I keep talking about.


All four pieces done, marked and ready for the rest of the frame. To cut down on the wood I'd need I've decided to go with a "floating" look meaning instead of nailing these boards to two pieces running perpendicular across the back side, as a real window shutter might have, the frame instead will hold them in place.

The Bed Frame pt. 1

I have a particular way that I want things to look especially if I'm going to spend money on them. Having sold my old bed - a single - a couple years ago to the nice family across the street and after several disappointing trips to furniture stores in an attempt to find a bed frame that I liked, I was pretty much ready to give up on getting exactly what I wanted and settle for whatever I could find at IKEA.

Long story short while reading up on Chris and Sonja's slow renovation of their house in Seattle, I stumbled upon a short entry about turning a door into a head board and decided that since I couldn't find a bed frame I liked, I'd build one. Ambitious yes. My friend Christie informed me that I need to make sure it was sturdy - good point - but I'd helped my step-dad build the deck at the house and it was still standing some 8 years later.
The first job was measuring my friend's queen sized bed frame to get a rough idea of what I should be looking for and then it was off to the antique stores to find something suitable. I hit this place first and while they had a massive selection of doors and pieces I could use the door alone would cost almost as much as a full frame from Sweden. However while wandering through the upstairs loft, I came across this.

Old window shutters. At $25 a piece they were a bargain compared to the door. However, the four I chose were coated with thick layers of white paint with blue starting to show below that. Having spent last summer remodeling my dad's old house and recalling how "fun" it was to strip old paint, sand, polish and then stain, I snapped a few pictures and headed to Home Depot.

And came up with this. Hemlock, cut to order, free of paint, hidden knots and ready to be finished. I ended up with more than I needed for less than $50 dollars. For some added character I made a strictly aesthetic choice and bought pieces of varying width to match the rustic look of the shutters found in Aurora.

The next task was measuring out the pieces and marking them for the saw. The head board - the first picture - will be made of four "window shutters" spaced about 3 inches apart for a grand total length of 64 inches and stand about 28 inches tall. Tomorrow I should be able to get the pieces cut down to size and then start assembling them.

The Truck

The old S-10, my first car that wasn't handed down to me. Despite the shortcomings - zero towing capacity, no passenger room, 2wd - she was a great little truck getting me through two years of college, a year in San Francisco with frequent short trips back to Portland and Eugene, two years in Oregon, a year in Washington - Seattle to Tacoma 7 days a week - and another year in Oregon before finally being force retired last summer.

Last summer on a trip back from Portland, she died. This was the third time the truck died on me though the first that did not leave me stranded during a freak heat wave or after a double shift at work. This time she thoughtfully died in the parking lot of a 7-11 leaving my friend and I plenty of opportunities to fill up on slurpees, sour ropes and bubble gum while waiting for the tow company.

After a quick "wanna do me a favor" phone call to the local Chevy dealer - you've got to love having connections - it was determined that the fuel pump failed. Again.

This is the source of all the trouble. Last time it failed I replaced it the "traditional" way meaning I unbolted the gas tank and dropped it out of the frame. 5 hours getting the tank out and back in; 20 minutes replacing the pump. This time I opted for removing the bed of the truck to gain access. 30 minutes and 8 bolts later, I'm staring the bugger in the face. Let's get started.

Instead of spending $500 dollars to replace the broken pump with a similar pump that would probably quit inside of another year - though conveniently after the warranty expires - my step-dad and I decided to mount an aftermarket pump to the frame and run the wiring through the old pump and bypass the broken part.

Finished product. We decided to re-route the hoses back along the frame to avoid getting near the exhaust system and then just for kicks installed a second fuel filter for a 1991 Mustang GT. We also recycled the broken fuel pump by pulling the fuel hose and running it down the outside of the canister. All in all a highly successful repair done for only $112 dollars vs. the $500 the dealer wanted.

And just for kicks since the bed was off I decided to replace the rear shocks. Pretty.

Welcome

The point of this blog is to cover pretty much anything and everything that has nothing to do with coaching. Mostly it will be about random projects and similar but there will also be a smattering - yes smattering - of insight and other such goodies.

Projects range from things around the place such as working on cars or building/repairing to cooking and anything else in between. As it's stated on my profile, coaches or some coaches have lives outside of the sports world and seeing that I'm one such coach lucky enough to have such, it's time to take advantage of that.

So again welcome and enjoy.