4 shelf book case

This is obviously a four shelf book case, it is ready for me to stain it puritan pine. The back is not on it yet, it gets stained before it is put on. Also on this order are two dressers. I will post pictures of them later. I don't have the prices in front of me right now but the total for the shelf and two dressers is $630 and they are all stained. So a pretty good deal I think.

Note to self...

Do not be so cheap when buying gloves for staining, the off brand is not as good as the name brand. The ones that cost half as much are not just as good. Go all out splurge spend twice as much, it is worth not having your cuticles red mahogany for weeks.

Ciera twin over full

So here is how it turned out all finished and put together. We love it, and the customer loved it too. So what more could we ask? This is the coolest ladder we have done so far. It turned out great.

So the official information is that this is a Ciera tin over full with two drawers underneath. This set can come apart and be separate beds. The finish is called red mahogany. If you want this bed or you have any questions send us an email at fhlunsford@msn.com

We do not sell mattresses, (they are the customers) this is what you would actually buy from us
with the slats you can use normal mattresses without a foundation.

staining ciera twin over full

This is the part that I love, my husband does such beautiful work, but when you add the finishing touch and see what it is going to be that is amazing. We had a little trouble getting the color right and I am hopping we got it right. The color that our customer wanted we could not find. We are really liking how it is turning out, we hope the customer agrees with us. Well I must get back to work, I have to make the whole bed this color!

Ciera twin over full

I am calling this our Ciera style twin over full, it is a special order but then everything we do is so I should say that our customer gave us the design instead of choosing one we already have made in the past. Which is cool. It is solid on the bottom because it is going to have two drawers on the bottom and this well keep you from seeing them from the front and back.

The other side looks just the same to cover the same drawers.

Another cool thing about our customer's design is that these beds come apart. So if they ever want a full bed that will basically be a captains bed, and a twin they just take them apart and there they go. Next step is stain which is going to be dark cherry.

Something a little different

This is a bed that we have given to our kids. It was a special order that never really got further than us building it, the part where we deliver it and get paid did not happen. So in the lemonade from lemons tradition our two youngest boys got a new bed. The bed was ordered as a triple bunk bed, but we set it up as a double loft. This is the little hole that the one on the lower bunk climbs through to get into his bed, he thinks that is very cool

The space underneath is really just enough for them to play, they have already hung a sheet to make a little cave. We think that we might build a dresser to fit under there, maybe with a shelf under for their shoes. You could also order it with shelves. The possibilities seem endless. We sell this bed for $295 unfinished and $325 with stain or paint.

I forgot to take the picture

We have finished headboards for the twin over full bed we are building but I forgot to take the picture. Knowing that there are giant spiders out there (see our night life) I am not going out there by myself to take one in the dark. It will just have to wait untill tomarow. Sorry

The theme for this week is...

This week will have a theme and it will be, unusual bunk beds. We are building two things this week that we don't do very often. First is a set of bunk beds that will use crib mattreses. It will be our Ciera style and it will be stained. As a side note this bed is my trading plan in action! (see let's make a deal) We are trading it for windows for our house that we are building. Very cool for us and I think very cool for our customer as well.

Also we are going to build a twin over full set. This set will be more fancy than the one we have built before, not exactly our Ciera style but more like it.

In the mean time here is a little James style loft that we built last week, it didn't get on here because I was focusing on the Captains bed.

Completed Captains bed

Our wonderful customer let us take some pictures after the bed was set up in her son's room. We never would have gotten such good pictures if she hadn't so a big thank you to her. We were very happy with how it turned out and we were very glad that the customer agreed with us. When the customer is happy and we are happy and we get some pictures to boot then the day is just about perfect.

I loaded this one twice it is not your imagination.

A few technical notes, this is a full size captains bed. The color is ebony and it has twelve drawers. The mattress is not included it was theirs. We do not usually include the handles on the drawers. We feel like that is something that you might like to pick out yourself to match your decor. There are so many really cool options out there we don't want you to feel limited by our choice. We do predrill the drawer fronts so that all you need to put them on is a screwdriver. If you are interested in buying this bed, or something similar just send us an email at fhlunsford@msn.com. We can talk price and we love to hear your ideas.

Drawers

I am not awake yet because I loaded these pictures in reverse order, so you will have to start at the bottom and work your way up. Sorry to make you think in reverse but I am not smart enough to change it. The advantage of this plan is that the bottom is not likely to come off and then you can't open the drawer and all you can really do is completely break the stupid thing to get it out. We have all been there and it is no fun. So my advise is whenever you are buying something with drawers weather it is in a furniture store or at a flea market always pull the drawer out and look at the bottom, if a thin piece of wood is stapled to the bottom then just put it back and say "No thank you".

And then slip the drawer bottom into the groove. Everything is stapled together and then you end up with a pile of drawers.

We put glue into the grove

So this is how we make drawers, first our way is not the best way. Ideally the ends would be dove tailed but we do not have the tool for that. We want it but somehow the things we need end up taking all the money. Notice in this picture the groove in both of the boards.

Things that make me smile

For anyone who ever feels like their life is dull or boring I highly recommend having four kids. This is the kind of little smile in my day I did not get before I had them. Yesterday when I got up and went to put on my boots this is what I found inside. I do not know which of them was hiding this treasure from the others but it made me start the day with a smile, who could ask for anything more.

Done staining the Captains bed

We are loving it, we hope our customer will as well. They had mentioned painting it black and we talked them into staining instead (the price is the same either way, we just thought that it would look better and last better stained). Whenever you change some one's mind you hope they do not regret the decision. We really like it though. It is ebony and we like the way the grain of the wood is showing through. This is the head and foot board and the parts in front of them are the base of the bed where the drawers will slide into. All of the drawer fronts are also stained, and a piece of plywood that will be the back of the headboard but they were not in a good place to take a picture. The weather was not good today so I had to stain in the house. Our house is small so that means major moving things around. We are wall to wall captains bed right now.

I love it when we get to the part where I get to stain. I love color and you never really know what you will get when you wipe off the stain. Each peice of wood can take the stain so differently, even when they are the same kind of wood and they looked the same before you put the stain on. It is an amazing process that I really enjoy.

Speaking of the way wood takes stain, we did not like the way the wood in the middle of our tests took the stain last night so we changed it. This is the value of doing tests! By the way we have some of this stain left over so if you love the color and you want your order this color just let us know. The clear coat still has to be put on tomarrow and that will darken it up a little and make it shinney.

More Captains bed, comming along

Well we have a little more to show off tonight. We pretty much have everything cut out and sanded, we just have to do the final assembly and the staining. Which brings me to this picture, these are some samples that we did for the stain. Sometimes you have to combine more than one kind of wood and then we need to make sure that they will take the stain in a similar way. And also we just really wanted to see how the stain was going to look. Here is my hubby in action, he is putting together the headboard.

And then ta da, the headboard. It looks much better than in the picture.

And then just one more, the smallest of our chickens just don't always get it, you can probably tell that the sun is going down and the big chickens are roosting inside the chicken coop, but the little ones are roosting on the board that props open the door to the chicken coop. They just crack me up.

Captains bed is comming along

After working on it all day I'm not sure if the pictures will be any more exciting to look at than the pile of wood from this morning, but we did get a lot done and we are happy with how it is going. These are the pieces for the drawers, the long ones are sides and the short ones are the front and back. These are the frames where the drawers will slide in and out, this is the part that will get stained and will actually show. That is my hand.

There they are all sanded, but I think that they make more sense in the above picture standing up.

These are the inner frames that you will not see once the bed is set up.

I just think that these little ones are cute!

If this happens to be your bed and you would like pictures of it in the works, feel free to download them. If this or any other bed on our blog is not your bed, but you have looked at the pictures and have thought to yourself "I could do this myself", but you would like to have some of the pictures as a reference, please feel free to download them. We are happy to share, and if you should happen to have any questions you don't have to be shy, just ask. What we do is no big secret, and we will gladly help you if we can.

Tomorrow we should have the bed put together, I will try to remember to take some pictures before we start to stain it. The stain is going to be ebony which is really black. I think it will look really good and since it is for a teenage boy it will be great. But I want to put up some pictures of just the wood as well.

This week, captains bed

So this week will be all about the captains bed. We have some other things to build as well and they might just show up on here also. But the main focus of the blog this week will be the captains bed. This is the beginning of the project, as usual it starts with a pile of wood. By this evening it should be a little more interesting to look at. The hope is that by Thursday this will be a full size captains bed with drawers underneath and it will be stained ebony. So check back and see how it goes.

Let's make a deal

We understand that times are hard and that money is very tight for all of us. That is actually what led us in this direction in the first place. My husband has worked in construction since he was in high school but there is just not a lot of work to be had in his field lately, especially in such a small area as we live in so we shifted gears and put the tools to work and we get by, and we have really discovered something we enjoy doing together. That being said we realize that most of the people who come across us are probably just like us, families just trying to get by and that beds for our kids are not a luxury item, they are something we all really need. From time to time we are willing to work out a trade. If you have something we need and we have something you need why not just do some swapping. Don't get me wrong we have nothing against good old cash but here are a few things we do need or would be willing to make a trade for, if you have them but not the cash let us know the worst that can happen is we say no right. We could use a washing machine, a lawn mower and just about any kind of construction materials. We are building a home without a bank loan so if you have doors, windows, siding etc. etc. sitting around taking up room in your garage and you need a bed let us know we will give thought to any offer. You can always send us an email at fhlunsford@msn.com and make an offer, like I said the worst that will happen is we wont want to make the trade.

Short Jeffery, as promised

These are some of the little hooligans that we have to guard against every time we are working outside. I know they look little and cute and harmless but it is amazing how badly they want to get on top of anything we set up outside,them and their full grown relatives. They will not be around at all until you have a bed set up to paint or take pictures and then all of a sudden they are everywhere just lurking around waiting for you to forget about them and then up they go. It is really great on fresh paint. So here are some pictures of the short Jeffery sort of set up. The bolts are not tight so if it looks a little wibbly wobbly it is, but it would not be set up on a flat surface with the bolts tight.

The only thing missing from these pictures is the bed slats, we include them with every bed and they make it so you can use a regular mattress instead of those special bunk bed mattresses. We already had them bundled up and wrapped in plastic wrap and once you get those things loose they are a pain to put back into neat packaging.

> With this (Jeffery) style of bed the ends are interchangeable, meaning that you can put the head or foot at any place in your room and the bed will go together just fine. The same is true of the Ciera but with the James you need to tell us which end you want the ladder at.

And isn't it a cute little ladder? Again this bed is 46 inches from the ground to the bottom of the bed rail. Standard is 56. We can make just about any adjustment that you need in the height at no exta charge. Which nicely leads to the price of this little beuty. As it sits unfinished it is $215 and if you want us to paint or stain it it would be $270.

Small acomplishments

Today we have gone over 1,000 hits on our blog. I know that really is not a big deal but what can I say I am easily impressed. Imagine a one year old surrounded by toys staring at their own hand like it is the most amazing thing in the room and that is me only grown up. So just wanted to say thanks for looking, and reading. Hopefully you are finding answers to some of your questions here, if not ask we love questions. Feel free to let us know what you like, what you don't. I am still planning to get more pictures of the little Jeffery bed up today, I am just waiting on hubby to get home.

It's cute right

So here it is, this is the foot board where the ladder goes. I will try to get some better pictures tomorrow. It is cute I think. The bed will sit 46 inches off the ground. I was hopping to get some decent pictures today but it is always something, today it was that we were out of dowel, so we had to go to town to get more, which is no small trip for us and we ran out of time to get pictures. So this is all you get for tonight.

Short Jeffery update.

I don't have any pictures to show you yet, partly because Freddy has the camera and partly because the only thing I could take a picture of is a two piles of wood. And I think I have probably posted enough pictures of piles of wood. But they do represent many steps closer to pictures. All of the wood has been through the planner and some of the wood, namely all of the pieces for the head and foot boards have been cut to length and sanded. So tomorrow afternoon Freddy will put them together and then I will have something to take a picture of. And he will be here with the camera so I will have a camera to take the picture with. So if you are waiting to see the short Jeffery, just come back tomorrow afternoon and they will be up.

What is to come

Our delivery for this week was postponed due to house repairs (theirs not ours) which is totally cool. We understand life happens to us as well. So there will not be any new pictures this week. But here is what we have coming up. Next week we are delivering a short Jeffery style. We are excited about this one the little ones look so cute. For me it is similar to my reaction to baby shoes, I can not walk past them in the store without stopping to look, they are just so cute just like big people shoes only tiny. The short little beds are like that for me I just love them. This is a picture of one we did in the Ciera style, I may have already posted it but if so it has been a while.

It's cute right?

Also we have some other new things coming up we are finally going to do a captains bed. It is something we have been wanting to do since we started out but we have always been too busy to play with it. It will be a full size and we are going to stain it ebony. I can't wait! I do the staining and I love seeing what the color is going to be. It can vary so much depending on the wood and how you sand and how long you leave it. So looking foreword to a new color to play with. Also we are doing a more fancy twin over full with drawers underneath and a really cool ladder. Again it is a new color for us we will stain it a dark cherry. So if you have been thinking about any of these things but you wanted to see a picture first keep checking back we will have them up as soon as possible.