For the record, carpentry is hard! "Measure twice, cut once," right got that part. How about the part where all I'm trying to do is build a box and it feels like I'm putting together a life sized jigsaw puzzle? After a lot of time spent measuring and discussing structure, and several very poorly drawn plans I got too antsy and convinced dad to say "screw it" and just go to Home Depot.
I'm no engineer or architect so I'm sure my method of just winging it is frowned upon, but we bought several 2x4s and a sheet of plywood and took it from there. The process was something like: I measure, dad starts to make a cut, I panic and stop him because I think my measurement is wrong, we remeasure. Once I became more confident in my tape measure usage, things went pretty smoothly and I started to piece things together as dad finished cutting our lengths of 2x4s for the frame. I learned quickly that building is essentially a continuous practice in problem solving, so I went to my old fall back of trial and error; after more errors than success we figured it all out.
What we ended up with is a 4'x6 1/2' box frame with 2 length wise supports and 4 horizontal supports and a piece of 3/4" plywood across the top to create a platform. It's a rough start, but has a large area for gear storage and will eventually have a shelf beneath. Right now, function is king and, voila! I have a bed, I can sleep anywhere!
