kellan_the_tabby | tyrava: bed platform (Reply)

[ Tyrava, seen from the side, takes up part of the driveway; parked next to her, and a little ahead, is a vardo perhaps half her length, green with blue trim, with two windows on the side. ]

Not long after I got back from Colorado, I had a visitor, & so did Tyrava!

My friend Sarah showed up with her wagon house for a couple days at the beginning of her massive road trip. It was really cool getting to see her setup, & we couldn’t resist getting a couple photos of the two vardos together.

Once she got back on the road, though, I had to get to work.

One big upside of the trip to Colorado was that I got a MUCH better idea of how I’m going to lay out Tyrava’s interior & also learned that if I’m going to be living in her, I need to get a lot of that done. & I am gonna be living in her for a while — it’s looking like we’ll probably have the land before I have to leave here, but the chances that we’ll have a building up before this place is sold? AHAHAHAHA no

… but I have power tools & a lotta pallet wood, & I’m not afraid to use em.

I’ve known since Tyrava was nothing more than an Inkscape sketch that the bed platform would be across the back, & since there’s a LOT of storage involved in the bed platform, that was the obvious place to start. I bought some plywood & cut it to the right size, then stuck it across the back so I had space to bang together 2×4 pieces to hold it up with.

[ Two pieces of plywood, each three feet wide, both together almost eight feet long, lay across Tyrava’s back wall. ]

If you use enough crappy formerly-pallet 2x4s, it doesn’t matter that they’re old & crappy, & given that a brand new 2×4 costs EIGHT BUCKS these days, hell YEAH I used old crappy formerly-pallet 2x4s.

[ Four old crappy hunks of 2×4, each about three feet long, lay on a table outside, on top of two more 2x4s, these maybe six feet long. ]

Clamps! Glue! Then, screw! Also putting it together right on top of the plywood was awesome, I could be REALLY sure everything was the right size.

{one length of 2×4 runs along the wall; the other encounters it at a right angle. They’re held in place with another short hunk of 2×4, which is held in place with a clamp. ]

Got the frame all put together, got the back & sides screwed to the wall & put a couple legs on the front side, & stuck one of the pieces of plywood on it, so I could jump up & down on it to make sure.

[ The bed platform stretches along Tyrava’s back wall, and extends about three feet out. It looks extremely sturdy. ]

Et voila, bed platform!

[ Thick plywood covers the whole bed platform now. There’s plenty of room underneath it, with a couple of boxes already taking up some of the space. ]

Check out all the storage space underneath — eventually there’ll be doors across there, but for now I can bungee things into place. That’ll probably hold ALL my show stock, even the backstock, & my shipping stuff. So much more room! The platform’s wider than the one I use in the van, too. I’ve even taken a nap there already!

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