You know you want to see pictures

So, last week I had this brilliant idea to redo part of the playroom.  (The boys weren’t cooperating with having their bedrooms redone, so I had to move on).  As I stood there looking at the space, I became frustrated by the tall ceilings.  Yeah, I know, poor Dawn, she has 12 foot ceilings in her kids’ playroom, wah, wah, wah!!.  Well, first of all, it was not intended to be a playroom when we built the place – it was to be my library – floor to ceiling shelves, with the library rolling ladders and everything.  Second, oh, be quiet you!

Anyway, where was I? Oh, yes, frustrated by tall ceilings…

…taking some inspiration from back to college ads, I thought to myself ‘Hey, we could totally build a loft in here…not a bed loft, but just a loft to play on!’ Off I went to scour the internet for further inspiration.  Sadly, further inspiration was a bit on the lacking side, until I came across THIS site where a father had built his daughter a little loft to play on.  Suddenly, I was inspired!

Using the plans he provided and his lovely picture, I was able to (eventually) come up with a basic plan.  Problem was, I had no idea what I needed as far as boards and fasteners and the like.  So the boys and I went on a mission.  We went to Home Depot, intent on getting at least a materials list, but hoping more for someone to use their magic computer to give us plans, directions and materials.  Yeah…not so much.  Although I have to say, coming up with a comprehensive materials list from my rough drawing and a picture from the internet? Pretty impressive!

The materials were delivered Friday morning by a very friendly dude and his little forklift. The boys got a huge kick out of that! Unfortunately, the boys and I were the design / shopping portion of the project; Mike was implementation, so we had to wait for him to get home from work.

Our progress was pretty impressive – 4 partial days of work and done! I’m thinking if we could have worked on it all day it would have taken maybe 1.5 days total. There are still my final touches that need to be done – a few more shelves, a board in front of the window and new stairs (turns out ours are a wee bit too steep).  Plus, I need to put all of the things that we took out of the playroom to make room to build back in (or not!). The boys are loving it so far and I think it was definitely the way to go.

Before

Who needs to build?

Matt as contractor

Painting the frame

Mostly done (Preston up top)

Different view

Once it’s finished completely, I’ll get some better pictures up! (And without the glare of the window!)