minorthird

so…this will definately go into the list of “projects around the house that I won’t have in common with just about anyone”:

When we moved in we noticed, to our surprize and dismay, that our queen size box spring (why “box spring”? There are no springs) would not fit into the stairwell, and would not be making the trip to the second floor or our bedroom. We tried jamming it, squeezing it, flexing it; my father-in-law pushed so hard some molding broke.

My mom said that a woman that she works with had the same problem and had to cut the end boards and then rebrace them. That seemed like the only way.

The box spring has been sitting on our porch for over a month, and had to be moved to our front hallway to make room for the christmas tree. The cats have been loving using it as a scratching post, and our female cat will run right up to the top — it wasn’t completely flush on the wall, so everytime she does that: BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM.

But not anymore…

I decided last night that I was going to make the cuts. I brought my sawhorses down and set up the box spring on them. I was about halfway through removing the 400 staples (just on one end!) when it dawned on me: I don’t really want to cut this. I’m sure I’d do a great job bracing it, but I’d know it was cut and I’d always think about it. So, I decided that instead of cutting it, I was disassemble the entire thing, move each piece upstairs, and then reassemble it.

It took me about an hour to get the staples out — I figured that since we’re not getting rid of it, might as well not rip it all up. The support slats (cheap 1×3s) came out pretty easily, and the box (cheap 2×4s) did too. The entire thing was held together with 3″ staples — the hardest part was removing those from the old boards. I moved everything up into the still-under-construction master bedroom, and began the reassembly process.

Instead of staples, I used 2″ drywall screws, and I added a 1/4″ sheet of plywood on top of the support slats for more strength.

Tonight I’ll do the reupholstery, and we should be sleeping high above the floor.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 16th, 2003 at 4:02 pm and is filed under the joys of homeownership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.