Blast Off!

Just for the record, this is the second time I have written the text for this post.  Blogger decided to erase all of my "saved" text, so here we go again.  Last fall we were talking about getting a bunk bed for the boys as it was time to move Heidi to her own room.  Then, David started looking at ideas for making one.  As Thomas is in love with space shuttles he looked for a space shuttle bunk bed, but didn't find one.  He found a couple of single beds, but no bunk beds.  So, he decided it wouldn't be too hard to just design one himself.

This is what he came up with.  The design changed slightly of course as he went, but the basic outline stayed the same.  As you will see, the nose cone was the biggest improvement over the original plan.  At first it was just a dream and we didn't show the boys.  I was asking, "Can you really do this?", "How much will it cost?" and "Are you crazy?", but of course I thought it looked awesome and the boys would love it.  Then one day Thomas saw the plans, and we were committed.

So, we started figuring out how we could get enough money to do this.  We had an Indiegogo crowdfunding  campaign, collected all the change in our house and turned it into Home Depot credit, and did a lemonade stand.

Tons of friends and other really nice people came by and gave us tons of money for a little lemonade.  We are so grateful for all those who helped us.

We started by painting the room.  Thomas helped paint the asteroid belt and David did the planets.  All of the planets are there, in order (even Pluto, which Thomas insisted on).

Here is the work in progress. David did a great job!  You will understand the big white blob once you see the finished product.

Our astronauts posing.  Thomas made a glove out of paper, and he is "wearing" it here.  We finished their costumes by Halloween and they were astronauts for Halloween.  They even had real gloves.

Work began in the garage.  First on the fuel tank.  Our primer was tinted pink.  We told Thomas it was done, but he didn't like it that color. 

David built just a basic frame and then screwed the fuel tank pieces onto either side.  Then he made these booster rockets.  They slide open for extra storage.  Here they are just holding it up to see how it was going to look.

And Stuart has a bed!  They both slept there (or on the floor by the vent) for a while while we got the top ready.

Next was the base of the space shuttle, which you can see under the mattress.

And then, the body of the space shuttle.  At this point, David was holding it in place to see how it fit.

Painted and attached.

And the back.  Now it was ready for Thomas to sleep in as well.  There is a ladder on the back side (very similar to what you can see in the original plans).

Then, the awesome decals.  The lettering was provided by David's mom.  It is the Discovery because that is Thomas's favorite space shuttle.  David chuckled, though, when a recent visitor said, "This was quite the endeavor."

David made a clock out of cardboard, electrical tape, and silver/gold poster board. It is the Cassini space probe, which orbits Saturn.

Since the bed was fully functional at this point, work on it slowed down considerably.  Finally, though, David got around to the nose and the tail.  Now it really looks like a space shuttle.  Oh, and this is the last you'll see of that ceiling fan (for obvious reasons).  Also, in this picture you can see the fire coming out of the rockets, which explains the big white blob that was mentioned before.

 
Here are the boys in their jammies/costumes, in front of the almost-completed bed.  You can see the shelving on the front.  I already mentioned the sliding doors on the booster rockets.  There are also shelves above Thomas's bed, there is a hinged door on the nose cone, and a hinged door under the bed so that we can utilize that space for storage, too.

We finally got around to the finishing touches just before our Launch Party.  First, lights that come on to a timer every night at bedtime. (Oh, and notice the awesome moon that Uncle Robert gave us.)

And, the control panel.  It has "computer screen" (real looking printouts behind plexiglass), a couple of kinds of switches, and compasses.  Now we can control where we go!  A friend recently gave us an old video game flight stick, and Thomas enjoys playing with that, too, to steer the shuttle.

It was a lot of hard work and money, but it was worth it.  David loves making stuff for the kids.  They love their room and their bed!  We have really enjoyed working on this, and want to say thank you to everyone who lent us tools, supported the fundraising, or chimed in with ideas and suggestions.