Ok, I'll admit it, I like to think/plan/dream about things that are a
long way off, but anyway...
I've been thinking about what I want to build on the family "farm" in
a few years, as the current house on it should just be leveled and
started over from scratch. (* - see below for more rambling about
this...)
I plan on building a house with the number of bedrooms I expect to
actually be used, by then hopefully I'll know how many kids rooms will
be necessary. I hate the thought of an exclusive guest bedroom as it
seems to be a very inefficient use of space considering how little use
they typically get. So, my present thought to deal with that problem
is to build a murphy bed in the middle of 2 built in bookshelves and
use the room primarily as a den/library. But, it would give guests a
private room, and I'm assuming that a murphy bed would be much more
comfortable then a pull-out sofa. Plus, murphy beds are pretty
uncommon and would give the room that unique "cool!" feeling. Maybe?
Anyway, my question is, "Am I overlooking something?" Are there any
pitfalls or cautions I need to be aware of with regards to a murphy
bed?
*OT rambling about the current house. It's been there forever, and is
in pretty good condition. However, it's grown over the years, and
redoing the room layout would be a real pain or impossible because of
load-bearing walls in awkward locations, etc. The sills in the
basement have quite a bow in them now, all of the electrical needs to
be updated, etc etc etc. I think, and my father agrees, that it would
be best just to level it and start over. However, what I'd like to do
in order to preserve some sense of history, is to save a lot of the
framing materials etc and use that wood for built-in projects for the
new house. That way I could at least say "Well, that bookcase there
was one of 150 year old sills from the original house."
On 23 Dec 2003 18:18:13 -0800, [email protected] (Mike Clark)
wrote:
>Ok, I'll admit it, I like to think/plan/dream about things that are a
>long way off, but anyway...
>
>I've been thinking about what I want to build on the family "farm" in
>a few years, as the current house on it should just be leveled and
>started over from scratch. (* - see below for more rambling about
>this...)
>
>I plan on building a house with the number of bedrooms I expect to
>actually be used, by then hopefully I'll know how many kids rooms will
>be necessary. I hate the thought of an exclusive guest bedroom as it
>seems to be a very inefficient use of space considering how little use
>they typically get. So, my present thought to deal with that problem
>is to build a murphy bed in the middle of 2 built in bookshelves and
>use the room primarily as a den/library. But, it would give guests a
>private room, and I'm assuming that a murphy bed would be much more
>comfortable then a pull-out sofa. Plus, murphy beds are pretty
>uncommon and would give the room that unique "cool!" feeling. Maybe?
>
>Anyway, my question is, "Am I overlooking something?" Are there any
>pitfalls or cautions I need to be aware of with regards to a murphy
>bed?
>
Works fine. I stayed at a resort in Sedona, AZ a few years ago and my
room had a Murphy bed. I liked it enough that we now have one in our
living room, and a big joiners bench took the place of the bed in our
former bedroom. (1-bedroom city apt.)
When it is down, it is a normal bedframe that holds whatever standard
mattress you want, so it is no different from a normal bed. There is a
strap that buckles across to hold pilows and the mattress in place
when you fold it.
>
>*OT rambling about the current house. It's been there forever, and is
>in pretty good condition. However, it's grown over the years, and
>redoing the room layout would be a real pain or impossible because of
>load-bearing walls in awkward locations, etc. The sills in the
>basement have quite a bow in them now, all of the electrical needs to
>be updated, etc etc etc. I think, and my father agrees, that it would
>be best just to level it and start over. However, what I'd like to do
>in order to preserve some sense of history, is to save a lot of the
>framing materials etc and use that wood for built-in projects for the
>new house. That way I could at least say "Well, that bookcase there
>was one of 150 year old sills from the original house."
Rodney Myrvaagnes NYC J36 Gjo/a
"Accordions don't play 'Lady of Spain.' People play 'Lady of Spain."
> >*OT rambling about the current house. It's been there forever, and is
> >in pretty good condition. However, it's grown over the years, and
> >redoing the room layout would be a real pain or impossible because of
> >load-bearing walls in awkward locations, etc. The sills in the
> >basement have quite a bow in them now, all of the electrical needs to
> >be updated, etc etc etc. I think, and my father agrees, that it would
> >be best just to level it and start over. However, what I'd like to do
> >in order to preserve some sense of history, is to save a lot of the
> >framing materials etc and use that wood for built-in projects for the
> >new house. That way I could at least say "Well, that bookcase there
> >was one of 150 year old sills from the original house."
>
My wife and I have talked about it several times for our spare bedroom
and if this were our forever house I might do it. You can get hardware
and plans for it at Rockler. here's a link to the items.
http://www.rockler.com/ecom7/product_details.cfm?sku=9
Merry Christmas,
Allen
Catonsville, MD
Mike Clark wrote:
> Anyway, my question is, "Am I overlooking something?" Are there any
> pitfalls or cautions I need to be aware of with regards to a murphy
> bed?
Consider a "Murphy Bed Lite." That is, a matress stored in a container and
deployed on the floor when necessary. It could be a standard matress or an
air matress.
In college in the 1970's there were a number of students at USC (University
of South Carolina, not the other rinky-dink USC <g>) whose matresses stood
up in a frame in the daytime. For sleeping (or whatever <g>) the matresses
went on the floor. (They had apparently made a deal with the custodians to
get rid of the frames & box springs.)
-- Mark
In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] (Mike Clark) wrote:
> Anyway, my question is, "Am I overlooking something?" Are there any
> pitfalls or cautions I need to be aware of with regards to a murphy
> bed?
>
Based on careful perusal of Three Stooges films, they invariably close
up while you are in them.
--
Hank Gillette
On 23 Dec 2003 18:18:13 -0800, [email protected] (Mike Clark)
wrote:
>Anyway, my question is, "Am I overlooking something?" Are there any
>pitfalls or cautions I need to be aware of with regards to a murphy
>bed?
Whenever I think of a Murphy bed, all that comes to mind is someone
like Stan Laurel or Lucille Ball stuck inside. <G>
Barry
I have one in our spare bedroom and the only problem is that it is LOW.
My father had a hard time getting up out of it in the morning. Of course,
you could change the mounting height but the template and detailed
directions from the company were pretty specific about the location of all
the holes. It does work very well and it gives our guests a real bed
instead of an air mattress or a mattress on the floor.
I always wanted to make my son's bed disappear under the eaves. His room,
in our old house, butted up against a under the eaves storage area and I
thought that it would be neat to let the bed slide out of sight when it was
not in use. A set of wheels and a few handles on the footboard and the bed
could slip away during the day and then appear at night.
--
dbchamber at hotmail spam dot com
Remove the spam to reach me
"B a r r y B u r k e J r ." <[email protected]> wrote
in message news:[email protected]...
> On 23 Dec 2003 18:18:13 -0800, [email protected] (Mike Clark)
> wrote:
>
> >Anyway, my question is, "Am I overlooking something?" Are there any
> >pitfalls or cautions I need to be aware of with regards to a murphy
> >bed?
>
> Whenever I think of a Murphy bed, all that comes to mind is someone
> like Stan Laurel or Lucille Ball stuck inside. <G>
>
> Barry