We bought Alexander a new bed a year or so ago from Ikea. It's a Kura, and it's pretty cool because it can function as either a bed with a frame over top, or as a top bunk without a bottom bunk. So we actually got two, one to make a reading cave in his room, and another to sleep on.
A few weeks ago two of the bottom slats broke (the wood that holds the mattress up). So in the middle of a pandemic we were looking at maybe some sort of a long drive to wait in line to get into an Ikea to try and get replacement parts ...
![](https://ghost.preinheimer.com/content/images/2020/06/2020-05-31-11.15.15.jpg)
or...
Making our own! Allison ripped a standard pine 2x4 down to size, I routed the edges with a 1/4" rounding bit, and Alexander helped install them.
![](https://ghost.preinheimer.com/content/images/2020/06/2020-05-31-11.32.08.jpg)
Our potential savings here was definetly in the ones of dollars, but it felt really good to be able to fix our kids bed with a quick trip to a hardware store. The Ikea slats are several boards glued together and they appeared to break at a joint, so hopefully this will prove even stronger.
On Gaining New Skills
One of my favourite things about learning more about cooking isn't my ability to follow a complicated recepie, it's being able to look at what I've got around me and make something happen. When we've got some left over chocolate cake I can whip up a quick chocolate sauce with stuff we've got lying around. When we're hungry I can combine a few things to make a spagetti sauce, etc.
While we've been working on learning more about woodworking we've taken on a few projects like building an Arcade Cabinet, or a self irrigating planter.
![](https://ghost.preinheimer.com/content/images/2020/06/2020-06-01-10.47.20-1.jpg)
And while I really value these things we've built, I think it's the ability to fix things we already have that I value the msot about our woodworking.