The Firetruck Bed

This weekend, Aaron installed the firetruck bed. It is so much more amazing than I thought it would be (and I already thought it was going to be pretty amazing). A while back, I found a blog showing off the firetruck bed that someone made for his son. I emailed it to Aaron right away - and he totally was into making it. We measured Cam's room, and figured out that we couldn't do one with the stairs, and after much convincing on my part, decided that Cam could handle a ladder. So, we used the plans from Ana-White.com for her Easy Playhouse Loft - but Aaron made many changes from there.

I was really nervous that it would total overwhelm Cam's room, as it's not a super big room and our house only has 7.5 feet high ceilings- but it just fits perfectly.

The big additions that Aaron made the first firetruck bed was a driver's seat for the steering wheel:

And a toy box/back seat at the back of the truck:

This was pretty much all Aaron. I helped with a little bit of painting (as did Cam) and some of the precision cutting on the diamond plate vinyl but every night after dinner Aaron would head down into the shop and work on it. He came up with all the cute additions, figured out the best way to make the lights work (Christmas lights), and angled the ladder in the best way so toddlers can go up and down with ease.

The first night, Cam asked to read his books inside the firetruck. With Daddy. The man couldn't have been happier.

And because I know people are going to ask:

• Yes, he does sleep in it. Amazing, but true. Aaron was nervous that he would be to excited, or play all night, or even maybe be too young to sleep up high - but it's been three nights now and he LOVES it.




• It cost about $500 total. That includes wood, paint, bolts for the wheels, lighting, and even the mattress that I got at Ikea. I got a little firetruck rug (secondhand) to put inside the playhouse part and a little firehouse print to put on the wall. Only thing not finished is the window treatments.




• No. Aaron will not make these for sale. Besides the fact that he has a backlog of personal projects for our family (next up is refurbishing an awesome dollhouse for Maggie), the man works full time in technology. He isn't quiting his day job! And imagine the liability for bedding beds for kids? I think not.

Anyway. Pretty awesome, huh? Cam is one lucky kid. And so many thanks to Jeff and Kristin McClure for posting their son's bed - we would have never come up with this on our own!