Bed Building Time!

We recently purchased a small park home (about 223 sq. ft.) and are in the process of fixing it up. It came only insulated, wired, partially plumbed (there's a toilet installed), and with a screened in porch, which adds another 81 sq. ft., but it needs flooring, the rest of the plumbing, and some finishing touches.
Because of the tiny square footage, we decided to build a loft bed so that space under the bed can be utilized better. Read on for how we did it.

Child Bearing and Rearing

Our baby is not due until December 6th, so this post may be a little preemptive. However, once the baby comes I may not have much time to blog. So I want to go ahead and discuss some choices we have made regarding pregnancy, birth, and early parenting and why we have made them.

Home Made Futon Mattress

We recently built our own loft bed to save space in our new place (more to come on that later) and since it is high off the ground, we couldn't use our old straw mattress. It's heavy and requires fluffing every couple weeks and sometimes flipping, and that just didn't seem feasible with the mattress being between 4 and 5 feet off the floor.

Of course we didn't want to buy a new mattress, and then again we didn't want a used one. We also needed a firm mattress because we like it that way, it's better for your back, and we plan to co-sleep with our baby (firmer mattresses are safer for babies). All of this led me to decide on making our own futon type mattress. This way, we could decide just how firm and thick we wanted it and also we'd know exactly what materials were used in it. Read on for pictures and brief instructions.