As part of our move to Santa Fe last December, we were looking at a layout that didn’t have a guest bedroom per se, as such. We did have a sort of oversized room of no particular function (the old owners had used it for an office and had a pool table in it). I think it’s what realtors like to call a “bonus room”. Whatever. It became the bro zone; it’s right next to the laundry room where the dogs hung out*, and it wound up with my computer and the spare TV and couch. There’s room for all that and a bed, but we didn’t want to just park a bed in it, because any room with a bed becomes a bedroom. So, Murphy Bed.
We got it from the Murphy Wall-Bed people. In Canada, as it turns out. I had to fill out some kind of import form, but they ate any tariff, which was nice. Can recommend, BTW. It took around three weeks to arrive, was exactly as ordered, and was well packaged (in a crate), undamaged, with all the parts except a couple screws for the handles, which they shipped immediately and for free when I called them.
This is a kit. Putting it together is a project. Working on it a few hours a day, we got it done in 4 or 5 days, but you could probably get it done in a long day. I followed the instructions religiously and it came out very nice. They have good series of instructional videos on their website if you are interested in just what it takes to get it from a crate of parts to the final product. I would say that if you decide you want to get one, get all the tools on their list when you order the bed. There is no substitute for the square-headed Robertson bits you will need for some of the screws, and you probably don’t have them laying around. I got to really like them – they don’t come out of the dang fasteners until you want them to.
Everything is pretty straightforward, and nearly all of it can be done by one person. This is pretty much the only picture I took of the process, and it shows a critical point, just before the only thing you need two guys for: Mounting the mattress frame (on the floor) to the wall frame (you guessed it, on the wall).
The black box you see in the wall frame is the spring loaded mount for the mattress frame. There’s one mount on each side of wall frame, which is bolted, you guessed it again, to the wall. Picking up the mattress frame and sliding it onto the arms for the spring loaded mount is the hardest part of the whole project because (a) it is heavy and (2) you have to be pretty careful getting it onto the support arms.
So, the final product:
Very solid, looks nice (the gaps are all very even). Can recommend.
While we were ordering the Murphy Bed, we noticed they also have doors. Secret doors. Ridiculously cool secret doors. Which I would love to have for the bro zone, but the door to it is just never closed, which defeats the purpose. They even have one for laundry rooms which would just disappear in our house and never look like a door. Anyhoo, fun to look at.
Speaking of cool products, we live at the end of what is essentially a 400 yard driveway. The Waste Management trucks won’t come to our house to pick up the trash, so we have to haul it to the driveway entrance. Using this:
It took a little fine tuning to get it mounted at just the right height, but it works a treat.
*Note the past tense. Our dogs were littermates and were really old, ridiculously old for the breed (Staffordshire Terrier), and both passed not long after the move. Daisy just woke up one morning, had breakfast, and checked out. Her brother, Hud, had progressively worse heart problems and even the veterinary cardiologist in Albuquerque couldn’t help. I knew the day they showed up 15 years ago they would break my heart, and they did.
So of course, we are planning to get a new pup. After the kitchen remodel is done.
Let me finish on a little more upbeat note. The light here in Northern New Mexico really is magical. The air is always very clear and, well, a few pictures would be worth a few thousand words, I guess.
After a snowfall:
After a storm blew through:
So far, so good. I think we’re going to like it here.
It would be pretty obvious with the layout of my house that there’s a secret door if I put one of those in. It’s a rectangle from the outside split into four main rooms. Misplace a quarter of the building, and people will notice.
Where have I seen the funky raygun?
In Paris?
It’s from Weta, the people who did the props for LOTR (and a ton of other movies).
Good job, RC, hope you kept the pool table.
Sad about the puppies but there’s a beginning and an end for all living creatures, we just have to enjoy the middle part as much as we can.
Nice scenery, a lot of different places to chose from in the USA.
Naw, got rid of the pool table. No use for it.
Stop talking about our mortality grandpa!
My old man had a secret room put in a house he had built. Behind some bookshelves in his office, he kept guns and cash, things like that in there.
Looks like you are getting set up nicely there, RC. Sorry to hear about the beasts, I know my little Pepperoni will break my heart one day too.
“had a secret room put in a house he had built”
I’ve built two and designed one, always makes me a bit nervous.
As long as you aren’t working for an Egyptian.
You just need to walk like them.
They developed that unique style of walking to turn two dimensional and slip out between the stones.
Hyperbole built sex dungeons for deviants is what I’m hearing.
There’s some girl who has been featured on the national news for being missing in one of those rooms raising a feral child produced by incest that can’t speak right this moment.
Seems like a secret room you really want to put in yourself. Hire the work out, it’s not really secret anymore, and then you have to start waxing contractors, and before you know it you’re in a Len Wiseman movie with werewolves and shit.
If you don’t have a secret room in your house, are you even a libertarian?
As part of our move to Santa Fe last December, we were looking at a layout that didn’t have a guest bedroom per se, as such.
It’s a sign that people shouldn’t be staying overnight at the Casa Dean.
Damn, that’s pretty. I don’t remember the last ‘full’ rainbow, let alone double rainbow, I’ve seen.
Murphy bed’s are so fucking clutch. I loved mine in Korea. I’m fucking pissed I didn’t realize my first studio in Korea had one. I just thought… that’s where the bed lived.
Sorry about the dogs.
Where did the ray gun come from?
Weta Workshop.
I actually have three from their Dr. Grordbort’s collection – the blunderbuss on the wall, a derringer and a raygun on the side table below it.
Neat, thanks!
Gorgeous scenery. The Murphy bed looks great. We could probably use something like that.
That looks great, R C.
I love the secret doors but no real place for one.
Sorry to hear about the pups – I, too, know my Staffy mix will break my heart. But not yet. Not yet.
Becca really broke my heart because she had bonded to me like no other dog we ever had. But Josie has helped me realize I made the right decision about Becca when I did.
No permissions.
Penny is going to kill me when she goes. Just six, so hopefully plenty of time.
Permissions opened.
Beautiful doggos
Yep, Pepperoni will be hard, but she is only 4yo.
https://ibb.co/PGxzky17
Nice! Will they ship a dude down to install the bed? Looks like more work than I want to do.
“Looks like more work than I want to do.”
That’s why you go to your corner. *snaps fingers* Sit. Think about what you’ve done.
Why do I think it’s not about the installation?
Meine dispatcher says there’s something wrong with deine
cableMurphy bed@Rhy: Sorry, but the Scotts Miracle-Gro’s ad guy, the Scottish, bearded redhead? Kinda seems right up your alley.
(Similar and slightly embarrassing? Maybe 15 years ago, I had quite a thing for Progressive’s Flo. (She’s ending a damn long run. Good for her. I wonder where that’d fall on the ‘Fuck this’ v ‘Job security’ axis.)
*Norwegian
Not even remotely.
Tormund! I kinda thought I recognized him! (That character was fun. Guy’s good at his job.)
@rhy: Perhaps I was thinking of Tonio.
(@all: Am I the only one who had a mini-thing for Flo? The new girl sucks.)
New girl sucks(!) Flo was hot.
I don’t think Flo has left. They’ve just added more characters to that campaign and, of course, rotated among other campaigns. (I must confess – I like the “young homeowners turning into their parents” series.)
They’ve needed Flo for longer than I expected to guide the newcomers into their roles.
It is unbelievable how many commercials they have.
I don’t think there are any plans to drop her as long as that particular campaign continues.
Sorry about your pups
Cool bed.
Enchanting pics.
Robinson fasteners.
I had no idea what those were called.
I call them “those god damned square headed screws that electricians use.”
RV manufacturers are very fond of them as well.
Newest RV I’ve taken apart was an 86. Rivets and Philips head.
I think that carpenters use them too, I’ve heard that Jesus loves them more than you will know.
Whoa whoa whoa.
Simon & Garfunkle or the Lemonheads version? There’s a difference, darn it.
RVs (and Corvair’s) use clutch head screws, Canadians use Robertsons.
https://www.fastenright.com/brand/clutch-1-way
My 59 Chevy panel has clutch heads on the interior trim
I think that carpenters use them too, I’ve heard that Jesus loves them more than you will know.
Also loves them more than you know
I do little projects like this all the time and see this style fastener frequently now. Definitely my favorite style. Very hard to strip them and easy to lock in. I have a while set of bits that fit the various sizes.
I was quite taken with northern New Mexico on a vacation there several years ago. Didn’t spend any time to speak of in Santa Fe, I’m sorry to say – I think we just passed through on the way from Albuquerque to Taos for a visit to Taos Pueblo. I hope I get a chance to go back and spend some more time there some day.
That fits in with he room nicely.
No love for Torx? I haz a sad.
Too easy to strip both the bit and the fastener.
I have a bunch of star drive deck screws, which I like.
Torx are good for small screws, horrible for disc brake caliper slide bolts.
My New Worktruck is full of them.
That Murphy bed, and the whole look of your den, look a lot like that apartment in Korea. (Minus the raygun. And trash cans. And dogs.) The floor and walls look eerily identical.
I did have mountains, though. Kinda similar ones. Right in front of ’em was the roller coaster in Expo Park. By far my favorite apt view ever.
16th floor *flutter swoon*
A long driveway is a good excuse for a tractor or skid steer.
Or shooting range.
Just sayin’
I am here to spread the word of our lord and lawn savior the skidsteer.
Just like the mag drill I suggest you get one.
I bought my Case 1840 before I bought a house love them so much. Used it today even.
Ahhh i have nostalgia for the old stomping grounds. I still miss that area a lot.
Those secret doors are really cool. My boring split level could be much more exciting with a secret room somewhere.
One state I have wanted to visit
And not made it too.
It’s been decades since I’ve been to Arizona. Love the rim country.
A picture of the mountains where I live!
NM is a wonderful place, much different than anywhere else.
Just ignore the politics.
That may be the tough part.
Your home looks great and the view is beautiful. Sorry about your dogs. Been there and it is no bueno.
Comment on Piker. Of all his dumb hot takes, attacking gamers who enjoyed that dad-to-ai-daughter-simulator thing that was in the news cycle is one of the dumbest. Calling all gamers incels as if it isn’t the dominant form of media at this point in time and mocking them as being unable to start families of their own is just fucked on so many obvious levels and some segment of his audience that doesn’t hate watch him claps like seals because those people bad and enemy.
Imagine being a guy born with a silver spoon in his mouth famous for saying dumb shit on the internet who is mocking the working class stiffs who may not make enough money to start a family while pretending that you are their advocate in other contexts. Imagine being that big of a piece of shit for a moment.
On the dog note (not really looking to dwell on the death aspect of a dog’s life cycle – been there as many of us have), I started feeding my asshole some human grade kibble. I can’t afford the true “fresh” meals. Shit is more expensive than what I eat by a lot. But there probably does need to be a real discussion of what dogs are being fed at this point.
He was eating Purina One because that’s what they were started on with the other person. It’s actually not supposed to be cheap shit. I wouldn’t say I noticed an issue with his fur per se, but after changing it to the more expensive but “human grade” Honest Kitchen (I’ve tried a piece or two – the oats and chicken one kind of tastes like cereal and the chicken is edible by my human standards – did this to get the little fuck to eat because he is convinced my food is the shit and I’m depriving him).
His coast is just like ten times softer and smoother after about a month of it. It was just kind of dry before and at this stage obviously very noticeable.
He also fucking hated the Purina One stuff.
You do searches on dog food and you’ll find a lot of bullshit. I saw Honest Kitchen trashed on some Reddit posts with people regurgitating the same crap I had seen before. This is stuff coming up near the top of the search engine on Google. These supposedly real people attacking a dog food brand because they supposedly don’t have some in house veterinarian approving of everything. These posts all sound nearly the same verbatim. THey aren’t running long term studies!
I feel pretty comfortable that we have a strong idea of what’s actually healthy for a dog. Producing it at scale in a form cheap enough for the average consumer is the issue. Pretending that we need experts to run long term studies to prove the efficacy of a dog food is…well, do normal people really think this way? Are these the same people who double masked during covid? THey are, aren’t they?
Human-grade kibble?
Lotsa chicken and green beans over here.
Eh, I got sucked in by the bullshit marketing on the last dog. Current dog is on Purina with supplemented home cooking. No issues or concerns.
I was basically looking for a kibble he actually just liked to eat. The fact that he seems to be “healthier” in noticeable and obvious ways was an unexpected side effect.
And to Toxteth – I’ve thought of just making my own real food. Some chicken breast and such. For various reasons it just doesn’t quite work at the moment.
We use Open Farm kibble, after Mrs. Dean’s extensive research. It seems to work – the Dean Beasts were astoundingly healthy for their age, and their age got astoundingly advanced for the breed.
Orange Turd is going to suck off Pooh Bear. I can’t wait for the next shit sandwich he serves up. Can’t deliver on promises, gains are transitory and he’s walked back many of them not even waiting for the next guy, and doing the opposite of what he campaigned on. No longer not-a-politician
I hope we don’t start attacking Taiwan.
Thought on the gender wars. Older people may be confused and just unaware of how fucking bad it is for younger people to engage with young modern women.
It amuses me that a whole shit ton of data indicates that strong father figures are a greater predictor of life success for children. I know some single Mom’s who have done great, and a whole lot more who struggled in ways beyond the financial. Single fathers have consistently produced more successful adults in various studies with those results getting dismissed for a host of reasons.
Single motherhood being actively cheered is asinine across the board. The whole “don’t need no man” mindset has gone from self empowerment to a mantra that people who bring nothing to the table tell themselves to explain away their own flaws.
But I’m more interested in how we got this mindset as a society. It goes beyond the left/right cultural divide. For a long time there was this growing aggrandization (not sure if right word to use) of the role mothers play in shaping their children. Mothers provide obvious benefits to children and the point isn’t to shit on them or what they do do. But to point out that there’s things they struggle with. And that those things may be the most important things from the perspective of society as a whole and what kind of young people are being raised.
Fatherhood has been crapped on in every conceivable way for a long time now, but it kind of goes back to that cultural aspect of putting motherhood itself on a pedestal. It’s reflected in our laws to a large extent far more than the patriarchy is. Fathers used to be viewed as the respected heads of households. Kings in their respective lane. The modern view is to treat this as an oppressive system, but the older I get the more I just think…you know, people didn’t have everything wrong for all of human history and the evidence kind of indicates we live in more of a weird militaristic matriarchal society at this stage.
It’s just been assumed that because women are more nurturing that they are the ones who are best suited to raise children with a divorce. Data? Doesn’t fucking matter. That norm is changing some with more single fathers taking on the lead role, but the default of much of the laws is child goes to Mom. Support goes to Mom’s. Results be damned.
There’s nuance to all this. There are plenty of weak men who run from fatherhood and saddle the mother with the role of single mom. The argument here is a bit muddled and I’m not sure i communicated the idea effectively. I guess to sum it up I just think too much of child development has been credited to women and left in their hands and we are seeing the result. It goes a bit beyond the normal fatherhood is shit on and the obvious statement that two parent homes are better.
Fathers bring the crucial element that shapes and determines who children will become. The mother is the stable loving figure, but the father does way more of the molding of character.
It’s just the left driving a wedge between men and women because they hate families. They have been working at it for decades.
Just buy the goddamn sign
The problem is the money’s already been spent on the new signs. Somebody got some nice grift out of it.
She left way too much slack in the chain. One guy with bolt cutters and another to keep Grandma’s hands clear.
She looks fresh off a “No Kings” action.
Gotta keep busy in retirement.
Happy Wednesday you people.
🫤🥗🍳
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noiy7ajORtA
🎶🎶
👍
Happy Hat and Hair Day!
Good morning, Sean, U, Ted’S., and Grumble!
Morning.
How are you today?
Well, I went to bed at midnight. Failed to fall asleep. Went back to bed at 3am. Got up at 5:30, having heard my alarm at 5 and laid there another half hour. I made it to the office.
On the bright side my scale said I was down to 288.
Sorry about your disrupted sleep, but that’s great news about your weight! 🙂👍
How are things with you and yours?
OK, except I’m worried about Grady. He may need to go to the vet – possible UTI or similar problem. 😿😟
🥺😿
Oh boy, trying to administer medicine to a cat….
Yeah… Had to give the other one ear drops. Pills are even worse. 😣😾
I had to give Maggie pills for a few weeks. What a horror show.
Good morning, Gliberati. I’ve been in TX for almost six years and this is the worst allergy season I’ve dealt with since being down here. I’m actually losing sleep due to sinus headaches, congestion, and sneezing.
My sincere sympathy! SW OH is bad for allergies, so been there/done that. Hope you can get some relief!
When Dad had 18 months of his life stolen courtesy of the peacetime draft, army doctors found he was allergic to ragweed pollen.
So they sent him to White Sands Missile Range, where he found he was also allergic to tumbleweed pollen.
But he did his part by making certain Ernst Blofeld and a bunch of illegal immigrants didn’t get their hands on the missiles.
My father was USAF while I was growing up so I’ve lived in several places. New Hampshire, upstate New York, West Germany, Utah, coastal Virginia, and Texas. Texas has been pretty mild up until this year. I think Utah was the worst for me.
You are South Texas, right?
Nice RC. I did enjoy living in southern NM and it is quite an interesting place.
Shooting into a moving car never works…
😛
Oh great. Another media circus.
There’s a set of lawyers who need to be removed.
Where has everyone gone?
The Twilight Zone.
Already at work for an hour. Busy day.