Sitting at a computer by day is where I love to be.  I can talk about SEO, SEM, SMM, eMail Marketing, links, authority, copy writing, websites, conversions, online videos, algorithms or marketing all day and night long.  Internet Marketing is my life, my passion and my future.  The only thing more important to me in my life is my family and a few select friends.

Unfortunately Internet Marketing, my business, friends and family leave me slightly empty.  Humans require a certain mix of love and compassion, and we were designed to learn and grow, build and conquer, love and give.  I have recently realised that I was missing something in my life.  Sitting down in front of a screen all day left an emptiness and actually getting up off my ass and using my hands and body to build something other than a virtual following has brought a tremendous joy.  I set out to build a queen sized loft bed for my children from scratch!

Ok, so I’m not a philosopher and you haven’t come here to learn spirituality or carpentry.  I felt this post is important because as human beings we are programmed to do a lot of things, think independently, grow and give.  I wasn’t getting enough joy of giving or creating, so I built a simple loft bed and I have found a new hobby.  I was able to give something to my children that brought joy that I never expected, and that, hands down, is infinitely more important to me than Internet Marketing.

So I started with plans that I paid $10 for from OP Loft Beds, a simple little website I found online using Google.  I bought their plans because of their diverse testimonials on their site.  As I teach, it’s not only about cosmetics, but rather content.  They have great content, provide valuable free content and sell their expertise for a fair value.  While I don’t know these guys, I also want to plug them for their marketing efforts.  I ended up buying the fasteners from them as well, for $40, two day shipping and was more than half the price of home depot.  I’m so much about value, when I bought the wood at Home Depot I had some dude price out the fasteners for me, it was over $100.

My children were so pumped about helping in this project that I wasn’t sure what I could get them to do first.  I had these diagrams with what seemed like 1000’s of measurements in a language I was unfamiliar with and knew I had to start cutting, measuring and drilling.  My father, who is an exceptional hobby carpenter (financial planner by day), reminded me, measure twice, cut once.  With a three year old son and 11 year old daughter, I wondered how they could help.  They couldn’t use the saws or drills yet, so I decided to change things up and stain first.  Backwards, I know, but I surely didn’t care, we had fun!

Madison and Ashtyn loved to help.  Here they are staining the first of the boards, and they ended up staining over half of the 24 2×4’s and 2×6’s.  What an incredible time spent for a few hours with the jewels in my life.

Thanks to a good friend of mine, DJ Witchie for letting me use his tools and garage, he’s a carpenter by trade and had everything we needed.  You’ll notice some spillage on the ground, and thankfully it’s a garage and we let them have fun.  Again, while backwards, staining first isn’t the best idea.  Did you know that cutting wood with a circular saw sometimes chips the wood?  Or that pencil marks aren’t seen very well on the dark red oak stain?  I think I also ruined a pair of Ashtyn’s pants, but who cares?  There is no price for the memories these kids developed.  I know, because Madison wanted to help in every step, and the time arguing to motivate her to empty the dishwasher is twice as long as it would take me to do it myself!

The motivation to help did wear off and provided me the necessary time to do all the measuring, cutting and drilling.  It provided me a different sense of peace and serenity that I haven’t found since I was a child.  Between staining, measuring and cutting, there was maybe 12-15 hours spent, and few nights of a sore back.  It sure felt good to do something with my hands!

All in all, it was an enlightening experience.  I have decided with the left over wood I’m going to build a desk to match the bed.  The picture below is tiny, but this bed isn’t!  It’s a queen sized loft and the desk isn’t going underneath.  That may turn into a play area, a cabin, for the kids.

Now Madison has asked me if we can ‘modify’ her bed to be a queen bunk, she has a twin sized bunk bed.  Oh boy, I can see the project requests starting to come in.  I guess I’ll need to buy my own tools now.