King Size Komfort--Yee Haw!

BEFORE PHOTO

After nearly a year of sleeping on twin beds, we finally remodeled our bedroom and we now have a king-size bed. When we bought the motorhome, we knew that sleeping on twin beds wasn't going to be a permanent situation (we're not that old yet!) So, ever since moving in, we've been making plans to remodel the bedroom. Now, you might ask "Why didn't you just get the Lazy Daze model that has a queen bed?" Well two reasons -- first is that we (including our two dogs) were used to sleeping on a king-size bed and moving down to a queen bed felt very confining; second is that the twin bed model had MUCH bigger windows in the bedroom and those big windows and resultant views were very, very important to us. Especially since living in such a small space gets downright claustrophobic without enough windows.

AFTER PHOTO

Since the remodeling involved ripping out the built-in nightstand (a structural component of the back wall) we wanted to wait until our motorhome was out of warranty before tackling such a major project. We cut out the top of the nightstand, capped it off at the bed platform level, spaned the aisle between the two beds with thin wooden slats, rotated the two twin mattresses 90° and pushed them together and filled in the gaps around the edges with custom cut foam blocks. We still have to build a shelf over one side window to hold the TV and DVR.

As in all changes, there were pros and cons:

+ The biggest benefit -- we get to sleep together again!!! I'll let you fill in the details on why that falls into the PRO category.

+ Romance aside, we have more room. At 6' tall, Frank barely fit in his 74" twin bed. His feet, elbows and knees were always bumping into something. I, being smaller, didn't mind it so much, but it did get crowded when both dogs decided to sleep on my side.

+ We gained storage. Spanning the aisle left a big cavern of space underneath, so we added two shelves -- the top is fixed and the bottom is a tray that slides forward to access stuff in the back. We use it for storing our shoes and boots. Works great!

+ Neither one of us has to sleep right next to a wall. A big plus in cold weather when those walls get damn cold.

+ The TV will be suspended near the ceiling from the new shelf once we get it installed. That will be nice for watching TV in bed.

+ Less carpet to vacuum -- ok, I'm grasping at straws here, but every little bit helps.

- Changing linens and making the bed is more difficult. Of course, making up the two twin beds wasn't that easy either since they butted up to walls on three sides, but now changing sheets involves a whole lot more crawling around. I'm getting used to the rumpled look, so I don't worry about making the bed every day.

- We lost the aisle and the ability for each of us to get in/out of bed without disturbing the other. That means that one of us has to climb over the other to get in and out of bed. Fortunately, Frank rarely needs to get up in the middle of the night, so I get the side near the hallway as I'm usually the first to get up in the morning.

- We lost our headboard and we can't lean up against the side wall as the window blinds are in the way. We are trying to come up with a solution for that, but none of our ideas have panned out.

P.S. Just wanted to share one of the great sunrise views we've had out our rear bedroom window.