Buried Treasure...

I was so excited to get done with this project, sort pictures and get a post up that I have Blogger's block! I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to title this post!

Twenty years ago...digging in the dirt...my shovel hit something so hard it reverberated up my arms and into my neck totally making my head feel like a gong...I thought it was a rock...but no...it wasn't....

I dug...and dug...and dug.. to find that whatever it was...was really thin in diameter and really long! It was like digging out a fossil... Well, to my great surprise and my utter glee...it was this...

Wrought Iron Headboard

A cast iron headboard...it had scroll work in the middle but pieces were missing and the jagged ends were pointy where they had rusted apart...there were also several rust holes in it..big ones...I didn't realize at the time how big it was, I just kept digging...and I found two of these....

Two twin cast iron foot boards...or maybe one head board and one foot board..but the point is...I had three pieces to make one whole cast iron bed! a little more work and I unearthed, literally, two rails to attach them together!

 They sat for a very long time...just getting the dirt out of all the cracks was a major undertaking...not to mention finding someone willing to cut the two small ones apart and make one foot board...it seemed no one had any faith in the undertaking...but being the stubborn donkey that I am, I finally talked someone into doing it... making promises all the while that it really didn't matter if it worked or not...every man I talked to was convinced that they could not weld cast iron effectively...

It was never very effective...the welds kept breaking...my fix? copper tubing...where the welds were, I fitted copper tubing in between the two pieces and crimped it...it is still like that and I have never had someone notice it...it is very strong and paints well so it blends in beautifully!

While I was waiting for the foot board to be completed, I took a grinder and I ground off all the scroll work in the middle of the head board...I really didn't want to but so much of it was damaged that it would have been impossible to try and talk someone into fixing that! Next, I took it down to a local guy and he filled the rust holes with welding wire, ground it off smooth...it looked great!

I now had a complete bed...a gorgeous, cast iron, scrolly bed! the head board itself weighs approximately 200 pounds...I have...on numerous occasions...been knocked completely out by trying to load it into the bed of a pick up by myself...oh...and I had to have the rails lengthened...when I put the bed together? it was approximately 4foot 11 inches long...

This bed is one of the only things I kept when I decided to go thru my crisis...leave town and take off to Australia! (A little about my beginning, I think it is post number one, lol!) I just love it...I cannot imagine having another...so imagine my happiness when I land this "part time" job and get to have new mattresses to put on it? Well, I got them...my Honey went and got them day before yesterday and they sat in the living room until I finished painting the bed...when I went to take them upstairs? This...

I had to take my stairwell completely apart! The mattresses were so big, they were NOT going up there...big sigh...no moulding in the world is keeping me from sleeping on my new Comfortec bed...as frustrated as I was..at first I tried to be really careful...but the more I pulled off? the more that was revealed! This doorway had been added much later that the original building of the house! Underneath that icky doorway, which, I had planned on covering with more moulding? was a light source, the light from the kitchen going up the stairs was amazing...and more beadboard!

We have since decided? that we are keeping the high doorway and are going to mould it with something pretty!

It is so depressing going up those ugly stairs...they are next! I have finished all my painting projects...my upstairs looks like a bomb hit it...stuff everywhere!  I commandeered the West half of the upstairs to complete several projects this week...since it is so ugly...has no paint, is half torn apart and I don't care if something gets on the floor? it made an awesome work room!

I now have a bed! a nice bed! can't wait to do the bedding! I can't wait to throw that ugly bedspread out! I can't wait to paint up there and I can't wait to share it will all of you!

OH! I forgot to tell you...I am five foot 2 inches tall and this bed sits...can you say boobilies on here? well, it sits almost to there! My Honey is gonna have to build me a little stair cuz it's hard to get up there!