Apparently I’m not the only one in our family who has reached the age where I have to get up multiple times per night; so does our 11-year-old Yorkshire Terrier, Mia.
Yes, I know it’s ridiculous that she sleeps on the bed with my wife and I –but that is clearly not up to me. If God forbid there was a fire in the night, the LOML would trample me to rescue the dog . At least I know where I standin the food chainJ.
Our bed is fairly high off the ground and she can’t jump up that high anymore. To prevent having to reach down and pick her up multiple times per night, initially I built a simple pine ramp from the floor to the bed. Apparently the boss thought that was far too dangerous “what if she can’t see the edge of the ramp and walks off in edge in the night?”. “Really honey, she’s a dog – I think she’ll figure the ramp out pretty quick”.Apparently that was a “cruel and reckless” thing to say.
Ultimately we agreed stairs were the best option; “I don’t think she knows what a ramp is, but we knows she is familiar with going up and down stairs”.
I built the stairs with some White Pine from a local BORG– it was really fun to work with hand tools. Cutting the multiple risers for each of the stairs prompted me to make a simple little adjustable miter box/big bench hook so I didn’t have to independently measure same size pieces (if I get a chance I’ll post a couple pictures of that). All the joinery is half lap and/or glued and screwed. It was fast and easy to build and the pine was really fun to work with.
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The boss decided bare wood was far too slick and dangerous for the dainty little dog so as you can see I stabled on some carpet. At least for these pictures, little Princess was willing to go up and down the stairs for her “photo op”; so far in the middle of the night the results have been iffy. As long as Mom is willing to reach over and pick her up, I don’t think she’s going to use the stairs routinely.
Somehow this sounds very familiar…
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All the best, Mike
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