It isn't as salacious as it sounds, but I broke our bed.

A little background is that we have a nice, hardy wood bed, with a big headboard and substantial foot board. I'm tall, and we like our space, so it's a king-size bed. We got the bed after we remodeled our home about 18 years ago, and it's done us just fine for that whole time. We replaced the carpet through our house at the end of the summer, which was the first time the bed has been moved and taken apart since it was installed.

It's construction is sold, heavy wood. Wood side rails, the ones that run from headboard to foot board, are "L" shaped, with a ridge running the whole length fastened with more than a few screws. Sitting on these ridges are three slats that go from side rail to side rail, kind of near armpits, waist, and knees, on which the bed foundation sits. Some beds have a box spring, but we have simple boxes (splitting the large space in half) to hold our mattress.

I sat, as I very often do, at my corner of the bed, at the foot end, where I can rest my arm on the generous foot board and read things from my tablet. On other occasions I might sit here to dress or put shoes on or whatever. On this occasion, I was poking at my tablet as I waited for the little kid to be done in the shower.

Suddenly, a loud crack and a sudden drop alerted me that something was awry. I stood and turned to the bed, and saw a noticeable drop in the foot of the bed versus the head of the bed. I peered underneath and saw some shards of wood and the foundation visible beneath the side rail.

I paused to help the little finish with the shower and get tucked in. I then undressed the bed, shuffled it a bit to stand the mattress and remove the box spring. It seems that the aforementioned ridge had caused that side rail to split at the last couple of fasteners, pushing them down through the bottom of the rail. When we reassembled the bed, one of the slats was missing its mid-point foot. We'd chosen to put that slat at the foot end, thinking that our torsos would benefit more from the extra support. Now in its collapsed state, the other feet had twisted and were not supporting their slats either. I'm not sure if that happened during the collapse or caused it. It's kind of clear now that there may have been unintended stress put on the rail at the end of the bed, without that slat having a foot, that there might have been a bit too much stress on the ridge without that midpoint of support.

In the end, I simply removed the frame and re-positioned the foundation and mattress set on the ground. The headboard stayed in place, pinned between the mattress (just a little lower than normal) and the wall. I moved the foot board and other parts aside. When I get a chance, I'll address the broken side rail and ridge with some wood glue and fasteners in other positions, or perhaps by trying to find a replacement for the side rail, or an inner metal frame to use with it. The wood is clearly a bit dried out, having suffered through so many winters with us. I'll work to find a set of feet for the slats, or perhaps find a different support mechanism between the side rails.

I had dashed through the living room as part of the kid-chasing of the evening, and had told the missus of the bed issue. I'd already completed the furniture shuffle before she arrived to help, which is all just as well since she's experiencing a bit of back pain anyway. I pointed out the damage and my thoughts of mitigation. She turned in and agreed we'll deal with it later.

She did find it easier to get into the bed lowered to the floor. That extra foot makes a bit more difference to her. I find it a little low to sit on comfortably, like a stool or ottoman height. But once I rolled into place and tucked in, I couldn't really tell a difference, and I slept just fine. There was a moment of disorientation in the morning as I tried to glance at the clock, which is now a foot higher than before, but just a moment and I remembered the events of yesterday.

Of all the things that could go wrong, this is a welcomed easy thing to deal with.

Everyone's healthy, except the bed frame.