can we build a platform bed?

we went to home depot today and bought the lumber for ana white's hailey platform bed that fish plans on building.

we bought a king-size foam mattress, yet are still sleeping on the couches because we don't have a bedframe. the mattress is compressed into a box about the size of a mini-fridge.
   seriously.
   
and it weighs about three tons.
   ((okay, more like 70 pounds.))

because it's so dense and unwieldy, we're supposed to open the mattress directly on the platform bed -- i'm pretty sure it's going to explode out of its box like one of those snake-in-a-cans.

SO...yep, we really need to build this bed. then we can sleep upstairs and i can move all these pillows and blankets out of the sunroom.

i really wanted to build the bed (as opposed to buying one) and convinced fish after i showed him prices for quality wood beds.

then...we went and bought dimensional lumber instead of quality wood. 

BUT...as easy as it seems, this project could rapidly spiral down at any point. we want to make sure we're capable before plonking down cash for nice wood.

plus, i think i want to paint the bed black. if we were going to stain it, maybe we would have bought nicer wood.

we're being slightly ambitious:
   fish made shoe shelves for us about five years ago.
      we still use them -- he did a great job!
   i've never built anything.
      i'm pretty sure my role will be "watch the toddler."

((( psst! see the finished bed here! )))

* mari