Building a New Bed

Levi is hitting two major milestones this summer: potty training, and moving out of his crib. We decided that it's finally time to try out a bunk bed type of situation for the boys' room, which will give them so much more very needed space. I spent some time looking around on Craigslist for something used, and trolled the Ikea web site for something affordable, and finally decided that something home made by Daddy would be both affordable and sturdy (hopefully). Jared has looked at building plans for all kinds of furniture projects on a pretty cool web site, and of course we found a bunch of bunk bed and loft bed plans there, too. So he chose one that spoke to him, and we headed to Home Depot for supplies. He worked for basically twelve hours on Sunday (with some help from Parker, as you'll see), and made surprisingly good progress--we were actually able to get the bed built enough for Parker to sleep in that night. We went with a loft bed design, which means that the area below the upper bunk is empty; we got Parker's old toddler bed down from the attic and set it up in that space for Levi. Once he eventually moves up to a twin size bed, there will be room for that there instead, or if future circumstances allow, Parker can use that space down below for a desk/play area/whatever place. Jared is still planning on building stairs on one side for getting up top, and the whole thing is still totally unfinished. We haven't decided if we are going to paint it a color or stain it with a wood finish yet...there are all kinds of possibilities for their room now! I will post more pictures when things get more settled in their room.