“How do you feel about building a bed?”
I asked this to my freshly returned husband from being down range. He had been here about a week after his 6 months away and I was already laying the groundwork for my newest home idea.
Oh come on, let’s be honest here. I had plans in my mind months before this, but I needed his stamp of approval and possibly handiwork to make it happen.
What was this plan? My oldest son was having trouble sleeping at night last winter and wanted to join up with one of his brothers. They all have been in their own bedrooms for a couple of years and I had been considering a loft bed for my oldest to give him more space. But now with his night troubles we decided to give him a buddy. And with 3 kids you can’t just leave one out of the mix. The plan was to find or build something for the 3 of them to share a room. And we needed more bed space up high then low, because… boys.
My mom actually came up with the plan. “Have one of the boys sleep in his room for one month and then switch with the other brother the second month. At the end of that month their daddy will be home and you can decide on furniture then. “
We loved it and put it into action. It was another way to countdown and look forward to daddy’s arrival too.
When my husband returned home we’d all spent some quality time together the first week, and then we started talking about some house things. He responded to my bed- making request saying “Sure, just find something on Pinterest you like and show it to me.”
Oh friends, when he says words like that I am like a giddy school girl.
I spent the next few evenings pinning ideas and showing him the outrageous ones just for fun. Before we made anything happen he and I took off for a reuniting vacation to Jamaica (we had planned it while he was away to help us look forward to our time back together). When we returned we started talking about the idea a little more seriously as his time off work was shortening. We decided which room we would use, what the basic idea was and how permanent we would make it.
And then, it began.
This fireworks blog is all about noticing the small things that are actually wonderful great gifts in our lives instead of just looking for the exploding fireworks in our lives. Don’t miss the beauty in the everyday because you’re too caught up in the search for something greater.
But guys, this was fireworks.
Saturday we measured the room (Sam’s room was the chosen location), and made plans to move his current full bed into Charlie’s room. In Charlie’s room we had one of those small kid bunks with stairs that has a pull out bottom bunk. He suggested selling it and using the money to build the new one. I hesitantly said, “If we get it sold in time we can use it,” (not wanting to wait to get started). But I did my part, took pictures and posted it that morning.
As he started sketching out the design for an L loft bed and bottom bunk on graph paper, I started getting inquiries on the small bunk I had just posted. In the chaos of online garage saling, we ended up taking down the bed and loading it in the buyer’s car 3 hours after our post. I had $225 cash in hand ready to pay for our upcoming work. It was crazy.
By the end of our Saturday we had sold our furniture and cleared one of our spaces, he had 2-3 pages to show different perspectives so all his measurements were clear, and we had talked out our ideas or discrepancies of thought. I realized later, this day of prep was incredibly important. It put us on the same page before building began and also made us get rid of things before bringing in the new.
We were hosting my friend’s 2 boys for the weekend so Sunday was an afternoon out hiking with them and building plans waited until Monday. We talked to each of the boys alone (no group decision pressure) to make sure they were ok with sharing a room together and giving up their current separate spaces.
Monday, we cleared out the bed in Sam’s room and set it back up in it’s new room which would now be a full time guest room. Thomas bought wood (we chose pine with the intention of painting or staining it), built the twin bed frame and attached it to the wall. Loft one was up.
Tuesday, he built the frame for the second and third twin beds and attached them both to the wall in the room. He also built slats for all the beds by dinner time that night and we were able to put mattresses on top so the boys could check it out from up high.
Wednesday we went together to the hardware store to make decisions on the ladders. After much deliberation on price and size, we chose some galvanized metal piping for the steps and pine wood sides. A full metal pipe ladder is really cool but really expensive. All the connector pieces for each step adds up and we had not one, but two ladders!
He was able to cut the pipe with a special saw blade (metal work smells!) and then drill some holes in the side of the ladder just large enough to hammer them in. Getting those level and drilled correctly was harder than it originally seemed. When the boys came home from school he was finishing the second ladder and they got to help screw it into the bed. Great times for teaching!
On Thursday we had a surprise ice day and school was cancelled. So the boys were around for the last of the work. Thomas was making railings on the top bunk and finishing some of the safety details. Instead of an open railing we closed them in for a cozier top bunk feel. We had already decided I would not paint but just seal the bed (we liked the pine look) and not right away because they boys were chomping at the bit to sleep in it.
By lunch time he was finished with railings and had hung the book ledge (from IKEA) by one of the lofts. I worked on cleaning and staging the room behind closed doors so the boys could have a big reveal.
Earlier in the day I had made the boys go through their stuffed animals and pick their top ten to keep out while the rest would go “on vacation” in storage. This is my attempt to help them realize that after time they will not miss them. We ended up keeping more like 15-16 each, but still put a way a garbage bag full. (Insesrt big emoji eyes here.) Most toys are kept in the basement so just a few special ones are in rooms. I also hadn’t figured out all their clothes storage yet but by the end of the weekend a friend from basketball overheard my need and offered up the exact right size dresser for free from her house. YES!
Our last obstacle before the boys reveal was deciding who would sleep where. We were concerned because we knew all 3 wanted to sleep up high. We discussed drawing names or setting up a schedule, but decided Charlie being the youngest and still just 4 years old, would stay down on the lower to begin. We didn’t tell them where their beds would be, I just put their comforters and pillows on their beds for the reveal and they would discover it as they walked in. To try to amp up the excitement for the bottom bunk I put in some rope lights and Thomas made a headboard/shelf to fill in the extra space between the bed and the wall (I was concerned about Charlie falling through as he still moves a lot in bed). Thomas also made a smaller shelf at the foot of the bed above Charlie’s to fill in that empty space. Gabriel keeps books and stuffed animals there.
Then the reveal! The boys were immediately excited to see their beds and no remorse was given from Charlie for being on the bottom. He thanked us for making his bed look like it was in a “noovie feater”. The other two loved their cozy top bunks and quickly loaded up their book ledges with favorites.
The bottom bunk has enough space to someday slide another bed underneath if we wanted a trundle, or just storage for their stuff. We have their legos and a lego table surface under there now and stuffed animals in their 31 name bags. The under loft space is like a little library with a kid chair and then 2 of the boys have clothes in dressers and the closet. Gabriel’s clothes stayed in his previous room which will be like a desk/play space. (I think I’ve only used it as time out space so far, ha!)
From drawing plans to building the last part took 6 days. I am so thrilled with how it turned out and all the boys LOVE it. We’ve had to adjust how we do bedtime routine a bit but our boys have learned how to be flexible! Sometimes I just walk in and admire it and Thomas will walk by and grab a part to check its stability and say “yep, it’s solid.”
So there it is. A firework. Sometimes things just happen FAST. You wait and wait for the right job, a pregnancy, adoption, healing or for a certain clearance so you can move forward with a plan. I believe and work wholeheartedly on enjoying the small graces in the times of waiting but I am also incredibly grateful for the times of explosive blessings. This was one of them. The firework was not just the bed itself, but the collaborative work between my husband and I, the chance to use our creative right brains, the teaching that happened with my sons, the joy of bringing our sons together more, the time off work for my husband so he could build, the timely gifts of selling our other bed and receiving a dresser, and the excitement to reveal it all to friends and family.
Don’t overlook those tiny little moments friends, as you wait for whatever it is you wait for, but when the beautiful firework does go off,
See the sparkle,
Feel the boom,
Hear the crackling,
Smell the fiery powder,
Speak your wow statement.
Stop and be humbly mesmerized.
I absolutely love this post! Not just the cool pictures and bad-a$$ project itself, but your lovely words that go with them. I so admire your creativeness and willingness to share. Thank you!!