Sweet Dreams

I have a dream and this is it. You have to go look at the picture, because it’s perfect for our house, and the plans say I can build it with little or no woodworking experience and just a few simple tools. What’s that you say? Isn’t my husband a carpenter? Why yes he is, but he says, and I quote, “It’s so friggin’ ugly.” I should note that what we have going now—a queen-size mattress on the floor—is really a marvel of stylish décor and I’m truly amazed House Beautiful isn’t beating down my door just begging to photograph it.

I didn’t set out to thrust three children in one bed—it was a solution that just sort of found itself. When E and Z were barely one-and-a-half, they learned to climb out of (and into) the crib and would go in and out, in and out, until one day Z nose-dived onto the wood floor. I immediately dismantled the crib and replaced it with our “spare bed”—the queen-sized mattress—on the floor next to our bed. When M started asking if he could sleep in our room with his brothers, I figured, why not move them ALL to M’s room. So C carted M’s mattress—an old, nasty, mushy, springy thing—and box-spring—an even older and nastier thing that was about two inches smaller than the mattress all the way around—off to the dump and the boys have been sleeping three in a row ever since (except when they sleep three-, four-, or five-in-a-row in my room).

I figure, if it was good enough for the Ingalls, it’s good enough for us. Besides, I think it’s somewhat outrageous that the average house size has grown more than twofold in my lifetime, just because we are horrified by the idea of our children actually having to share space. However, a year-and-a-half down the road, I think it’s about time M had his own bed—somewhere he can spread out his Pokemon cards and read his comic books and not be clobbered by his two brothers. I asked him a few days ago if he was ready for his own bed and he said yes, he was. I know from experience of having slept on both the top and bottom of a bunk bed that they are a pain in the patootie to make, but with three boys in a 12x16 foot bedroom it seems the only logical option. I thought I could enlist him in the effort to sway C in favor of the triple-decker-bunkbed, but when I showed him the picture, he said he’d be afraid he’d fall off the top (I’m actually afraid his brothers would leap off the top). So I guess it’s be just me and my skill saw and my 7th grade shop experience. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

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P.S. A new Capital Walks post is up.