Saturday, September 7, 2013

Triple Bunk Beds!

Knowing that we re-opened our home for foster care, in hopes of adopting once again, we have been looking at the sleeping arrangements in the bed rooms.  William has his own room.  He has earned his space, some peace and time away from the others.  The room was Stephen's when he lived home and then it was Tyler's (my nephew who lived here with us for three years till he grew up and moved away). So for now that room is not an option for any more children to be added to.  (notice I said for now, ha ha, I have heard never to say never...)  So that leaves the boys and girls room.  In the boys room we have a bunk bed, Antonio's hospital bed and a`crib.  So we have an extra un-occupied crib and bed in that room.  Check!  Good on boys if God sends them.  But the girls room...there was just a huge doll house bunk beds in there and not much room for any other beds to be added.  We might could squeeze in a crib if needed.

Tim and I talked about it and decided to sell the girls bunk beds and build a triple bunk bed in there.  The thinking is that the beds they were in were really cute and functional but as the girls have grown the boards underneath are sagging a little with their weight.  Our girls might be living with us forever.  So sturdier beds are in our near future anyways.  So we decided now is the time to build the triple bunks.  Carolyn could have the top bunk.  Elizabeth the middle and the bottom one for whoever God might send.  :)   The girls also have a friend that comes to visit sometimes.  So even if we never got any other girls permanently, the bottom bunk can be used occasionally for guests or makes a great place to read books and relax.  Also building the triple bunks would make more room in their room so we could fit a crib in there if needed!  Can you feel the excitement! :)

So we sold their little girl princess beds and I asked our friend to come and help me build the triple bunk beds.  God has helped me do a lot of huge building projects in the past.  I have built several beds including the bed Tim and I have slept on for years.  I knew I could not safely do this project on my own.  I am not as strong as I once was and I would need help to hold the bed boxes up against the wall while screwing them into the studs.  To dangerous for my kids to help me with for sure.  I also knew that together our friend and myself could get this done in a day.  Instead of it taking me many days just to build them.  Ok...here is the disclaimer.  Build something like these at your own risk.  :)

Our friends Mr. D and Mrs. M are the sweetest couple.  They actually did the add on to our single wide trailer.  Going from this.  Where we had this repo'ed single wide brought out to my dads farm and set up in 1999.
 I don't know how many foster children we had come thru while living in just the trailer.  It was a bit crammed at times but comfy and we were grateful for it.  We lived in that four bedroom single wide for six years before saving enough to start to add on little by little as we could afford it.  Below is after living in it for two years.  I had grass and started landscaping a bit!
Below is the same trailer with an add on to make it look like a house.  Adding on a handicap bathroom and a few more rooms.  God blessed us with Mr. D who was patient and did work for us after we would save for a while and have enough to do more.  It still is not totally finished to this day.  It is a work in progress. 
Needless to say we are grateful to God for all He has provided for us and for blessing us in knowing Mr. D and his wife.  

We built the bed boxes out side in the drive way and brought them in to mount them onto the studs in the walls.


After all three boxes were secure, we then built the tall ladder/corner support post.  I put the mattress in there for a moment to see how much space there would be underneath.

We then built the small ladder/support post for the middle bed and put on the bed rails.

 Then the upper bed rails.
 Ta Da!!
Then I took everything out of the room and hung a sheet over the door and took a sander to the whole thing rounding all the corners and making every part on them smooth.  The mess to clean up once done was...well...just a large dusty mess. I could have used a snow shovel there was so much but now the beds are nice and smooth.

After everything was swept up, vacuumed up and wiped down it was time to plug the screw holes with wooden buttons!
 Zekes job was to hand William what he needs.  Williams is to glue in all the buttons!
 Lightly tap them in if needed.
 Wiping off any extra glue. 
Primed!
Painted!!
Occupied!  
Look at those happy faces!

I love it that the middle bed is like a fire escape in case of an emergency just like the other bed they had in there.  We do fire drills so that just makes me feel better. 

Thank you Mr D. for all your hard work.  You have always been such a blessing to us.  May God abundantly bless you and Mrs. M.  We love you!

The girls are really enjoying these beds so much.  I love to see our kids happy.  God is so good.

Matthew 5:16  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.


Blessings!
susan

33 comments:

  1. That bed is so cute susan!!!! You are blessed to have such a special friend to help.

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  2. Wow!! Looks great!! Lucky girls!

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  3. Thank you cindie! Yes, I agree. We have been very blessed to know Mr. D and his wife. They have always been so kind to us. Blessings!

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  4. Thank you Julie! I prayed before we built them and praise God they turned out well and the girls have been just loving them. Carolyn teared up when she saw I painted their names on them. Made my heart warm. I have worked so hard on them over the last week and a half I have neglected all my other duties! I was trying to get them back into sleep in their rooms as soon as possible. They liked camping out in the living room though! Now to catch up on house work!

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  5. I've just completed my foster care classes and love this idea. Could you give me the measurements of these beds? And the distance they are away from each other? Thank you so much!

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  6. I just finished my foster care classes and love this idea. Can I ask for the measurements? Thank you!

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    1. Each bed box is 80 inches long by 43 inches wide. The base of the top bunk is 3 feet down from an 8ft ceiling. The base of the middle bunk is 3 ft up from the floor. Hope this helps and blessings!

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  7. As a single mother of three with limited space this is a wonderful idea! Can I ask you for the supply list? I would love to do this project! Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Thank you for your comment. They have been a huge space saver and have held up very well. They are very functional. So much so that we are going to be building another set into our boys room soon. I do not have a supply list but can tell you that the entire thing was made of good quality straight 2x4s and the boxes were 2x6's. We used thick plywood as the bottoms of each box and used three inch deck screws to attach them to the walls into the wall studs. Each screw can hold about 80 pounds so we used many. That, sanding and a coat of primer and paint and that was all. Not to complicated at all. Hope this helps and have a blessed day!

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  8. Hi do you happen to have some building plans for this? I really would live my husband to make these for our 3 boys but I know he is going to ask if there are any plans.

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  9. I have no plans for them. The boxes are made out of 2x6's the base of the bed boxes are made out of sturdy plywood. The rails and ladders are made out of 2x4's. We used 3 inch deck screws to screw them into the wall studs. We used several on each stud that they touched. We used an inset drill bit so we could use the plugs to make it all look more finished. The heights that we hung them at and the size of each box is in a comment up above some where. Not a hard plan at all. We are fixing to build tipple bunk beds again but for in the boys room. We are not going to stagger them as we did in the girls room. So will add those pictures and dementions when we finish that project some time in the next two months. Blessings!

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  10. happy to see the smiles of kids while in their new triple bunk bed

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  11. What size wood was used for the lip to hold the plywood? Thank you

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    1. I used a 2x6 across the middle underside (width wise) for added support and riped 2x4's for the lip to hold the plywood around the edge. So you could use 2x2's for the lip. I already had the 2x4's so ripping them is just what we did. Hope this helps and happy building!

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  12. Do you have a detailed supply list? The plywood, was it cut or just standard size sheet? I would love to make these for our boys!

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    1. I do not have a detailed supply list. I just shared what we did on line. I never knew so many people would be interested in building them. I have answered many questions people have asked in past comments(above) that might help with what size wood we used for each part. We did buy full sheets of plywood and cut them to fit a twin mattress. 76 1/2 by 40 inches. I think it was 3/4 inch plywood. If you have any questions that are not answered in above comments feel free to ask and I will be glad to try to answer them. We are actually going to be building another set in the boys room soon but all stacked up in line instead of staggering them. A great, sturdy space saver for sure!

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    2. Thank you very much. God bless!

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    3. Thank you! God bless!

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  13. Hello
    I see you used 3in deck screws for the wall holding. What did you use on the rails and ladder?

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    1. We did use three inch screws to attach the bed boxes into the studs. But we used two inch ones on the rest. We pre-drilled the holes so we could countersink the place for the buttons. Hope this helps. Blessings!

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  14. Hi! Did you ever happen to get plans and measurements for these beds? I love them and my husband could build them for our three!

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    1. I do not have a supply list at all. We designed it on paper and counted up what we needed that day and just went and bought it all. Many people have written me emails and asked questions in the comments above. What we used and what the measurements were are all mentioned in the questions above. So if you really wanted to build them just scroll thru the above post, look at the pictures of the beds and add it up. I have never had time with so many children to actually sit down and write it all up. Hope you find some plans that will work for you.

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  16. Great Project! I'm soooo making this for my 3 grand babies. People please read the previous posts; poor Susan keeps answering the same questions over and over again... Just saying! God bless!

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    1. Thank you for your comment and encouragement! We love our bunks and have made some in our boys bedroom as well but those are stacked right on top of each other as I needed more floor space in their room. They have worked wonderfully! Thanks again for taking the time to comment and blessings!

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  17. This is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. You can tell that you put a great amount of love into this. GOD bless!

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