The Loft Bed

On Thursday my daughter’s friend’s mom informed me that they were moving to North Carolina that very night, and did I know anyone who wanted two twin loft beds?

My daughter has a captain’s bed. It’s high enough that we were able push in the storage furniture and make a little reading nook. Except now she is bigger and doesn’t really fit in the reading nook, and it’s a pain in the ass to get books and toys into and out of that space. I’ve hit my head on that damn bed so many times.

I had been thinking about a loft bed for her, but that captain’s bed is BIG and it would be hard to get it down our stairs (how did we get it up the stairs?! – I probably blocked the memory because it was so awful). The mere thought of getting the captain’s bed out of my house killed any real plans of getting her a loft bed.

So when this woman said she was getting rid of hers – which are less than a year old – my attention was piqued. I asked her to send a picture, half hoping it would be a bed I didn’t want, and was immediately smitten with the thing. It’s white, with a desk underneath and bookcase on the side. It would work great in my daughter’s room. It also sells for $400.

I spent Thursday taking apart the bed, renting a Zip Van and hauling it to my garage. I spent today taking apart my daughter’s bed, putting it in the garage, and bringing up the new loft bed. A friend had to come over and help us with the book case part because it is HEAVY. I spent the rest of the afternoon putting it together, and then moving my daughter’s stuff into the storage areas.

I was feeling a fair amount of trepidation about whole thing. I spend all of Friday wondering if I should go through with it. Suddenly I really liked my daughter’s captain’s bed, and I was sad to see it go. Another friend had wanted the other bed that the woman was getting rid of, but wasn’t able to get it on Thursday, so I knew I could easily pass the loft bed in my garage on to her. I considered that many times. My daughter said she wanted it though, and in the end I decided the new bed was a better fit for my daughter, and that she would grow into it even more as she gets older.

I’m glad I ended up pulling the trigger. I really, really like the bed. And I like her room better now with the space it provides.

There was another piece of furniture I took, one of those big, square IKEA shelving units with 16 smaller squares inside. I originally thought I’d put it in my daughter’s room, but it’s bigger than I assumed and would take up a lot of space. I also realized that we don’t need it in there, and if we had it, we’d fill it. So I’m taking it to my classroom. I’m sure I can use it there, and if not, I’ll have someone take it for free.

I’m also taking her old desk to my school. My husband suggested putting it in our son’s room, but I have a really amazing light blue/dark blue/brown/black color scheme going on in there, and I just can’t bring myself to put a white and green desk in that room. I know I’m probably being silly, but I’ve never loved that desk (my in-laws got it for us without any input from us whatsoever), and I’m kind of excited to see it go. When my son is older, and actually needs a desk, I’ll find one that works for him, and works with the color scheme.

So that is how I’ve spent the past couple of days, working on a project I wasn’t expecting to tackle at all. But I’m glad we did. I’m glad it happened now, when her room was neat enough to easily be changed around, and when the garage was organized enough to store so much giant furniture. Also when I had the time to dedicate to the task.

I still have some work to do. I want to move my daughter’s swing away from the wall so she has more space to spin in it (this is still important to her, even though her sensory processing issues are not as pronounced). I also want to get a giant bean bag chair for the corner that used to have her desk. I’m glad I have next week to get all that stuff done.

The saddest part about this change is for our cat, who LOVED sleeping on our daughter’s bed. She is really missing her favorite snuggle places, but I created a little nook for her in the new bed and hopefully she’ll like it eventually.