Freecycle Score - Boys Loft Bed!

Jarod has been BEGGING for a bunk bed since April, when we moved in. He tried to talk me into just buying him one pretty much all. the. time. "Common mom, how hard would it be to just pay for one?" (If you know me...really hard. lol)

But I knew there was the perfect bed out there for my boys. One that wouldn't cost me hundreds of dollars or make me give in to consumerism. We kept getting our hopes up and then dashed though, which just drove Jarod nuts.

* I saw an ad in the paper for a yard sale that mentioned a bunk bed. But when we got there is was a DOG bunk bed. (What? Why?) Jarod said he thought he could curl up inside just fine.

* There was an ad in the paper for a bunk bed but when I called it was 2 hours away. Jarod was up for the drive of course but I had to explain how with the gas it wouldn't be saving us any money. He said we could walk.

* There was a free bunk bed on craigslist but when I emailed it was already taken. Jarod asked me why didn't I type faster?

FINALLY, today a loftbed was listed on Freecycle. I wasn't sure what it was exactly but figured it would do. Problem was we had to pick it up....and we have a car. The man was kind enough to take it apart for us and Jason took out our back seat so we could push the pieces all the way from the trunk to the front seats. (I didn't know you could do that but now if I'm ever locked in a trunk I know how to get out! hah) I still didn't think we could fit a whole bunk bed in our trunk but we did! It' a really nice and made of solid wood!

We got it home and Jarod was so excited! He kept saying he must be dreaming and rushed us along as we tried to put it together. Of course we put it together wrong the first time, had to take it apart and redo it but one sliced up arm later (mine, ouch) and a few trips to the hardware store...and it was done! Jarod climbed up there and I haven't seen him since. lol

We put Alex's toddler bed (also from freecycle), chair (gift), and dresser (borrowing) underneath and he is now calling it his "cave".

I asked Jarod if it was worth the wait.

"Well. Maybe. But I could have fit in that dog bed."

Free Funny Dresser for $0.00!!!

I have two boys.
They are a bit destructive.
They don't mean to be, they just play rough at times, as most boys tend to do.
I have 7 brothers so it's not new to me but you can bet I'm not going to spend a bunch of money on their bedroom since it's possible their furniture will end up being taken apart to build a raft or castle during one of their "It's raining, we can't go outside, so we must breakdown and rebuild everything we see while mom naps" episodes.

They have a dresser. A dresser that was given to me by a kind woman off freecycle. It's perfect for them because it press board, so I don't have to worry about them ruining a perfectly good wood dresser, and it came already broken in (a middle bracket is missing). At first I had given thought to painting it all neat with a few different paints, each drawer a different color. But then I realized that I'd have to buy all that paint. And I'm not going to spend money on a press board dresser that probably won't last to our next move. So...I decided I'd have to make them an awesome dresser using what I already had on hand.

I had black paint so that part was easy....but what to do with the drawers?? Then it hit me....comics! I have tons of comics because I save them to use as wrapping paper.

So...I took out the drawers, hauled it outside, and sanded it down.

Then I got out my Kilz and black paint I already had, leftover from Rebecca's room.

I did one coat of kilz, let it dry...

And then did a coat of black, let it dry...

And then did a final coat of black. Looking good. One of these days I might try to fix that missing bar in the middle.

While the coats were drying I got out my Mod Podge and my comics.

And glued the comics on the drawers, and all over my clothes, and my hair too. That stuff is sticky!

While those were drying I got a little crazy and took these two photo frames, that Aunt Alice gave us...

And filled them with comics too! You can't have too many comics.

And this is what it looks like when you put it all together, along with a freecycled lamp!
(I'm thinking this would look a lot better if I framed the comics in somehow...I might have to get some crown molding or such and try to frame each drawer.) (I still have to put the drawer pulls in too, just have to figure out how to paint brass first.) (I also left the comic whole so the kids could read them...but now I'm thinking it might look better to do more of a collage, like we did Rebecca's....I might do that the next sunny day we have.) (But for now it works just fine!)

The boys now have a fun dresser, one that maybe they won't destroy, but it they do somehow crash into it and it breaks into a million pieces...as least it cost me ZERO dollars to make!

Boy's Room

Now that we're almost done with Rebecca's room, it's time to start planning the boys.

They could care less, (I asked them both and they just gave me a blank look and mumbled "colors? what?") so I'm thinking primary. And bunk beds. I think I saw a whole bunch of bunk beds at the Restore last time I was there. And once I get a sewing machine I could make a tent for it!

Jarod has a dresser I'd like to paint, perhaps do each drawer a different color like this:

And I'd like to find one of these rugs:

My problem is that I only need a tiny bit of red, blue, and green paint. Can you buy tiny containers of paint? Or I guess it wouldn't hurt to have leftovers for future projects. Hmmmmm.