How to completely trash your house while trying to do something productive

With such limited space in our old house, we've learned how to cram 11 gallons of crap in a 10 gallon hat house. Then 12 gallons, then 13...

We're constantly sorting and purging. We outgrew our (awesome investment of a) duplex when Nick was born, so the addition of child #2 (no matter how cute he is!) means we're far past capacity. Consider the dog and the cat and the 52 bajillion toys that come along with children and you get the idea.

So the Hubster and I decided quite some time ago that once Will was big enough to come out of his crib that we'd get the boys bunk beds. Despite the frustrating experience we had with Will the first time we made his crib into a toddler bed a few weeks ago, we were willing to give it another go.

Only we're the type of people who will talk about an idea for awhile, then one day just up and do it. This was no exception.

We visited furniture stores, shopped around online, and had an idea as to what we wanted. This past Friday we found a few hours in the midst of a busy day when all four of us could go take a look at one last place. So when we found what we were looking for at a great price AND it was in stock? Well, we took it home that day, of course.

Begin utter chaos.

Pictures 1-5: the "old room"
Pics 6 & 7: taking down old beds
Pics 8-11: putting together new beds
(and doing karate chops on the styrofoam, natch)
Pic #12: Oh holy crap.

While we'd planned to buy the beds, we really didn't consider how much work it was going to take to unassemble the old ones, move all the boys' toys and their dressers, set up the new beds and put everything else back.

Needless to say, it took us two days.

But Will LOVES his new "big boy bed" and we no longer have problems with him sneaking into his brother's bed to wrestle and giggle - somehow the fact that he can't actually see his brother seems to have solved that. He hasn't yet tried to climb the ladder in the dark - thank GAWD.

And now? Everything's back in order. Just in time for us to host Thanksgiving!

If anyone in the Milwaukee area is looking for beds (bunk or otherwise) for their kids, I highly recommend Bunks & Beds on 62 & Layton. The (family) staff was super patient with all the kids in the store, their prices were GREAT and all our items were in stock!

And yes, of course we considered kids falling out of beds and how much work it would take to change the sheets on the top bunk before getting to this "let's go buy 'em!" stage. Square footage rules, and so do add-on bed rails.