Triple Bunk Beds, that's right, I said TRIPLE!

First off, if you're interested in making this awesome triple bunk bed, here's a link to the plans that we used.  Triple Bunk Bed Plans.  My husband is a fairly handy guy but had never built any furniture before.  These plans were easy to follow and use standard wood sizes that can be found at your typical home improvement store.

  I wish I would have taken a picture when this bed was just a pile of lumber but I didn't. So, Micah used to sleep in a twin bed up in the loft and Jacob had the top bunk and Ben had the bottom bunk in the downstairs area. In the summer the loft got pretty hot and Micah also started complaining of bad dreams and wanted to be with his brothers. We moved him down to the floor on his mattress. There was hardly any walking room, it was pretty bad. Tyler started looking for triple bunk beds on the internet, yep, they have them, and they are about 1-2 thousand dollars. Well, we definately could not afford that. Tyler found a sit that you could buy plans to build your own triple bunk bed. He went ahead and did this. Now, I'll be honest. Tyler had never built anything before this, so I was kind of thinking that it would be months or years before we actually had a finished product and that it would look pretty "homemade". I know that's terrible. I have a wonderful husband who is quite smart and talented and I'm now ashamed that I thought this. Anyway. We had the plans for awhile before we were able to buy the wood, and once we bought the wood (Douglas Fir, the cheapest) it was pretty green and we had to let it dry for several weeks. Once it was dry Tyler took it to his good friend Rob McCune's house to joint and plane it (Rob changed our front brakes on our van in less than 10 minutes that night too, thanks Rob!). While Tyler was sick I went to my grandparents house and picked up Grandpa's router and router table, he was impressed that I could carry it to the van and lift it into the van all by myself! So, the next step, Ty sanded and routered the pieces, I skipped a step, he first cut the wood into the right size pieces before he did anything else. So, once all that was done I didn't realize the boys would be sleeping in their new bed 3 days later! Tyler built it on Saturday and on Monday, Memorial Day he and I put a sealer on the wood and Tuesday night they were sleeping in it!
Tyler, I am so proud of you for all of the projects you take on, for your dedication in finishing them and for learning so many new things. You are amazing and I love you and I love the new bed and how wonderful the boys room looks and feels now. I have been in there cleaning up after them more than I used to and I don't mind it because it feels so nice to be in their room now.

She got reprimanded for drawing on the wood and Tyler had to go around and erase all of her artwork.

These big side pieces were the hardest part of the whole project for Ty. The lags were hard to get in, once he got them in a ways they kept stripping, he spent the most time getting those pieces on.

This is our front room where the boys slept while Ty put the bed together. It is such a huge piece of furniture that it had to be assembled right in the room. That thing is really heavy too. If there is ever an earthquake we're all getting under that thing!

He hates these pictures but I had to get one of him with his first building project. Doesn't it look good too? I love it. I think it looks so much cooler than I was expecting it to. The wood really didn't look very nice when it first came home from Lowes.

These are all the kids, and the dog on M's bed. He got to pick first since he's the oldest, then J picked the bottom and B was left with the top. They have all been happy with their location, but when they play on the bed they all seem to like the middle bunk.

I love this picture because Miss P was just innocently loving on D not even seeming to notice that he wasn't into it. I'm sure he was growling too. Click on the picture so you can get a good look at his snarl.

This one is cute too, I love her little gap tooth smile and her wispy curls above her ears.

I'm sure these kids will make lots of wonderful memories in their triple bunk, and probably even the grandkids too cause this bed isn't going anywhere!