Bamboo and Bunk beds

Over Christmas break, I made an appointment with my Doctor to update him on a medical issue I was having. I have been having difficulty swallowing for nearly 2 years. It isn’t every day, but when it happens it is scary. I had tried antacids to treat the symptoms but they caused their own issues. I told him swallowing had become increasingly difficult, and asked if possibly my swallowing issues could be related to stress, he said absolutely, and told me to go home for 6 weeks and do what I could to de-stress. Well my friend happened to call as I was leaving the Doctors, and I told her about all of the stress I was under, our house is very tiny, and the boys are always fighting, there isn’t really a space for anyone to go and decompress, and I was feeling overwhelmed. She suggested trying to find ways to make the house a little more user friendly, and to make it feel bigger. She also suggested that I ask my boys to come up with solutions. So we had a family meeting and I asked the boys what they needed to fight less. They gave me suggestions for bedroom changes, like a different bed configuration, and the living room to be set up differently and maybe for more places that they can call their own. I have spent the last 4 weeks pondering all of this, and putting into action all that I could. We changed around the living room, and everyone absolutely loves the new set up. We had plans to change up the bunk bed and take it from a futon on the bottom to a twin bed (really not that hard, just time consuming and could be a bit pricey). But the bunk bed we had was larger than really worked for our house, and we really wanted something smaller in general, since we have 3 kids on one large bedroom and our teenager in his tiny jail sized room, (not suitable for sharing unfortunately).

Well this past weekend, I found myself in Target and came upon clearance bamboo table runners, they happened to be the right size to make into window coverings for my living room Bow window. We have longed to cover them with something but their placement and size have made it difficult, so I am constantly on the lookout for something to cover them, that won’t get ruined by moisture, and will work hanging from the window ceiling. We had looked into custom blinds but they ran about $50 a pop, too rich for my blood. So we settled for the “temporary” paper or vinyl blinds you can find at Lowes. Well they changed how they were designed in the last few years, and they weren’t compatible with what we needed. So when I found the bamboo runner, my mind immediately went to the idea that I had found my new window coverings. I bought 4 of them.

After tossing around many ideas, like shortening them, adding ribbon, or ribbon and a button or hooks to hang them with, we decided just to drape them over our curtain wire as is. I also found new black, tab top curtains for my living room. (Years ago I found this gorgeous sheer fabric in their after Christmas “Global bizarre” area, and had to have them. It took me a few more years to use them in the living room, and really, they were just too sheer for the room and too gold, but we have been living with them for about 2 years). The new curtains were also on clearance, and I was able to get 4 pairs of curtains for around $22 total. (That is such a steal!)

So on Sunday we were hanging the special curtain wire for our new bamboo finds, and putting up our newer, warmer curtains, when we realized that due to the shape of our Bow window, we had to get one more brackets for our wire hanging system. And the only place to get them is IKEA, Which is 45 minutes away (ugh). So off we went, and, although we weren’t looking officially, we found a new bunk bed frame for $79! It happens to be silver, which is prefect since last summer I spent 2 weeks redecorating the boy’s room; complete with blue paint and silver accents (they have a space themed room). We also have needed to move our youngest from his toddler bed to something larger, but our former room arrangement couldn’t accommodate it. We were able to find a silver daybed for $29! We already had 1 twin mattress, so we just needed to find 2 more, which luckily they had on the cheap.

                                                  Our lovely new bamboo "shade"

                                                             

                                                        Wire curtain rod system

We set everything up late Sunday night, and the boys were so excited they could hardly stand it. We gained so much more space in their room. I feel so lucky to have found the exact items that we needed in one place. And yes my swallowing problems have gotten much better in the last 4 weeks, part of that is giving up Gluten, part of that has been massive organizing efforts on my part, part of it has been me re-reading Simple abundance, and being grateful for what I do have, and part of it has been finding a creative outlet for myself. All of them have contributed to a stress reduction in me.

The bunk bed for the younger boys

The daybed for our resident "Tween"