Please read down to my reply on the last bunkbed posting. Bunkbeds get a lot of wear and tear on their structures ESPECIALLY with boys!!! They play on them. It's important not only to get good wood, but check out how they are constructed and assembled! Do they have solid square posts? How are the railings put together, how are the slats held in place? Do you have to have a bunky board? (We have a sheet of plywood instead). My dad was a cabinet- maker and taught me that pine is a soft wood, so I wanted a hard wood for my children's beds. Stanley is well built. Our 2 sets are maple and solid. The bunk beds do not rock when you push on them! We've own them since our boys were little, about 14 years for the first set; and yes they can hold an 18 year old on the top bunk. They can also be seperated into twin beds. Our 20 year old, seperated his and move his half of the set up north to his college apt. If you live in So CA you can google "Pacific Sales" and go to their furniture store in Cerritos (not far). You can see Stanley sets there and get an idea of costs. Costco once had a set that looked exactly like a Stanley and solid maple for under $400. You can check their stores and online stores. Also, if you don't need a top bunk: someone on craigslist is selling a complete set cheap. One thing I wish I had purchased, was a trundle for underneath instead of the storge bins. A trundle would be great for sleep overs! Hope this helps.

I posted a similar question a few months ago. (Still haven't bought the bunk bed!) I was advised to look for Stanley or other maple bunk bed sets for sale used in my area or on Ebay -- that these are the best. I'm still thinking about it. I actually saw a pine bunk set for $200 at Big Lots, of all places, and gave it a few good shakes, and it seemed very sturdy. Not to hijack the thread, but who is this Jeffcai person and what is he selling?

Walkin- I am in central NM. The consignment shop, I believe, was called Furniture on Consignment. It is off of I-25 in Albuquerque. You could call and see if they have any bunks and ask to have them forward you pictures to gauge if you like them. If you decide to make a trip to Albq, places to check would be: 1. American Home. I think that this is the largest furniture dealer in NM (not saying much but they have a large kids section). 2. Unpainted Furniture - I haven't been there in a while but there prices are reasonable. 3. Simply Stickley - Stickley is pretty good quality and thus not cheap but they just opened a showroom in Albq. I think that I saw bunks on their site under Stickley Starters. 4. Amish Connection - Once I saw bunks in their showroom. I don't remember seeing them there recently but they also have catalogs and they may have different wood options if you desire that. As far as making the bed, I make 9 yo DS change his own sheets on the top bunk. I think I have seen him crawling under the mattress flipped up to do it, but I just look the other way. Since the bottom bunk is perpendicular, it is on casters and I just pull it out to change the sheets for the 3yo. HTH

"If you are having problems finding large enough dowel pins, you can also use metal dowels (aka metal rod)" I would stay away form metal unless you use about th esame diameter (3/4 to 1 inch) as a wood dowel. While the metal wil be way stronger than needed (a 1/4 inch or even 1/2 inch would be strong enough) a small metal insert can easily exceed the crush rating of the wood it is on. This would cause the post to simply split with the smaller metal dowel from load concentration.