One of the folks in the forum here just posted a pic of a bed plant container holder instead of turning it into a bench. The "seat" board is down inside from where it would normally be so the containers are a bit hidden by the front of the foot board. It was a new post just this past 4th of July weekend, so it might still be on the first page when you first open the forum. Another thing you might want to do is find Purplemoon's Inspiration Album post - she's gathered lots of our pics and put them into categories. I'll see if I can find the post and put a link to it, it shouldn't be too far down the first page actually. Sal

Congrats again!! Is Brody staying in the "nursery" or moving to a new room? With Olivia we always had a twin bed in her room near the crib. One day DH put her to bed and came downstairs and said, By the way, she is sleeping in the twin bed tonight. She just picked it one day. She was maybe 2 1/2? We used the crib to store stuffed toys and blankets for a while. I thought maybe she'd realize it's off-limits for sleeping? Then we made a big deal about 4 months before Katie was born that she got a whole new room and bed and she helped pick out colors/bedspread etc. We downplayed the nursery and focused on her big girl bed. I think we did the side rails for a while, but eventually just put some pillows on the floor in case. By chance, if he has any problems with moving, we have a bassinet that I could loan you for the baby to sleep in your room/another room for a little while? When the Katie was born we gave Olivia a present from the baby. She still talks about that and how happy she was!

My younger DS had a metal twin over a desk space, and that was VERY sturdy and worked well until he got too tall to comfortably do the upper bunk thing. I think he was about 10 or so. I think there are two things that concern me about the JCP set. The legs on the upper bunk are pretty skinny where they meet the head and footboards of the lower bunk. Do they attach somehow or just rest on there - I can't tell from the pix. In the closeup, there are two little whitish boxes on the edge of the top bunk where it attaches to the head and footboards, and one for the bottom bunk. Not sure what those are, but the ones on the top are crooked. For sure I would try to call JCP customer service and find out how much weight the beds can support, etc. I know that in the other thread several people mentioned thisendup.com. I would consider that source - they have a great reputation and the furniture that I have seen from them is solid and will last. The furniture from JCP is solid wood with veneers, which means that when it gets scratches or dings or nicks, you are dealing with trying to fix the veneer, not solid wood. If we are talking about young kids, I would be a little worried about how this would stand up especially with kids climbing on the frames and all over the railings, etc.

"From your post it sounds like you want/need a larger master bathroom and the kids rooms are really small, not huge just bigger. I get that, as one of our kid's rooms was really small prior to our remodel. It fit a twin bed, a dresser and a small desk, barely. It was tight. As your kids grow they'll probably want a bit more space in their rooms then what they have now. Since the rest of your house and yard is pretty ideal, location and schools are good, I'd stay put. Can you hire an architect to draw up some plans that might address your needs in a way you haven't thought of already? A good architect will see your house in a new light and quite possibly will give you option(s) you never considered." After we’ve talked about it, it’s doubtful that we would do a full-fledged addition and add a bedroom/master bathroom. That would be too much for what we really need and too much disruption. Realistically, I doubt my wife or I would do the basement route either….maybe one of the kids would want to do it down the line, but it would still cost us a decent amount of money in order to bring it up to code with exit windows. What have kinda tossed around is doing a bump-out or just a small extension off the master bedroom/bathroom to allow for a tub/double-vanity in the bathroom and then a little more closet space in the master. Not sure on the cost, but I’m sure it’ll be much, much less than a full addition. The other thing we have talked about doing is walling off the dining room and making that into a bedroom. There wouldn’t be any way to have a doorway to go from the living room back to the bedroom area, so the only entry to the bedroom area would now be the kitchen. Originally I thought it would be a little weird, but my wife said that it might make more sense. We watch TV and have the big fireplace in that room so it might cut down some sound coming from the family room. It’s not really about having separation from the kids as much as it is having more bedroom space overall. My daughters bedroom could probably fit a small desk in the corner, so no problem there. My boys room has a bunk bed, 1 dresser, and there is not much room outside of that.