Progress in the Boys Room

So, Matt and I got to work over the tail end of Thanksgiving weekend. Monday morning I said ” Do you mind if we take a look through those plans and you tell me which ones you’d like to build?” I showed him my top pick (the Land of Nod inspired “Uptown” Bunks) and after taking a read through the lumber/cut list he said “I think we have all the lumber for these. What if I build them today?” To which I was like… really?! When you have a husband that has a constant flow of projects he could choose from (aka, he is building you a house) you (me) might feel really hesitant to put the idea of adding another project to his plate. Matt’s enthusiasm and sweetness to his wife is why he is my perfect match. I am so thankful he took the time to work on the bunks that day.

It’s not to say things always go smoothly, because they certainly don’t. (I wasn’t feeling well that morning, and when I went to take a look at some of the boards he’d cut, I just couldn’t give my stamp of approval… they were rough framing lumber with bark.)  I have learned to be delicate about sharing my opinion in these situations, because I am so thankful he is taking the time to work on this- at the same time, I don’t want to compromise the whole project, just because we live out of town… and “kind of” have all of the lumber at our house. Matt didn’t want to pick up any more boards, but thankfully… we have a good sized lumber pile. So, he was very gracious to make a few more cuts on some different, smooth(er) 2×6’s for the end rails. His vision was rustic… mine was, well, as splinter free and sturdy as possible. And something that would look nice under white paint 😀

By the end of the day, Matt had cut all of the lumber. I spent the day sanding… sanding… and sanding some more. (a step that could probably be avoided being so intense if you used a better grade of lumber, but, this was free so… bring on the sander!) I was able to test out the new sanding set that Matt bought me (us) and also brought my little mouse sander out for some action when I had worn through all the sand paper I had for the new sanders. I have to say, the Orbital sander is the winner. We also brought out the planer Matt bought me (us) (do you see a pattern… babe, look what I got for you!… a new tool!) and that is just a sweetly awesome tool. Seriously. Matt did the planing… I stuck to sanding. And filling. Once we had the head and foot board assembled, we called it a day. I also was not nearly 100% that day… so it was early bed time for me that night!

Later on in the week I took some time to fill screw holes, sand and paint!

The break down for the bunks themselves is as follows:

Lumber/ screws- $0 (already had on hand)

Paint- $0 (trim paint in a semi gloss from around the house)

Bolts/Nuts- about $15-$20 (we bought the big boxes)

So, in the end the boys new bunks cost under $20. Not bad I’d say. We had planned on buying a new mattress (as we had 1 single) but our in laws had an extra mattress they were getting rid of, so that was a double blessing! According to different people that have built these on Ana-White’s site- they could run anywhere between $150-$300 for materials based on lumber type/prices etc. Just to give you an idea if you are wanting to build some bunks for your kids.

I am still working on getting the boys room set up, we put the bunks in while my mom was visiting, but still need to finish the ladder. We found these cute bedside lamps at Target on Sale, from the threshold line:

So now, each of the boys have a reading light. We also bought some new blinds, which I am hoping to hang up today. So long red towels, hello baby steps! The boys room is on it’s way to functioning better, and the boys are loving their new beds! It’s quite cute 🙂

I would love to find some blue and white striped bedding, or I also like Red Ticking gingham-ish things… somewhere in the Blue/White/maybe Red Punches world. Excited to eventually have a full reveal for ya!

Thanks for staying with me as I post when I’ve got time… and dealing with my instagram pics. One day, I will bring the camera back out… for now, it is kind of like, instant blogging!

Happy Monday Ya’ll! (maybe a bit of texan coming out?)

-Miss Ash

P.S. If you want to check read more about the plans and how we decided on bunks, you can check out this post.