Old Bed, New Bed, Twin Over Queen. The Only Way to End this Poem is With the Word "Spleen"

I was talking with my sister, Steph, the other day, and telling her about how we just got a new bed for the kids' room. A solid maple bunk bed (twin over queen) to replace the Ikea loft bed Noah was sleeping on for the past year. Steph replied, "Noah was in a loft bed?" Hence, this post.

Around Noah's 2nd birthday, we tried to figure out a way to make more play space in her room. She had been sleeping in her crib until then, and Rube was on his way. So, we found this bed on the Ikea website. I added a few handles to make it easier for her to get up there. And then I added a light underneath. She has loved her loft bed. Aside from sleeping up there, she has used it as a place to go with toys where Ruben can't follow her. And the space underneath has been a good play space, making an already large room feel even larger. You can see the foam tube I placed on the upper edges so that when little ones run underneath there, they wouldn't bonk their noggins on the wood.

Anyway... Noah liked the bed. But Daddy hated it. So many times I have wanted to crawl into bed with her to read stories and say our prayers, etc, but, alas... Ikea beds on stilts are not necessarily built to hold large, good looking men.

So, we began looking for sturdy bunk beds. And in the end we found the semi-local Riddle Furniture, and ordered a twin over queen bunk bed made of maple. While considerably diminishing the play space in the bedroom (which now holds a queen bunk, a crib, a change table, and a rocking chair n' footstool), we chose this size/quality of bed for 3 reasons...
1) Long lasting value. Of course, the bunk can act as 2 separate standalone (Standal One or Stan Da Lone) beds as well.
2) Allows us to have 3 kids in this room for awhile (should we choose to have another :-) )
3) Provides for us a guest bed, of which we were in need of. No more air mattress in the living room.

Anyway... aside from the one nasty scratch on the footboard (which we are sure was there before we got it, but we can't prove it) we are very happy with our purchase.

And the kids love it too. For sleeping on and playing on. Noah currently sleeps on the bottom. We imagine that when Rube leaves the crib he will take the bottom, and Noah will head to the top.

The Previous Bed
~purchased for a total of $235 (including taxes, handles, and lamp)
~sold for $140 on craigslist

The New Bunk Bed
~purchased for $1200
~We had them raise the height of the safety rails by a couple inches, otherwise this is their standard bed.