Hexabed!

Y'all are gonna die.

Are you ready for this?

We do not have a 13 bedroom house.

Our oldest boy is the only kid in the house with his own room, 

under the condition that if we ever have company - he gets booted.

That left two options for housing 12 kids:

1. Use the play room as a bedroom (Not happening.)

or

2. Put 5 beds in one room for the younger boys. (yikes)

I need to tell you - I wasn't sure how that was going to work. 

It sounded crowded. And cramped. And impossible.

But, ever the optimist

(and "never-met-a-challenge-he-couldn't-tackle" type person)

My sweet hubby decided he could put 5 beds in one room and leave plenty of floor space.

Uh huh.

Right.

So his Dad drove down from NY with Paul's old tools and they got to work.

The bed bases being put together in the garage.

Making ladders

The recently emptied room

The bottom two beds go in...

And another row is begun...

And another.

Adding the ladders...

wood putty, wood putty, sand, sand, sand...

Painting, painting, painting...

And then finally...

done!!

Some other details:

• The mattresses are slightly more narrow than twin size. 
• Only 5 boys will be in here. That leaves an empty bed for me or Dad - as the resident peacekeeper if need be during those first days/weeks home.
• They don't have any other furniture other than the beds and a small bookshelf and little end table. This gave us more freedom to build beds in the room. Their closet is full of 15" cubbies instead of using dressers! 
• We cut TWO California King memory foam mattresses into thirds to make 6 mattresses! I then took twin flat sheets folded in half, made them into giant "pillowcases" to become mattress covers. Then I took those cheap dollar store vinyl tablecloths with felt backings, cut them into thirds, and made waterproof pads, then used twin flat bed sheets as the bottom sheet, and twin quilts folded in half for comforters. It's working for now. 

I cut stadium blankets in thirds to cover the plywood
so it didn't scratch the mattresses or pull threads on the sheets.

Top blanket folded back, quilt under that, sheet under that.

Top bunks - L-shaped view

The foot-end of one bunk to show the "case" over the memory foam.

Better pic of mattress.
It's like 4" memory foam, but very comfy!

So... there you have it!!

We now have beds for all of our children...

whenever they are able to come home!

Come on, Embassy!!

And... yes, it's already a giant indoor jungle gym!