A quad bunkhouse for FIVE

I told ya'll a while back that I would finish showing you our camper remodel.  We painted the main living area, put up curtains, did away with the booth dinette and camper couch...added a recliner and futon, hung some art, changed our lights out to LED.  I'm pretty sure I showed you all of that.  What I didn't show you were the changes we made to the kids bunk room.  Well, I'm going to show you now :)...

We have 5 kids.  Our camper is a Fifth Wheel with a quad bunk room.  Yep, only 4 beds.  A little simple math and you can see that we come up one bed short.  We made it work, buying the littlest dude one of those flip futon chairs that we folded out as his bed each night and folded back up into a chair each day.  Not ideal (the chair ate up a lot of floor space even folded up), but it was very comfortable. 

Our camper has tons of storage space.  Seriously.  So much so that we have always had empty cabinets and drawers.  That is great, but surely we could put that empty space to work for us...right?  Right.  So, we pondered it for a bit and came up with the idea of a trundle bed on the boys side of the room.  There are 2 bunks with a bank of drawers under the lowest bunk on each side of the room...

Take out those drawers...

cell phone photography late at night...not so great ;p

Have your awesome husband build a custom trundle bed, complete with little wheels and rope handles...

the bottom of the trundle bed

checking the fit before adding the face

isn't it pretty?  my hubby is awesome :)

Stuff it with soft and squishiness...

And you have the perfect solution to the 5 kids in a quad bunk RV problem :).

Well, almost perfect.  We used a slab of memory foam that we had bought for our bed.  We just cut it in the size of the trundle and layered it up in the bed until it was nice and thick.  It was comfortable, but there was another problem.  After it was slept on for only a short while, it started to smell.  Think locker room meets bowling alley smell.  Gag.  The mattress (I will never buy memory foam again.  Ever.) was apparently making my littlest boy sweat in the night time and then trapping said sweat forevermore.  Makes me sick to my stomach thinking about it...  That thing went to the nearest dumpster, we did a little research, and ended up ordering a custom piece of foam from a place called Foam Factory.

We went with the outdoor foam because of it's breathe-ability and anti-microbial qualities.  From their website..."Dryfast foams are suited for outdoor use where moisture and precipitation like rain is prevalent, such as in patio furniture, including under Phifertex material, or in marine cushioning on personal watercraft. The large, open cells provide a degree of airflow not present in other foams, allowing it to dry quickly, even after complete saturation. The Dryfast foam formula is anti-microbial and helps suppress microorganism growth, common in damp areas. Dryfast foam can be cut to the size you need with a sharp knife in your own home, or we can cut it for you."...or the sweatiness from a boy child ;).

We measured, ordered on-line, and it arrived pre-cut and ready to slip into the frame.  NOW we had the perfect solution to the 5 kids in a quad bunk problem ;).  Our son loves his comfy bed that his dad built for him and we all love that it doesn't smell funny (my poor little dude).

Ok, we solved the bed issue but didn't stop with that.  The rod in the kids' closet had decided to detach itself and come crashing down one day.  What a mess!  It would never work to try and stack the kids' folded clothes up inside the wardrobe like it was and I really didn't want to try hanging a new rod...the kids had been having a hard time with organizing their clothes with the factory set up.  So, we added a couple of shelves to divide the space.  The kids each designated a spot for their folded up clothes to go...another problem solved.  Works so much better than just having that one rod with a shelf above it!

Originally we had bought each child one of those nets that fits into the corner of their bunk to hold their stuffed animals, etc.  These nets always fell down when we were traveling and the contents would spill out.  Kinda defeated the purpose...  As long as we were still, they worked fine.  But we don't like to be still ;).  So, we took a lap around the hardware store and came up with storage baskets from the closet system section.  They have a notch made into the front that is perfect for reaching into when attached to the underside of a bunk...

This worked for the four bunks, but what about the 5th child...what does he get?  His very own basket, of course :).  I had a vintage locker basket that worked perfectly in his space.  Dan attached it to the side of the wardrobe and it has been filled to the brim with little boy treasures ever since...

While we were in there with the tools, we decided to hang the kids TV up on the wall.  This worked so that they could all see it better and also to free up the top of the little TV cabinet thing...

The kids added their personal touches...more Jr. Ranger badges, different bedding, different/more art...

They are happy with the changes...anything that gives them more space for legos ;)!