A little bit of factual information: We live in a two-bedroom one-bath condo. The images below will give you some rough visuals (which might or might not be useful):
The back half of our living room. To the right is where we keep coats, boots, a desk, and C's diaper-changing "station"--
The front half of our living room. Between the piano and the wall with the window is a medium-sized chest freezer. As you can sort of see, the chest freezer and piano are more often than not covered in junk-- there's just nowhere else to put it!
The boys' room. Along the wall you can't see is a set of bookshelves and some toy storage. There is also a walk-in closet to the left, along the same wall as the bunkbeds. The dresser holds the clothes of the two older boys, and the "armoire" holds C's clothes, and has some room in the top half for hanging clothes for all three boys.
The "master bedroom." There's about a foot and a half of space between the foot of the bed and the loveseat (bottom right corner). Along the right wall is my dresser and C's pack-n-play. We pretty much use the p-n-p for naps only, though he also starts the nights out in there (but doesn't last very long before joining us in our bed). Along the left wall is a closet spanning most of the length of the wall. To the right of the picture is a second walk-in closet used for storage of various things.
There, you have a basic visual now.
So, challenges we currently face:
A. With the baby (almost a toddler!) in our room, Nick pretty much has to dress in the dark every morning (sometimes I do, too). Once in a while, Z is even in there sleeping, having joined us partway through the night (he's a light sleeper like his mom).
B. With a younger brother sleeping in his room (eventually two younger brothers), when G gets up in the morning to get ready for school, we have to quietly get his clothes and bring them out to the living room for him to get dressed.
C. With the pack-n-play in the back corner of our bedroom, it's just not a very handy daytime playpen anymore. And there are definitely times on a daily basis when I really miss it during the day to keep C out of trouble; but he's not keen (and I can't blame him) on being left alone in our room to play while we're all out in the living room or kitchen.
D. Once C moves in with his brothers, he's going to need his own bed. How are we going to fit another bed in that room and still be able to fit the clothing storage?
E. Ummm, we have really noisy neighbors next door. Just last night, they kept us awake past midnight.
F. Our neighbors also have to hear our baby crying in the middle of the night when he's having trouble sleeping due to teething or illness or general discomfort.
So, what would moving our king-sized bed accomplish?
1. With no-one sleeping in the master bedroom anymore, it will be much easier for all of us to get dressed in the morning without waking each other (we'd move the boys' clothing into the master bedroom, too).
2. The pack-n-play would be easier to move around. We could have it in the living room near our bed at night; and during the day, we could either have it in the living room, or move it to the master bedroom for naptime, or for when I'm working in there (because I intend to have a sewing/craft station where our bed used to be).
3. With ALL clothing storage moved into the master bedroom, making space in the boys' room for a double bed for C to eventually sleep in (and either Nick or I could join him briefly in the middle of the night if he got fussy), and also for a guest bed.
4. We wouldn't have to listen to our noisy neighbors in the middle of the night, making noises we have no business hearing (but currently can't help it). And they would no longer have to listen to our baby scream in the middle of the night.
Challenges of having the king bed in the living room:
a. It would take up a lot of space (obviously). We'd have to figure out what to do with our big couch. Also, there would be just barely enough space for someone to sit at the computer desk.
b. Entertaining company would be a bit of a challenge (though we'd still have a little space in the front half of the living room for some folding furniture, and we could maybe turn part of the bed into daytime seating).
c. Privacy and presentability (you mean I'd actually have to make my bed every single day? haha). This could be addressed, though, by hanging curtains from the ceiling to conceal the bed (and also shut out light).
So, weighing the pros and cons, I think it's at least worth a try! What do you think?
Anyway, I might be able to talk Nick into trying it, at least for a little while, since we'll have to move the bed out anyway in order to paint the walls in the master bedroom. So, stay tuned! You may be hearing more about this little adventure in the future...
It's fortunate for Nick I can't move the bed all by myself...
No way! I would look into a trundle bed to slide under the bunk bed, and move an armoire if I had to into the living room for dressing!
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