Well, we finally broke-down and did the bedroom shuffle. Our upstairs has three bedrooms, 1 that is larger and 2 are a Jack-and-Jill. Prior, my youngest was in the "Jill" and my son was in the "Jack" while my oldest and middle daughters (they are 4 years apart) shared the larger room.
Now for the shuffle... I had to repaint the "Jill" to turn it into a "Jack" with the same color scheme my son had when we lived in Michigan. More on that later. And I repainted the Jack to become a Jill, so now my oldest two would be in the Jack/Jill, and my youngest two would share the larger room, as they are only 2 years apart and both girls.
So, my oldest picked out a loft-style bed (the Tromso) from Ikea that had a desk underneath (sold separately). We bought as much as our Honda Odyssey could haul (and for those of you in-the-know, that's a scary amount of stuff once the seats are removed!). I spent Saturday July 12 building everything with much success, to my surprise. The only thing that troubled me was the wobbly loft bed!
After briefly reading some hints on the net (did you know of ikeahacker.com? I didn't), I went to Home Depot and bought 16' of 1"x3" cut into four 4' lengths, and several plastic (PVC) pipe clamps that are in the shape of a half-circle with extended flanges for screws. After attaching the boards to the wall studs and moving the bed back in place, I secured the loft bed to the boards, and Voila!
My oldest now sleeps on a wicked sturdy loft bed that resembles the sleeping arrangements at either summer camp or the Castillian (a freshman dorm) at Texas. Oh yea, and there is that nifty new desk she has to study on.