Why didn't we do this before?

We found ourselves asking this question a few hours after we put Danika's new bed together.

We realized that Danika needed some of her own space a little while ago. Once Bryce started moving around, and getting into her stuff it started. But has recently gotten worse. She tries to play with her barbies or babies, and he is all over her stuff, driving her crazy! I know what she feels like, I have a younger brother.
Her room had a shelf, dresser and a double bed. Basically there was enough room to turn around in there, that is all. No room to play.

So, I went online and found a used bed for a great deal. It is a loft bed, but a short loft. There are only 3 steps up, so she is not to high off the ground. This bed is great though, because it came with a dresser piece and desk piece. The dresser faces out at the end of her bed. It has space for the clothes we needed to put in there, and also has a shelf part on it for some of her books. The desk part is great. It slides under her bed when she isn't using it, and out when she is. It also has shelves on the end and holds tons of books too!

Other than her bed, we put some hooks on the wall for her dress up stuff, put some shelves on the wall for those things that she isn't allowed to play with. Under her bed, we put some blankets and pillows, and some of her bigger stuffed animals! It is a great place to play.

So, now she has under her bed to play, and the rest of her floor!

She loves to play up there. And only hours after it was up, Bryce was playing quietly on the main floor, and she was upstairs playing. There was no whining, fighting, crying, yelling, it was great. It was so nice and quiet, we got to make dinner without "helpers". We had time to ourselves, time to ask ourselves- "why didn't we do this before?"

Here are some pictures!