<p>Do most kids at Rice loft their beds? Do you need a special loft kit? Where do you get them? Are they hard to put together? It would be good to know this before S gets there so we have an idea of how much extra junk he can bring. It would be great if he could put the desk under the bed to free up some space. He's not particularly adept with tools, so hopefully he'll get paired with someone who is ;)</p>
<p>I remember that the beds in my older son's dorm (not at Rice) had special connections in the bedposts that allowed the beds to be raised high enough to slide the dresser underneath. Not a true loft, but he was able to store the dresser, fridge and a trunk underneath with no problem.</p>
<p>As far as I know, every bed on campus is designed to be lofted using the existing hardware (you take the headboard and footboard, attach them together to hold up one end and use the wardrobe to support the other end). It requires some tools, but there's a maintenance rep. at each college who can provide those, along with the necessary hardware (and should help actually loft it). The resulting effect is about a 5 foot loft - not really enough to stand up underneith, but plenty of room to for the desks.</p>
<p>Tbey do it for you, as thelonius said. There are all kinds of ways the rooms can be arranged. At one point my son and his quad mates put all the beds in one room, with 3 desks for sleep and study and had the other room as a noiser, relaxation room.</p>
<p>I was the student maintenance rep for Lovett and helped a bunch of people loft their beds. It is pretty easy to do once you get the hang of it. Lovett's furniture is older than some of the other colleges and from talking to the SMR at Weiss, Lovett's beds are much more difficult to adjust. </p>
<p>You can either ask the SMR or do it yourself. If you do it yourself then you will need a few tools, but I would suggest bringing a little tool kit to school anyway even if you get the SMR to do the bed for you. You need an allen wrench, a socket and wrench set, sometimes a screwdriver (phillips or flathead), and sometimes a hammer (like I said, Lovett's beds were kinda difficult sometimes).</p>
<p>SMR does it for you. You just put in the request and they take care of it during move-in.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone. Sending a tool set is a good idea - maybe he'll actually learn how to use 'em! :)</p>
<p>Hi patsmom! What everyone tells you is absolutely correct. The SMR will also help you unloft your bed, as we needed to do after he broke his leg. However, in taking down the bed, the SMR also accodentally ripped the electrical conduit off the wall, exposing all the wires and killing the power in the room! Good news, we didn't have to pay to get it fixed because my s didn't do it. However, I am not sure if we would have been billed if he had. So.. I recommend you let the SMR do it-- just in case something accidentally goes wrong. You don't need an extra bill with all the cost of college these days.</p>
<p>a note on lofting beds: i had mine lofted last year, and it ended up being kind of a nuisance. for one, i never made my bed--it was just too hard and time-consuming, and i didn't change my sheets as often as i should have. also, ive hit my head quite often on the corner of the bed, once resulting in a minor concussion. it's also ten times harder to get out of a lofted bed for those morning classes bc climbing down yr bed is such a hassle and its so damn comfortable up there...all in all, lofting yr bed really doesnt save that much space, , although i suppose room layouts are different for different colleges. just my two cents, but i guess these become issues only if you're extremely lazy like me. :)</p>
<p>DD nearly passed out several times climbing down from her loft bed when she had mono. High fevers and night sweats meant she was seriously dehydrated! Another reason not to loft your bed is that it means you can't just flop in there and study or use it as a couch. Maybe better to just have it unlofted!!! (It is still a fairly high bed, and there is room to put stuff underneath....)</p>
<p>I lived in a suite style room (with two bedrooms and a common room) and for us, if you unlofted your bed it meant your wardrobe had to be moved into the common room since there wasn't enough space inside the bedrooms. I personally thought having to leave the room to get clothes wasnt worth it. Agreed with a<em>rice</em>kid though, an unlofted bed would definitely have encouraged me to wash my sheets though haha..</p>