So, I confess. I’m entralled by Extreme Home Makeover on ABC, Sunday nights. I dunno if it’s their heart-wrenching stories of hope and human will, or if it’s the “no-sh*t! they didn’t just do that” construction jobs they do on these houses. But in 7 days, that’s damn impressive.

That Ty fellow, however, gets on my nerves.*

Among the hydraulic beds and other whacky things they’ve come up with, they’ve missed one big idea. So consider this as my submission to their (or your own) idea vault.

Technically, I cannot take credit for this. I didn’t originally come up with the idea, though I did help impliment, and certainly helped enjoy the fruits of it. Are ya ready? Stadium bedding. Yea, that’s right.

My junior year in college, I lived in a 3-story duplexed (ha) house with 9 of my friends. We ran an “arts house” which basically gave us the privelage of jacking the University on our heating bill (they footed it) all the while sponsoring artistic-type events on campus throughout the year. Suprisingly, we didn’t half-ass it. Or at least too much. But that’s beside the point.

Nine people in a house is fairly significant. There was a ton of drama, but that’s to be expected. Needless to say, the end of the academic year yielded a much needed release of stress. We had all been through a lot and were anxiously awaiting summer. Or at least the day when we knew what the hell we’d be doing to make money that summer.

So, as it turned out, we had about three weeks before the rent on our new house started. The five guys in the house were splitting off and moving a few streets over, and the four girls were splintering off as well. So, with three weeks off in a big old house, and no one had jobs yet, there was of course a lot of free time on our hands.

However, we were not your typical Animal House college students. We were nerds. So what are nerds to do? Build stadium bedding in our living room, to accomodate as many people as possible to watch our blindingly large 27” TV (The Kings of Comedy DVD to be exact).

I think Seth was the originator of the idea, but by the end we were all involved. We disassembled two University beds (you know, the vault-able type) from the third floor and bump and banged our way to the common living room on the second floor. Several configurations and much heaving and we had ourselves a veritable, outright stadium bedding in our living room. We were rebels. We were rock stars.

The first bed (top tier) was vaulted to bunk-bed height. The second bed was placed in front, at a slightly lesser margin. The third row was a section of our precious L-couch, put on cinder blocks. The final, front row VIP section was the other half of the couch, affectionately dubbed “The Bitch,” for it’s ease of moving in and out of residences. Unfortunately, the only pictures of this monumental achievement are on video.

The absolute ingenuity of this project still amazes me. Well technically it wasn’t hard. But I thought it was damn cool.

Ok, so there was one design flaw. ABC can work that out before the national debut.

Seth woke up three mornings in a row, on the top tier, and stood up to be whacked in the face with the paddle fan on the ceiling. I laughed heartily from my bed in the other room.

* I do respect Ty (Pennington?) though, because as obnoxious as he is, he was a fine art major in degree, and still paints and produces. Along with being a pretty fine carpenter. But damn he’s annoying.