Buying a Bed: Phase II

WHICH COMES FIRST: THE MATTRESS OR THE BEDROOM SET?

Spending money is never easy for me. I hate it. It gives me hives. Spending a lot of money? Yup, it can bring me to tears.

For a couple of years now we have tried to figure out how to give our sad student-looking bedroom a makeover and finally buy not only a bed but a bedroom set so that our house will be sellable one day when we finally move back home.

If you haven't bought a mattress before, it can be quite shocking. They are almost as expensive as bedroom sets. They can be more, in fact. We were looking at them at The Brick and they were half off and $1200. I felt sick. I knew we could not afford to also get the only bedroom set I have liked in the years we have been looking because mattresses were ridiculously expensive. So, what did we do?

We had driven by Bedroom Superstore on our way to Leon's in Dartmouth one night and it called to me. I don't know why exactly, it's just a typical warehouse store. The next day we were trying to find the store Bedroom Depot (which we did not know at the time had gone out of business) and I was convinced it was the same store and asked my husband to stop. He knew I was getting everything mixed up but he is also wise enough to listen to my instincts, even when they don't make sense.



It was well after Boxing Day but they still had their Christmas tree up. We wanted to go late after all the "big sales" were over, waiting for the really good deals when people just stopped shopping and stores are anxious to get rid of overstock. We have had some great successes doing this but I did not allow my hopes to be too high.

We went around the store, lying on beds. The same thing always happens. We need a VERY firm mattress but then my shoulders feel crushed. Then we found this mattress:



A Dreameasy Merlot Mattress which is very firm but has memory foam on the top for cushioning. After trying so many beds, we lay on this one and it just felt right, unlike all the others.



Yes, the price wanted to make me cry but it was 30% off. Still, out of our reach. One of the employees came over and we talked about it and he gave us a deal we just could not say no too and he even threw in free delivery! I could not believe it, we were way under budget and this was the best mattress we had found.



Because of my husband's allergies we also invested in a mattress cover and finally had our bed! So, in this scenario, the mattress came first. They say it takes 15 days to adjust to a new bed but I was fine right away. In fact my shoulders are finally healing a little and I injured them last summer. I think because of the hardness of our futon I was re-injuring them every night as I slept. Yes, I am the Princess and the Pea damn it. Even my hands are feeling a little better in the morning, thanks to the mattress.

My husband has had a harder time adjusting to it because he likes a really hard mattress and the memory foam is so comforting which he is not used to. I do hope that we both end up being OK with it. It had been over a week and so far, so good. Knock on wood!

I got a ton of advice on Facebook from friends and all of them said, focus on the mattress first. When you live with a sleeping disorder like fibromyalgia, you really do need a good mattress and health comes before beauty in my world.

But that is not the end of the buying a bed story! There will be more, very soon.