Not Your Mother's Mattress

I wish I could say that this is a picture of my bedroom but, unfortunately, it is not.  This is a room where no dogs sleep on the bed and you never get a whiff of the cat box from the bathroom, but this is a good picture of my new mattress.  I wanted you to see how deep the new mattresses are these days. 

Things have really changed in the mattress world since I last purchased one in 2000.  It was an expensive pillow top and I thought that with scheduled flipping and turning that it would last forever.  Not!!  I swear this is true.  One morning I got up and my mattress was shot - overnight!!  I tried to deny it and gave it a good flip but my sore body was telling me different.  After spending a couple of pain free nights on a good mattress, I knew it was true.

I then spent several months whining and complaining, which is an important part of the process for me.  I have to go through the seven stages of grief before I'll take money out of my savings and what with the heat pump (it is scheduled for installation on Monday and I will tell you all about it) I've been hitting it hard.  From there, I started researching mattresses and the stores that carry them.

I found that the higher end mattress involves some pretty snazzy technology, what with memory foam and very intense innerspring construction.  And I need that technology now that I have aches and pains.  When I was young, any old mattress would do, and the couch was a great sleeping place.  Now it would permanently cripple me.

After I decided that I wanted some kind of memory foam, I looked at different stores and settled on Sleep Country because they deliver and set up for free and haul away your old mattress.  The next step, and the most important one for me, was to just go down and start laying on mattresses until I found the right one.  I even used a neck pillow like I sleep on so I could see how it was really going to feel.  This cannot be rushed.  You just have to take the time.

When I found the one I wanted, the dealing began.  It was $1799 and Roger, the nice salesman, said that it would not go on sale.  Period.  But Sleep Country will match the lowest price in the area and take off 5%.  Discount Mattress had it cheaper so I ended up paying $1613, saving $186.

The mattress that I bought is a Stearns & Foster European Luxury Firm Pillow Top, queen size.  It has a 25 year warranty and does not flip but you do have to rotate it, which is fine with me because I almost took out a window the last time I did it.  And it is wonderful.  I can't believe I put if off for so long.

Just so you know, the Kirkland Signature mattress from Costco is made by Stearns & Foster and is a very good mattress, at a very good price.  I don't know about delivery or set up, but I'm pretty sure there is no haul away.  If you have a truck and some strong good looking guys, this might work quite well and be the best deal out there.