Housing

Waiting Around Again Today

Today is Excitement Day #2 chez moi, as I wait for the mattress store to delivery my second new mattress. The first one I bought was actually too hot because of the memory foam in the pillow top, so I went back to exchange it for mattress #2. This was the second best one when I went searching the first time. I layed around on a few other mattresses again this time to make sure, and I was. Luckily the sale they were having was still on so that this mattress cost the same as the other one, so I just had to pay $35 for the exchange, and I was all done. They were going to deliver it yesterday, but since I was still out of town for Xmas, I changed the date to today. And voila, here we are! They’re coming this afternoon, so I’m spending the morning doing some laundry, washing the sheets n’ stuff.

Can’t wait to have a “normal” night’s sleep tonight. As an example of how warm this mattress topper is: Last night it was -15 C (that’s cold!), and I had the heat on medium-low as I always turn it down at night….and I was still hot! Okay, maybe not hot, but I was on the other side of toasty warm, and not all that comfortable. Incredible. If you’re a cold person by nature, then I’d recommend getting a mattress with any sort of memory foam in it. It retains heat like you wouldn’t believe!

I’ll update the post here with the new pics once it arrives (they’re coming this afternoon). Yippie!

Edit: Here’s the new girl!

Spending on the Needs not the Wants

The other day I blogged about how my company gave me a year-end bonus, and that I was considering spending some on one of my needs. Well, today I did!

I bought a new bed!

I can’t tell you how excited I am about this. My current bed is about 10 years old, so it’s definitely time to change it anyways, however I’ve never been happy with it. I bought it a little firmer than I anticipated, and it’s been the most uncomfortable thing in the world. While I don’t wake up with aches and pains from it, I just don’t sleep deeply on it, so that I’m always a little tired in the mornings. I essentially wake up to roll over, which totally sucks, because that means I rarely get into REM sleep, which is the deepest and best kind of sleep. But not anymore.

I went to Sleep Country Canada, which only sells mattresses, to check out what they had. They actually had a good sale on right now where you could buy certain sets for pretty cheap. But I wanted to see which bed would be best for me, and then look at the price, to see what I’d get. I know that could be dangerous, especially since I’m known for finding the most expensive thing in a store in about 2 seconds, but I thought I’d give it a shot. I met with a nice salesman, explained what type of bed I was looking for and my price range, and off we went!

He advised me to take off my coat and just start lying down on the beds he indicated. “Leave your shoes on, don’t worry about them,” he said. I spent the next 45 minutes lying down on about 4 or 5 different beds, trying them out, seeing what was different about them. Alan (the salesman) was nice, in that he left me alone for a few minutes with each bed so that  I could get a feel for it myself, and then he would come over and explain what the bed was about. “This one has individually wrapped springs, that one has interlocked springs, this one has memory foam in the pillow top, that one might be cooler in the summer because the covering is made of cotton,” and on he went.

I found him to be very knowledgeable and nice, and not at all pressuring, which I know some salesmen can be. Finally once I’d decided I asked him what the price was on the bed I liked. He was smooth about it though, as he said it wasn’t part of their current sale (boo!), BUT, while I was lying down he went to check and found that he had it available as part of their mix n’ match promotion, so I could get it for the same price as the sale one. (Mix n’ match is where the fabric on the mattress doesn’t match the fabric on the box spring. Usually this isn’t a big deal since you’re covering up the mattress and / or box spring anyways.) I am one of those that doesn’t care about the matching colours, so I asked what the price would be (before tax). “$1099,” Alan replied. Which is a lot of money for a mattress, but think of this:

• that mattress normally sells for $1800.
• delivery is free.
• I’ll be using the thing for about 10 years or so, which means it would cost me $100 a year for it.

“Giddy up,” I said. Okay, maybe not exactly like that, but I told him I’d take it.

Woo!

I’m getting a new bed.

I’m getting a new bed.

(Can you see how excited I am?)

And it’ll be delivered a week today, just in time for my birthday. Happy Birthday to me.

I get my bonus cheque with my next regular paycheque, which is next Friday, so I’ll be able to put the money down onto my credit card right away so that the money’s already paid off before the bed comes. Nice.

Cross one thing off my Needs list.

How to Redecorate on the Cheap

Today I was cleaning up my place and went downstairs to drop off my recycling when I saw that someone had dropped off a little coffee table in the area. People often do this with big items that don’t fit in the garbage shoot (I live in an apartment building), but they usually do it with items that are truly garbage. But today someone dropped off a perfectly good little coffee table. I took a look at it to see if there was anything wrong, and one of the legs was wobbly. A little wood glue would fix it right up, so I grabbed it and schlepped it up to my place. After cleaning it up and setting it up, it looks pretty good, wouldn’t you say?

I know some people actually troll around neighbourhoods on “big item trash day” doing this very thing, looking for items that they could rescue. There’s even a tv show about doing that, the Junk Brothers.

I also remember reading an article in one of my home magazines a number of years ago about a Canadian actress that does that in her neighbourhood. Because she lives in an area where lots of renovations are going on in the houses around her, people are constantly getting rid of things, so she’ll often go out in the morning with her dog and her minivan and pick up things that just need a little TLC to be repaired. The magazine showed some pictures of things she’d rescued, and it was quite impressive.

I’m very pleased with my new coffee table, as it totally fits the space, and totally fits my budget. Free!

It’s Getting Lonely Around Here

A few weeks ago I realized that my half of the floor in my apartment building is getting pretty empty. Actually, my entire floor is getting pretty empty. Four of the apartments are now empty right now, which is almost half! Hopefully no one left because they couldn’t afford the rent any more, because I’d feel a bit bad about that. (Of course I’m not upset that the noisy people left, but still…)

I’ve been doing a bit of nesting chez moi, as the weather gets colder outside (and the building gets emptier). I’ve been spending more time tidying up and straightening up. Hopefully this means that I actually get off my duff and sell some of the extra stuff I don’t need around here. (I know, I know, famous last words.)

But the weekend is here, so hope springs eternal!