Today, we decided we would set about getting ourselves a new bed, to replace an existing bed that has suffered torture from:
Us both sleeping on the sides of the bed.
Having a baby sleep in the middle, and practically push us right on the edge of the bed.
The good news for the baby is he gets the old Queen bed to himself. Can have all the space he likes.
The good news for us is we might get a good nights sleep in a bed that doesn’t suffer from springs digging into back, slats falling off, or the middle support legs falling off.
The even better news for us is the new bed from Fantastic furniture was cheaper than expected.
The better, better news for us is the bed was relatively easy to assemble, and has a relatively strong frame.
And.. there’s nothing negative to report yet, because we haven’t SLEPT on it yet, but I doubt much will be wrong with this.
I think the little one might not have issues with being put into his own bed either. It’s still in the same room as us (yeh, we JUST fit two Queen size beds in the room, they aren’t SMALL :D), just incase he wakes up and starts looking, but he did seem relatively happy to have his own bed to sleep in, jump on, etc.
Also, when we ran the costs for the bed, getting a new single bed, mattress, and a new mattress for the Queen bed was actually a lot more expensive compared to simply letting him have the Queen size bed.
I guess the more prominent issues that arise are:
We’ve got little room in this house to place him in his own room.
One room is the bedroom, the other room is specifcally packed with bags yet to be sorted through, and other equipment. The bags plan to be turned into containers stacked on top of each other, but still wouldn’t meet the ability of being a bedroom, and another room is pretty much the room where all the activity occurs with 1’s and 0’s.
So, there’s not a lot of room for a bedroom for him, that might be something we have to work out later on, still remain unsure of how we’d even come close to solving that one.
We did also look at new lounge chairs at Fantastic Furniture. They’ve got some fantastic deals.
2 x 2 seater lounges for $600. That’s a steal.
Look at the “commercial” shops for example, Cap’n Snooze: Better take the VISA. Forty Winks: Better take the MasterCard as well. They are ridiculously expensive, when compared to Fantastic Furniture – for no obvious reason..
Anyway, buying a new bed was a detailed decision, involving through inspection of both mattress and bed base, as well as talking to the other shop where we got the other bed from originally (amazingly, the prices of that bed have dropped, and the deal was better, but we’ve already experienced their ‘quality’).
So, the things to check: Does it use Posture slats? If so, does the middle bar, and its feet seem solid (take it out, I did, and looked at a few things, mainly, the feet weren’t gonna fall off (the others did), that the design was to support the middle bar, and not simply have it resting on it (so, look at a rectangle that goes over the middle bar), and basically look at the general quality of that. It’s the part that really stuffed the other bed up big time, with slats coming out in the middle of the night, and all sorts of issues.
Aside from that, take it for a test, this might require your partner as well (hey, you can try before you buy, right?), and see if its comfortable.
Don’t buy big brand name mattresses, the cheapest mattress (that isn’t foam) will remain as comfortable as any other mattress after it has aged, the difference between most of them is the spring system in the mattress, but that doesn’t make much of a difference when you have > 60kgs on the bed, and pushing down on springs. Sure, the design of it might play a factor, but you’ll wear them down eventually, and that new 1500.00 matrress is basically the same as any old 200.00 mattress, so get the cheapest.
I do have to say that in general, quality from Fantastic Furniture (we bought a Futon and a Chair from them before) has been “average”. The Futon (whilst shouldn’t be used as a lounge chair) as become a little more problematic, the bottom breaking away, and the bars on the front have previously annoyed the little one.
And my chair has had the wheels on the casters come off.. numerous times, so many times so, that I’m sure I’ve only got two of the original castors on the chair now, swapping them with castors from a cheap KMart chair purchased a fair while ago.
So, as you can see, they aren’t a superb quality of furniture from previous experiences (at least from usage of the chair), but I did think they deserved a shot for bedding.