A New Workbench!

After 22 YEARS, we FINALLY have a new mattress!

I'm not sure if you remember or not, but I first spoke about our mattress woes in early 2007. If you like, you can refresh your memory by reading about it HERE.

So, going back to that trip to Chicago in early-2007...

We actually went to IKEA, looked at the mattress, and decided that it wasn't packaged well enough to survive trans-Atlantic transport to Basel. Sure, we could have gone about the trouble of getting extra packaging, but neither one of us felt like going to all the trouble, so we just decided to explore other options.

After returning to Basel, we went to a local furniture store to see if we could actually order a custom-made American size mattress. It turned out that we could. However, the store quoted us a price of CHF 3800 which is currently about $3,700 (How about that weak American dollar, huh?). I was all prepared to just go ahead, bite the bullet, and order the stinkin' thing, but then I made a HUGE mistake...

I went online to see how much the exact same memory foam mattress would cost in the U.S. As it turned out... $1,600!!! There was NO WAY I was going to pay more than double for the stupid thing in Switzerland. Just wasn't! Nope! NO... WAY!

Zip ahead a couple of years...

Now, it's Spring 2009, and Mrs. TBF and I are waking up every morning with stiff backs. Our mattress has developed a big lump in the middle which we have affectionately begun calling "the terp" after hearing the term during our weekend trip to Amsterdam, and something needs to be done... SOON! But what???

That's where pure luck comes into the picture...

One evening a couple of months back, while dining with friends, I began talking about our bed woes and how much the local furniture store wanted to charge us for a custom made, American queen size, memory foam mattress. Suddenly, like the voice of an angel, I heard our friend say: "Our company makes a competing product. I'm sure I could get one for you for much less. Let's see what I can do."

Oh... and by the way... in order to avoid getting in trouble at work, our friend will remain anonymous.

Anyway...

It turns out that he did indeed get us the proper size mattress, for about EIGHTY-FIVE PERCENT less than what the furniture store quoted us, and he delivered it to us last week. In fact, he even hauled away the cardboard.

How's that for service???

Since then...

WE'VE BEEN SLEEPING LIKE ROCKS!!

Mrs. TBF says that she can barely wake up because she's in such a deep coma. Me? I don't even hear Mrs. TBF's alarm go off. We've been going to bed early because we can't wait to get into bed. In the morning, about a minute after waking up from my coma, I feel completely wide awake and refreshed! Our lives have been significantly changed for the better!

Anonymous friend... YOU ARE OUR HERO!!!!

I emptied and threw out all the water bed tubes last Friday. Tomorrow, I'll be going to the dump to throw out the mattress cover/etc. that's all wrapped up with duct tape in our storage area.

Good riddance!