Amazingly enough, we found it at the second store we went to. My sister Sarah told me that my other sister Rachel had been referred to a store by my other sister Liz (!!!) and that I should check it out. The name of the store was Teton Nalder, but when we started looking for it, I misspelled Teton as Titan…and we couldn’t find it. So we started looking at any warehouse on KSL with good prices.

On the 7th we went out shopping with $350, and at the first warehouse we found something we could afford, but we wanted to wait until we had looked elsewhere before committing to it. Then, at the second warehouse, things got interesting.

When we arrived, Johanna reminded the sales rep they had talked on the phone, and that they had advertised a really inexpensive mattress. When we went back to see it, she said she only had twin mattresses to actually lay on, the larger ones weren’t on display but were in stock. Then, ‘FLOP,’ she shows us the most embarrassing excuse for a mattress I have ever seen. Johanna’s sideways ‘are they SERIOUS‘ glance says it all. The mattress is covered with little blue rockets, and looks old enough to have come over on the mayflower.

Johanna said “We’re looking for something a little higher quality than that…” and the sales rep obliges us with ‘FLOP,’ something dating from the civil war – blue without the rockets. At this point we were about ready to leave.

On the way out I saw the REAL mattresses, the nice ones with pillow tops and memory foam. I laid down on one and asked it’s price. The sales rep, desperate to keep us there, said it was $375 or so, but if we would buy it right then, she would give it to us for $350. Johanna thought it was comfortable, but I wasn’t totally sold – it was a little firm for my taste. So the rep left while Johanna and I talked it over.

I said I still didn’t want to spend money on that one. A mattress is a long-time purchase that you have to live with. I couldn’t live with a mattress that firm. So we decided against it, even though it was a nice one in our price range. We started walking out again, and saw their two top-of-the-line models. On a whim, I laid down on one.

INCREDIBLE! A wonderful, WONDERFUL Queen mattress with memory foam, encased coils, just the right firmness, I was near tears! I lay there and told Johanna to try it out. “But it’s out of our price range” she chided. “Just try it out, this is what I am looking for. We can check for this firmness elsewhere, but I want you to feel this!” She obliged, and agreed, it was really, really comfortable.

But was it in our price range? The rep was desperate to get us to stay. It was about $475 for the mattress without tax. But if we would buy it right then, it was going to be $475 with tax. That was a better price than the other warehouse, but I was still nervous about the price of buying a box spring. She offered a mismatched one for $50 more, but I was still hesitant. Then, she offered to just include one. That meant we were getting a retail $1,200 bedroom for just $478.67 with tax. The other warehouse couldn’t come close. And that did it.

Agreeing to pay our $350 right then, and the additional $128.67 the following week, we went out to fill out the paperwork. Taped on the table we saw:

“Checks payable to Teton Nalder”

I guess some things are meant to be.

She values her storage space, especially since the house is not as large as we would like it to be. Her bed was on tall legs (almost a foot high) and we could put all sorts of stuff underneath. Mine was on a standard metal frame, which left a little to be desired when it came to stowing things down below.

I know, I might have boosted the height of the Queen sized frame, and that would have solved that problem. But there were emotional attachments involved, and I thought my mattress was rather uncomfortable, so I said “Let’s give it a shot.” And for a while, it was okay.

Now, we’ve rotated her mattress twice, hoping to find out exactly where all the broken springs are (directly underneath MY side, of course.) The bedsheets were made for a – you guessed it – Queen sized bed. We have to put them back on the bed every other night, because they come off when I have to slither out of bed twice a night to let the dog out (Chewie is as high maintenance as any baby could ever be.) Add to this a pregnant wife who can’t sleep on her back, and 54 inches just isn’t enough for two full-sized human beings.

So I have spent two nights on the couch, and they have been the best two nights of sleep I have had in a while. Lonely, yes, very. But also a lot more comfortable, and I was starting to feel the effects of poor-quality slumber. Johanna agrees, she is better able to sleep on her side with a little more room to do so. That settles it, then, our minds are now made up. We will be in the market for a new Queen (or should we make the jump to King?) mattress and frame. I may end up making the frame from some spare 2×4′s I have from my basement construction to save money for the time being…but regardless, the decision is made.

Now we just need to save up or find a crazy-good deal. Saving up will take three months or so (GAH!) Drop us a line if you find anything too good for us to pass up!