The Bed

Sorry for the pause in blogging, but I've been trying to push through on the packing/moving part, and had slowed down on the more fun part of buying/having delivered.  And I discovered that the pretty bookshelf I bought has wood-eating beetles in it.  So on top of everything else I've got going on, I'm now doing every-other-day bug treatments.  Fun times.

So let's tell a more fun story: getting a bed.  When I was in the eighth grade, I got a new bed.  It was a loft bed: a top twin bunk with no bottom bunk.  We lowered the loft when I was about 16 or so, and it was never up high again, but that twin bed stayed with me many a year.  When I moved out of the dorms and into my own apartment during college, I still had that twin.  Whenever I go to my parents' in Alabama, I still sleep in that twin.  For two years in Paris (and another year here in Marseille), I slept in yet another twin-sized loft/bunk.

I'm SO over the twin bed.

Last summer, when I moved into the temporary place, I bought sheets to fit the bed in this apartment.  For my birthday, my mom sent me another set of sheets: queen sized.  They fit, so I figured the bed was queen-ish sized.  (American-standard sizing to European-standard sizing is not the same.  And unless you go with Ikea, even Europe-standard sizing varies from country to country.  If you thought Wal-Mart was taking over the world, you were wrong.  Ikea is.)

I measured the bed in this apartment (since all my bedding fits it), and headed to Ikea ready to purchase.  Deciding on a bedframe and mattress had been easy: I wanted the most basic bedframe Ikea had to sell (no headboard, no footboard), and the fanciest mattress they had to sell.  The camelridingcowgirl, Classy Spice, and Woody and Barney all have this particular mattress.  Even Creedance had slept on it and proclaimed it would be the next mattress she buys.  It's the closest we can get to a pillowtop over here without spending gazillions of euros.

It still feels like I spent a gazillion euros, even with buying the most basic frame known to man.

Anyway, buying day at Ikea was one good time.  The camelridingcowgirl went with me to help me out.  There was some confusion downstairs with the actual getting the mattress.  I put the order in, and then showed up to "pick up" the order (the mattress and bedframe).  We already had a whole other cart filled with the boxes for the dresser, shoe rack, and kitchen pantry shelves.  In order to save 20 euros, I had to push two carts with the mattress and bedframe from the warehouse room to the cashier, and then over to the delivery room, where they'd load it into their truck to deliver it to my house.  Yes, they would charge me 20 euros for them to load it directly to the truck from the shelf instead of onto a cart which I pushed about 100 yards.  Crazy Ikea.

After the dresser was put together, Woody and Barney came over a few days later to help me put together the bed.  They'd recently done theirs and felt like they are pros.  And indeed, they are!

The bed started with putting the slats together.  I suppose this is the equivalent of a boxspring, in the US?  I don't know.  I've never put a bed together there (or anywhere).  This is what the mattress sets on.

 Barney and I worked on the slats while Woody put the feet on the bedframe, which the slats lay into.  Yes, that is a twin frame.

No, I didn't buy a twin bed.  When I got to Ikea with the measurements for the bed I wanted, they said that in this basic frame, you can just buy two twin beds, and hook them together.  My mom threw a fit that I would later regret have a full and not a queen, but I kept telling her that I don't think that Europe has a full.  Ikea sure seems to sell: single person beds, double person beds, and super big beds.  Turns out that they do have six sizes (two single person sizes, two double person sizes, and two big sizes).  Anyway, the size I bought (two single persons) is equivalent-ish to a US queen.

We got it together in no time at all...and had some fun in the meantime.

It was wonderful to just lie down on my new bed and imagine what it will be like to finally get to sleep there.  The hot water man comes tomorrow, the day after tomorrow is a holiday, and so I'm planning on sleeping/mostly living in the new place this coming Wednesday, May 2.  Yippee!

I'm soooooo ready to be living in just one apartment instead of two.  And...I have a plan for this bed.  It's so big with just me in it.  When I get married, this can be the guest bed and Hubs and I will get a new, bigger bed.  Then, when we have kiddos, we'll separate the twin beds, and voila!  Look at me, planning ahead.  :)