I Have a Bed!

Since October 18 (that’s 92 days but who’s counting) I have been sleeping on a cheap, skinny single bed and I have the sore back to prove it. I mustn’t bad-mouth this bed too much, as it’s what some of my guests will be sleeping on. A large part of the problem is that my 62lb dog likes to sleep on it with me which is nothing like letting her on my queen bed at home. So I have NOT slept well at all. I ordered a cheap-ish, not-very-pretty-but-it-would-do double bed with a nice mattress from the same store at the same time, and was told it would arrive in about a fortnight. (that’s two weeks)

After my third visit to the store to follow-up, I gave up. That was last Thursday. Friday I went into J & S Allan in Stromness and picked out a nicer bed and good mattress, both on sale. The salesman apologised that the earliest he could deliver it was Monday. Apologised! Why, oh why, didn’t I buy from these guys in October?

It arrived (as promised) Monday morning. I will just say one teeny tiny thing about the store – why didn’t they offer assembly? I would have paid for it, had they explained just how much work was involved. If I had given it any thought at all, I assumed it would be three pieces: a headboard, footboard, and frame. This was missed revenue on their part.

The instructions assured me that no other tools were necessary in addition to the Allen key provided, but I got out the hammer (see arrow) just in case they lied. (They did.) They also indicated that this was a two-person job – hah! wrong again!

It took a while. Quite a while. And I hate Allen keys. Believe it or not, Ikea instructions are clearer and more detailed than these were. But I was doing okay until I tried to insert the 22 wood slats into the 33 plastic brackets a total of 44 times. How is that piece of wood supposed to fit into that opening? Lunch break called for. Sigh. Returned renewed and after some fiddling, I MacGyvered each & every one of them into place and hammered the brackets into the frame (no hammer needed, my eye).

Finished product – it was worth every second of it. Scout slept on her corner at the foot of the bed, and I had the rest of the double bed all to myself. Lovely.

Side note: their bed sizes are all different from ours: what we call a double, they call a queen. Their double is bigger than their queen. Their king is the same width as our queen, but is shorter. All v confusing – glad I had asked when buying the bedding

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