bedliness

(What's this? A post two days in a row? Unheard of!)

Today, boys and girls and older versions thereof, I am going to talk about something you probably won't care about, in more detail than is even necessary for instructions on how to dismantle an explosive with your bare hands. Here it is, nonetheless: The Great AndrleBed Progression, 2008. (Stunningly worded, I concede. Har.)

As many or none of you, but probably most of you know, I have upgraded from a quite satisfactory twin-sized bed, complete with IKEA bed frame, to my upstairs neighbor's full-sized bed, beautifully complimented by a West Elm headboard. Why, you might wonder, would I steal my upstairs neighbor's bed? I must admit, I actually purchased it from her. Doesn't she need it? No. Because she is getting married, and they have gotten an even larger bed, which is very smart of them, indeed.

So, you might be thinking, unless you either live with me or have to hear me prattle on about my bed situation, "oh, so Andrle bought her neighbor's bed. That's nice? Why the pretentious 'Great AndrleBed, et al' title then, eh?" Oh, how little you (luckily) know, which is why I am here to inform you (even if you do know, or don't care (but if you are reading, you must care, even if only a little, and so i am here for you!)).

Said marrying neighbor and I officially shook on the deal, by which I mean, I gave her a check and she gave me a very tidy receipt, back in, oh let's see, around the middle or end of January. Yes, that was 6 months prior to this day, the mighty day of actual bed receipt. At that point, yes, I owned a very nice little bed. I can't complain, I had had it quite happily for several years. Its only flaw was that, due to numerous moves, the attached bedside table (see image below) had gotten wobbly. If I weren't incredibly lazy, I would have fixed it in one way or another. But I am, and I didn't. Enough said. Ultimately, I wanted a larger bed so I can share the space with an abundance of pillows and still have enough room to kick in my sleep. These things are very important to me.
Having confirmed that I would be the next owner of the full-sized bed that hovered in the room directly above mine (convenient), I was quite thrilled, and I won't lie to you, set about almost immediately to buy items for the bed I would not have until the end of July. First off, a very fine set of Elephant Percale sheets:from The Company Store. Why? Because I love elephants. (Don't believe me? Count them in my room. For sanity's sake, we can count all the little elephants on my sheet set as one, but you'd probably still come up with over 15, easily. Frightening!) Also, they were on a fine sale (sale is key! note the trend throughout), AND were selling out (all they have in stock currently are the King ones from what I can tell - and not on sale), and so I got them. That was February 4th, my email tells me. Sheet set one in February. Check.

To keep it short (har har, oh i jest) I will only mention briefly that I bought a set of pink sheets with white polka dots from the Marshalls on Boylston Street downtown. Let's say it was in March sometime, although I honestly can't recall. But these had to be returned because they would only clash with...

The duvet cover (and accent pillows) I found at West Elm! Not so much on sale, but brilliant nonetheless, I spotted their fabulousness online, and knew that I wanted them all. I also knew that the cover was quite superb because it just so happens that my roommate has this duvet cover in a lovely blue. So I bought them. (no picture, for it will only be redundant once the final picture is seen.) Duvet and accent pillows in April. Check.

Now, also at West Elm, which I had discovered last fall, before I thought I needed a larger bed and was quite content (well, I mean, I'm a restless person so no guarantee of content, but let's pretend) with my IKEA bed business, ... was this incredibly attractive headboard (pictured despite the fact that it will be seen later several times):
You must understand that the moment I knew I was to possess a larger bed, therefore being unable to use my IKEA unit, I knew with great certainty that this West Elm Morroco Headboard was the headboard for me, and that I must have it. (I'm sounding just a touch possessive here, aren't I?) But certainly, it would be irresponsible to buy it more than a couple weeks before I was getting my new bed, right? Uhm... yes, quite, quite right.

I have to explain this now. You see, my only reservation about getting the attractive headboard was the price tag. You can check it online, but guess what - I hit the most tremendous sale a mere two and a half months ago. And so not only was the extra $50 for shipping and delivery waived, the headboard was also over $100 off the current price. So I got it. In May. Early May. To be fair, I have to mention that they said it would take 4-6 weeks for delivery, so I figured I'd only have it like a month early at most. Well, of all items to be expedited in their delivery, guess what came a mere two weeks later. And, it would have been earlier, except that I asked for a Saturday delivery (figuring it would delay the shipment by a couple weeks). Nope. Instead of a Tuesday, I got it that weekend. Whoa. So, I had to put it somewhere, and it came in the most ridiculously-sized box with incredibly elaborate interior packaging. Thus, I unpacked it, and so it lived behind my current setup. Headboard, check.
Let's see. I got distracted by the headboard. Essentially, I am a loon. There's a mattress pad, a down comforter, and a second set of sheets and whatnot thrown in the timeline somewhere. (What, you need two sets of sheets! These do not, sadly, have elephants on them. They're a very responsible faintly-striped tan-ish. (450 thread count! yes, and at Marshals, so pretty inexpensive.))

So that leaves us at the selling of my twin-size bed on craigslist. I didn't want to sell it too soon thereby leaving me on an air mattress for three months (although I've spent my fair share of time on air mattresses. I once thought it preferable to have the extra space potential in my room back when one of the places me mum and I lived was obscenely tiny). So I waited, and then about two weeks ago I finally posted the ad I had drafted in... sigh... February. It would have been worthy of a ranting blog entry all on its own to discuss the lack of courtesy that the anonymity of the craigslist forum can sometimes lead to (I think I owe Rebekah credit for pinpointing just why people lack follow-through). But as I didn't blog about it, I won't go into much more detail now. Essentially, after about 5 people who set up times to come see the unit flaked, one man actually showed up, looked at the bed, said "yes, this is in good condition," paid me, and it was sold. He helped me take it apart, we took it down to his minivan, and away it went. In summary, last Sunday, bed gone, Andrle sad to see it go, but relieved, and quite pleased about the timing working so well.

This brought me to the empty room (well, half empty) stage, that only lasted a week. Here it is, so you can understand how sad the headboard and I were to be all alone.
OK, enough's enough. I'm ready for the final reveal. But first, I have to mention how awesome the people were who "delivered" my bed. Soon-to-be-married Neighbor's soon-to-be father- and brother-in-law, as well as her fiance brought the bed down for me today. A couple weeks ago, I was thinking I could just get it myself. I'm strong. But they were fabulously kind and helpful, and when he saw that my headboard would need to be attached and I mentioned that I was going to attach it with the pieces they provided later on, the neighbor's future father-in-law (this would be much easier with names, but i refuse) asked me for the bolts and he and the future brother-in-law proceeded to attach it for me. They were also incredibly helpful with the bed skirt and all that jazz, and I was totally grateful. Anyway, that having been said, I of course immediately put it all together, and this is what it looks like:
Now don't go badgering me about the bed skirt saying I skipped that part. (like you really are, please.) Actually, badger all you want, I did skip it. I just didn't buy it. It was part of the bed-purchasing deal. I originally worried it would clash, but it looks quite nice, I think.

So there you have it, wanted or not. That's quite a lot of photo documentation, huh? Tracy and I joked that we should have taken photos of the twin-bed selling process. Like, the man checking it out, making his decision to buy. A close-up shot of him handing me the money. The disassembling process. The man driving away in his van, with me waving sadly goodbye to my precious old bed. Don't worry, none of those were taken, although had we thought of it before he was gone, and if I had been confident he wouldn't be creeped out, (and if I were more bold) it's possible those photographs could have been!

My next project is to strip the old white paint and glue from the bedside table (totally a freebee, yay!), and use a dark wood stain. I've been doing my research on how to do this, but welcome any tips you might have. It's a lot of work, and I have no stripping, let me clarify, paint stripping, sanding, or wood-staining experience, but I've watched a lot of it on Home & Garden Television (read: i'm a dork), so we'll see. We've got a nice porch/balcony for a reason, right? We'll see.

I might, might have already gotten the knob for it. I can't bear telling you what it's of, but if you follow this link, you'll see, and be convinced once and for all that I'm a bit crazy...

Ah, so now what? (well, this is too long to edit, so...) Now I shower and get into bed. Goodnight, all.