The McGill sleep number bed

Ok as most of you know me and Mark hated our bed, this is the breakdown of the bed we have the pic is below. This bed cost about 4000.00, however got a great deal about three years ago and got the bed for 400.00 dollars brand new from a friend. In getting this deal we had no warranty nor could we try the bed out. The bed is great if you like to sleep on a very very very soft memory foam or tempur pedic bed with a pillow top. Anyway I have had my eye on a Sleep number bed by select comfort for over two years. However Mark did not want to spend 3000.00 dollars for a new bed and he did not like the fact that literally the sleep number bed is just a mattress enclosure with some foam on the sides and two airbeds in the middle then all zipped up together to make a mattress. If you have ever been to the mall you know these sleep number beds look cheap and are only nine inches tall or top of the line 12 inches tall, but they are comfortable and they help you adjust the bed so if you want it soft you can let air out or put air in for a harder bed. Me and Mark love big huge mattress. For about a year I wake up in the morning ( off and on) around three AM. with my back hurting to the point I have had a MRI, been to like three doctors and even an Ortho Dr. Anyway I have some Arthritis in my lower back ( wear and tear) from having or carrying three babies. Marks back is really jacked up and hurts most of the time. Anyway about a months ago we put our bed on the floor trying to make it a little harder, it worked well until yesterday when I had to take a thirty min shower to help my back not hurt. Anyway we both woke up and we had just had it, so off to buy a mattress. We went to all the places and even if we didn't get a sleep number bed we still were going to have to pay about 2500.00 for a new mattress and on top of that we didn't know if we would like it. And yes they will give you a refund or in store credit but you still have to pay the delivery and sending the bed back which totals about 300.00 dollars. This is the money you will not get back. So I had told Mark if we didn't do something I was going to cut the top off our mattress and buy two blow up beds and make my own sleep number bed. Well we both laughed and were like " No we will just go get a bed". Then after we priced all the beds we were back to square one. Mark and the little kids layed down for a nap and I decided to go to bed bath and beyond to look at the toppers, Sleep number has a very low quality bed for about 2000.00 and pretty much the other ones only cost more for all the different foam toppers they build into them. so I was going to price toppers to put on the low end model of a sleep number bed to make it nicer and taller. At bed and bath I found some Aero beds on sale and I thought maybe we really can make our own bed. I was frustrated at how cheap the sleep number beds looked and how thin they are. So I ran back home praying that God would let Mark at least try this out. Below is a detailed pick of my bed and all the foam layers.


Well when I got home I showed this pick to Mark and told him, that I figured once we cut into the bed, basically taken the pillow top off, leaving only one side connected all the foam should be in separate pieces. If I was right then we should be able to leave the outlined foam in the mattress and just take the inner piece out, still leaving a nice foam eadge in the bed. I told him for three hundred dollars I could buy two twin aero bed with remotes that are designed to blow up and down with you laying on the bed. Then I threw in my sales pitch, I said I have tried to sell the bed on craigslist and have not had any bites, we only paid four hundred dollars. I said I know technically its worth 4 grand new, but really I said our mattress is only worth what someone will pay and I think I could probably sell it for under 500.00. Then I told him that while it may seem that we would be tearing up a good mattress really its all foam we can just put it all back and still have the same mattress. Then the kicker I said honey for three hundred dollars we save like 2500.00 since we don't have to buy a new bed. His looked up and said Ok lets do it. Whahooooo!!!! I grabbed the sizzers and he grabbed is fillet knife.

Just as we expected the foam pieces were all separated and in different colors, they had a little glue to keep them in place but they were still pretty easy to pull apart. Our goal was to remove the actual foam from the mattress (not the acutal fabric) and leave the layers of foam in the pillow top. I was excited I didn't have to pay 300.00 dollars for an expensive topper because my mattress has two of them one on each side. So as you see from the pic above that is the four inches of foam that outlines the mattress the lighter color thing my hand is on is the Aero bed we inserted. The pic below shows the bottom layer (purple) of the pillow top then the aero bed with the foam on the sides.

This next pic is the huge piece of foam we removed from the bed so we could put in the blow up beds. This piece is actually separate from the outlined edges so we really didn't have much cutting to do.

Here are my boys we made a tunnel with the inner foam, later I will cut it into two twin beds and put a zipper liner over it, I will store it under my bed.. I can't let it go to waste because its like NASA foam or something. LOL It will be good for company so your not sleeping on the floor and its really comfortable.

This pic below is what the topper looks under that is two layers including that purple foam. The little brown stripes you see are the Jerry rigged way we are keeping the bed together until we come up with a better idea, a mattress cover with zipper or sewing it, we don't know yet but something. We also had to make some cuts in the outlined foam for the mattress to be able to pump air in and out. It worked great.

I had gotten two 20% off coupons of the web and each Aero bed had a 25 dollar gift card to bed bath and beyond with the purchase of each Aero bed, so I saved 30.00 bucks on each and get a gift card. Which I will use to buy my sheets. Ended up being like 240.00 instead of 300.00. So I get home and we realize the Aero beds I bought our 14 inches which we could make work but a shorter one would be easier, since we were keeping the pillow tops on both sides of our mattress. I told Mark they had another bed that was only nine inches for 140.00 but only a 10.00 gift card with each bed, he said it would still be better so I called the store had the guy set them at the front so all Mark had to do was take them back and pick up the new ones. So Mark gets back home and was so excited. The other two bed that we thought were 139.00 were on sell for 50% off and we still got the 20% off plus we still get two gift cards for $10.00 each. So now we only spend 110.00 dollars with tax and that doesn't include the gift card. "Oh yeah Mom and April and Alicia will be getting emails from bed bath and beyond for 20% off coupons you can only get one per email so I needed more and signed yall up, you can just forward the coupon to me unless you want it." ( hope you don't mind). Anyway I told Mark I thought God was really working the first time with the deal I got and now I know he was really working with the deal Mark got.

This is a pic of the air beds we are using and below are the remotes we each have one for our own side of the bed. This bed comes with a three year warranty so if the bed gets a hole or the pumps go out they will replace it, but to be honest its still worth buying another one in a year or two if it doesn't hold up, it sure beats spending 3000.00 on the sleep number bed I wanted. Not to mention they don't even make a sleep number bed with the quality of foam I have on my topper but the highest end model they had is 5100.00 with out tax or delivery and I know delivery which they make you use is 250.00. You can't pick the beds up yourself select comfort makes sure of that.

Here is a picture below of everything put together and the mattress so you can see what it looks like with the sheet on it. The cord you see is for the Remote, we just lay those over the frame or if you want to hide them you can put them under a pillow once the bed is made. We were still able to fit our sheets on because we made a place in the mattress so the cords to the pump and remote come out from the bottom.

This pic just gives you a view of how big the bed is and we slept on it last night we are giving it a two week test period to see if it works and so far last night was great. Mark woke me this morning when he left at 3.00 AM. and asked how I felt, I was great and he said he felt awesome. So only time will tell but it really turned out so much better than I imagined. We were both not to sure and when we got it all together we layed on the bed and slapped high five. You will really be surprised at how sturdy it is and you can't feel each other getting in or out of the bed. There are no more sink holes or getting stuck in the bed. For anyone thinking of a foam mattress after you sleep for about four hours you body makes an impression and it takes about two hours for that impression to come back to the right form. Unlike the commercials where you see the Hand print come right back, when you lay on it for a long time it doesn't come back that fast, oh and they hold body heat in and make you hot.

So the next step will be the bedding I ordered which I got for a great deal, Thank you Auntie Kay. I had some birthday money and this is were I wanted it to go. I will put pics out of my bedding when it all gets here. I can't wait for my family to see this and lay on it. Hey Jared and Jen since you guys have the same mattress we can fix it for you.. LOL It took about two hours of Labor and 110.00 dollars. Wow I had been praying for God to do something we could afford. In Jan the sleep number beds were on sale for 50% off and I prayed and prayed God would somehow bring us the money we needed like 2000.00 but God never did then they went back to regular price. So with all this savings we got I am really thinking this is the way the Lord wanted us to go. I am just amazed at how good it turned out. Of course Max gets on the bed and pumps all the air out then pumps it back up then back and forth finally I said ok boy that is enough. Good thing I have the warranty. Oh the bed is not fragile either (hint hint) you can still wrestle on it or let the kids play and bounce. A twin can hold to grown people. LOL well I wanted to share Yall all have a good day.