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Amerisleep AS3 Reviews

  My Amerisleep AS3 Unboxing Video (Surprise, my voice is ridiculous!) If I can (just barely) do it, you can totally tackle a bed-in-a-box by yourself. Updated 10/15/22 Amerisleep's AS5 was recently featured as the 'Best Soft Mattress in a Box' by Good Housekeeping , with the panel of reviewers noting: Pressure relief for side sleepers Taller than other boxed mattresses Good customer service    Amerisleep Mattress Reviews  We've been happy Amerisleep customers since purchasing our first AS3 mattress more than 9 years ago. Now we also have an AS2 and an AS4 (the AS3 is still our favorite). Born with chronic insomnia  (even as a baby - my family insists I was a nightmare), the struggle to improve my sleep is my life. My husband, the overly-analytical mechanical engineer, was initially skeptical of a mail-order mattress, but he was quickly won over. 2012: Wine glass test, sans wine. I was fairly confident our brand-new mattress would pass with f
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Kitchen and Dining Room Photos

I forgot all about our current house. For the past two years or so, the only home we've cared about has been the one we're building with Panorama Homes. It's hard to love the house we're in now - it's just a storage unit. We were able to save thousands on construction costs by purchasing all the fixtures ourselves and storing them, but it didn't take long for the stacks of boxes to suck the romance right out of the place. There has been a sauna in our dining room for more than two years. There's a clawfoot tub next to it. Oh, and did I mention the toilets? Just try to enjoy your home with three toilets stacked to your living room ceiling. I dare you. We hadn't expected the construction process to take this long. Also, I'm a bit of a shopaholic. If it's an open-box clearance item , that means it's heavily discounted, one of a kind, and this is my  only chance to buy it! Did I mention we've saved thousands? I can't wa
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Charming Stone Cottage

It was fun virtually shopping for a mansion last week, but I have something even better this time. A gorgeous home someone may actually be able to afford! To be fair, at $757,400 (weird asking price, right?) it's still fairly steep. But with a carriage house (I'll admit I'm not entirely sure what this is) and 137 acres (holy moly!), think of it as only $5,528 per acre with a free house (and carriage house!) thrown in. Besides, it's not like anyone actually pays the full asking price. By the time you negotiate this thing down, it would be foolish not to buy it. Yeah, I can pretty much find a way to justify anything I want to buy. 1856 Christie Lake Road, Perth, Ontario (from Sotheby's) (oooh, fancy) On a side note, I'd actually intended to search Perth, Australia, which is where I'm from and where many of my family members still live. The Sotheby's website had other plans. If money weren't a factor, is this a
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Overbudget? LOL

When considering our custom home builder, John Lowe of Panorama Homes, the only negative thing we heard was that he underestimates allowances, resulting in his projects finishing over budget.  He might say to expect $4,000 for bathroom vanities and sinks, but spend $6,000. $2,500 for lighting instead of $5,000. Well-meaning friends and family didn't want us getting in over our heads. We were warned. Apparently, these folks don't know me at all. I scour the internet all day, every day for deals. It's a blast! Here are a few of the "premium" purchases I've made for our house so far: VITA Eos XL pendant - made of approximately 6,000 goose feathers! $942 retail - paid $100 DVI Chimera chandelier $783 retail - paid $125  Quatrefoil wall sconce $124 retail - paid $20 Madison Park Eva bar stool $300 retail - paid $50 (For our theater room. This is going to be the best house ever!)  Bellflower pendant Retail $313 - paid $100
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Construction Update: Drywall

I've been told I need to post more photos of the construction of our new dream home. Happy to oblige! Currently, most of our windows are covered with plastic film to protect them when the house is stuccoed, so everything has a hazy, greenish hue. Note that I said "most". Apparently, it's fine for some of the windows to end up splattered in stucco.  Kitchen Other side of the kitchen  Ack! I hate that cutout along the ceiling SO MUCH. Seriously, what is wrong with our construction crew? Does that look anything like the photo to you?  Groin ceiling inside the dining nook Curved floor of the hallway bathroom...because why not?  Hallway beams and my infamous crapper window .  Looking the other direction down the hallway Barrel vault ceiling  Guest bedroom  Double tray ceiling inside the master bedroom  Even in a green-certified home, there's nothing green about the construction process.  Here are our i
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Cabinet Hardware OOPS

A little decorating math... + = Oooh. (Or "EEK!", if you ask my Nana.) For my new master bathroom, I've bought pendant lights matching the one above. Sexy Nerd is building my vanity and, per my request, he is going to paint the drawers in a variety of colors to match the lights. The final product should be similar, colorwise, to the photo above, minus all that yucky, boring white. Me: Cost Plus has cabinet hardware on sale today for 20% off, plus I have a coupon for an extra 30% off on top of that. How many knobs will I need for my bathroom vanity? Sexy Nerd starts counting to himself, adding things up in the air because even calculating the number of drawers he's building must be done in a super-intelligent, nerdy fashion. Him: 18. Me, frustrated that my husband isn't paying attention: No, not hardware for everything. How many knobs do I need for  only  my bathroom vanity? Him: Yeah. 18. You wanted a lot of drawers. 18?! Don't tell
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Construction Update: Electrical and Insulation (Finally!)

The "finally" mentioned in the title is totally aimed at our construction crew...and at myself. These photos were taken more than a month ago. I may be slightly behind on my blogging. In my defense, photos of insulated walls and wiring are only so interesting. When can I decorate?! I requested to have my photo taken next to our new fireplace "in the exact same pose as our builder, minus the yellow hat". My memory of the pose was off, but the hat was spot on. Though he's a great builder, there's no denying his trademark yellow hat was a big part of our decision to go with him. Here is a guy who won't balk at our dream of bright yellow doors and shutters , we'd thought, so young and naive in our pre-construction days. No can lights in this room...well, except for this one random can light. But don't worry. The builder is going to take it down tomorrow...or at least before installing insulation...no, drywalling...umm, I mean after dr
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