Once upon a mattress

I turned 51, 2+ months ago and suddenly I want to replace our waterbed.  N and I have loved that bed (I think we're on our third bladder and second heater) since Liseanne was a baby.  So comfortable!  Plus we both love crawling into a warm bed on cool nights and a slightly cooler bed on warm nights.

But as I get older, making the bed (tucking sheets and lifting edges of bladder at the same time) has become more and more taxing on my back and wrists.  Lately I've found sleeping on the bed is beginning to bother my back.  It may have to do with sharing the bed with the dogs.  Who knows, but now how to decide what to replace it with?  I've been looking at memory foam mattresses on Overstock.com.  So many good reviews, but still it's such a tough decision.

When Fran started her fourth year at OSU, she shared one side of a duplex with friends.  Which meant she needed a bed.  She and I began scanning the ads and ended up finding a cool, full size waterbed frame with a sideboard for $15.  We unloaded our find in our garage where Fran and N began the process of refinishing and adding slats to convert it for use with a futon mattress.  We had heard good things about "The Futon Man" on the north edge of Corvallis. His mattresses are a total contrast to the futons that are the butt of so many jokes.  And so we have another option to consider.

Both options allow us to continue to use our waterbed headboard and keep the 12 dresser drawers built into the platform.  All we have to do is make a decision.  Why is that so hard??