My spate of cleaning last week was inspired by a project to clean my bedroom that came about because we got a new mattress. Getting the mattress meant getting the old box springs and mattress down to the guest bedroom downstairs, getting that set of mattress and box springs up to the back porch awaiting donation to a friend.

You'd think the struggle of moving over-sized, unwieldy items down and around the stairs would have tired me out. But the size of the dust bunnies under the bed frame prompted the cleaning of the floor. That led to the realization that the dust on the top rows of the curtains had to go and then the walls and and then it became an all-out war on the whole house.

Meanwhile, the Captain was in home improvement heaven. He'd done all the research to determine what mattress we wanted and what foundation it would need. He'd gone to Lowe's. He'd gotten out his power tools. He'd measured and sawed and drilled and created the precise number of horizontal slats at the precise width apart and then created new legs running below that to give further support to the Casper foam mattress that arrived via mail because that's how we do things now.

He really worked hard. He'd done a great job. And no blood was spilled during the construction project. We'd avoided any marital spats ala the famous front walk project where he'd come home after I'd spent all morning digging out old stepping stones, widening the path and laying down new, bigger stones. I was sweaty. My arms were approaching noodle status and I had whole families of blisters on my hands. "Did you research the best way to do that?" he'd greeted me. "Did you use a level to be sure the ground is even?"

I was pretty sure we'd divorce before we got the stones in place, or kill each other, but somehow we managed to keep the stones on the ground and not swing a shovel too close to each other's heads.

In Jeff's defense, research is an important part of any project and I confess that I often will dive right into an idea only to find that if I'd slowed down a bit and examined the right way to do something, I'd be better off. (Those stepping stones were no where close to level when he came home...)

While he was exploring the best foundation for the new mattress, he'd asked me if I would be open to having it on a simple bed frame instead of in our sleigh bed frame. "No," I'd replied, not even looking up.

"How about on the floor?" he'd asked. "The hardwood would be good support."

I'd looked up at that one. "We are grown-ups. We sleep in a bed," I'd decreed.

He muttered something about me being an old lady as he turned back to his research, but I stood, well, firm. And thus, he decided we could keep our bed frame, but the current system that held the traditional box spring wasn't worthy.

While he created a better support system, I cleaned in different parts of the house. I quite purposefully stayed out of his way as he trotted back and forth with tools and lumber. Genius, right? I've learned a few things in our 20+ years together...

So. He finishes the slat project. The mattress arrives. We un-box it. I saw it, and I thought to myself. "Hmmm." But I didn't voice anything. I was hoping the thing would inflate a bit after having all the air sucked out of it so it would fit in the box. I think I didn't comment out loud. Here's what it looked like when we first installed it.

In my head, I thought, "No way, buster," but out loud, I think I said, "Uh, honey. Does that look a little low to you?"

He shook me off. He thought it would be fine. We just needed to get used to the look of it.

"Lay down on it and see if it's more firm and better than the old one," he suggested.

I did just that. Now, Jeff is almost a foot taller than me. Our old bed required me to jump up a little to get into it. I had to stoop a little to get into it. I felt like Snow White stumbling into the dwarves' house.

"I feel like I'm sleeping on the floor," I said.

"You'll get used to it," he said.

My pillow fell through a crack between the mattress and the top of the head board that was about the size of a pass-thru between a diner kitchen and the counter area. Later that night, I got out of bed to go to the bathroom, and I stumbled because I was used to sliding down a little bit. In this bed, I had to kind of climb up out of it.

I don't know how to describe how I felt laying in that bed because I've never really thought about the height at which I've slept before. But you've camped out, right? When you camp out, you know you're sleeping on the ground. You don't think about your position in the universe, there's just a lot of it on top of you.

The mattress is great. It was beautifully supported and I did sleep better than in the old one. Jeff did too, but he claims I drift over to him and move around a lot and that keeps him up. The old mattress had formed a bit of a trough which made it easier for me to roll over onto his side. The new one, of course, doesn't have that and apparently I keep more to myself now.

Horizontally, it was lovely. Vertically, though. And it looked weird!!!!

"It's fine," said the man. "You'll get used to it. We are the only ones who see our bedroom, anyway."

When I suggested -- again -- we needed to elevate the mattress, Jeff was less-than-enthused. He had done the research, the work and he had done a great job. It's true.

"Fine," he finally said. "But you're doing the box spring research."

We ended up with a steel box spring that's suggested for the mattress we have. It came UPS. He worked to improve the wooden structure he'd built -- yay! power tools -- and I read the instructions. They were more pictures than words, but I bent to the task.

It didn't take long at all, and of course it required a little more cleaning after all the cardboard bits and pieces were collected.

Alison was home while we worked on this, and she's witnessed our attempts to work together. She found herself a nest in the living room and put on her headphones. (The girl has learned a few things over the years...)

We used all the parts that came with the thing and assembled the steel box. It's literally a steel box with vertical slats covered in a zippered fabric shell. Its light, but strong and will be all the box spring we will ever need.

"I bet that the support you built will make this even better," I said, sucking up a tiny bit, but honestly believing it, too.

It's slightly lower than the old set but I don't have to jump up to get into it. The pillows don't slide underneath the head board and when I go to the bathroom at night, I slide off and over rather than having to climb up to the floor like I'm on a submarine.

Here's what it looks like now. Not that anyone but the Captain and I will ever see it...

It's better, right?! And we are still married...