I have a 7yr old, $200 when bought brand new futon that my lady and I have slept on every night for 7 years. I'm 6ft and 200lb, while she is 5ft and 140lbs. Its gotten less comfortable lately. Perhaps I'm getting older.

In pricing beds, the fact that they cost so much, and perform so poorly initially (a bad person to bed fit), then later (poor quality) makes me leery of spending $1000+ on something that won't last as long or be as comfortable as a 7yr old, $200 futon. I mean, my back doesn't hurt. I don't roll off. Its not sagging in the middle.

So I think I'm going to try the following... purchase a few high quality mattress toppers in a range of densities, and use this on top of the very compressed yet uniformily flat futon. The range of densities should allow me to cut them lengthwise if too firm is too much for my lady, while too soft causes me problems, to make custom densities. I plan to throw a wool cover on top, and then, if i get the latex right, find a cheap spring mattress and perform surgery, adding my hopefully long lived latex toppers to a spring mattresses long lived springs.

I estimate $400 for three 1in latex toppers in med, firm, and extra firm densities, $100 for the wool cover, and wait till i find a screaming deal on a good set of springs underneath a bunch of bad foam, to rebuild with my latex toppers... and I could probably use the futon as a box springs. Pass it down to my childrens children as a family heirloom. Something like that.

So, I'm wondering if this sounds like a good plan, because I've just said I'm used to a 7yr old $200 futon, and I realize I am solidly out of my mind...

Any tips? Points to make? Stuff I've left out?

Thanks! I've enjoyed reading this site the last few days as well.