Monday, June 3, 2013

Crib = Ordered!

We've been crib-shopping ever since school let out a few weeks ago (has it been that long already?!).  We'd spent a good deal of time discussing the type of crib we wanted:

1)  Quality

Nothing flimsy that would scratch or break easily.  We'd decided that we'd really like a crib that was well-built and would last through all our kids.  Now, I have no idea how many kids we'll have or how far apart they will be, but let's just SAY we have them threeish years apart and have fourish kids.  For a crib that converts into a toddler bed, that crib could be up for 12 straight years!  Or if we got the rails for it to convert into a full-size bed, it might never come down!  It needs to withstand moving to a new house or around the room, and frankly, a lot of cribs we looked at didn't fit the bill.  

2)  Color

We both felt a white crib seemed pretty feminine, which would be fine now...but what if we have a boy in the future?  And we both hated the espresso-black-looking colors.  There's a driftwood color, but that just makes the crib look fake.  And we also didn't care for the darker wood colors.  We have a bookcase that we've decided to leave behind when we move the office upstairs so that we can keep baby's books and some toys on it (anything to get lots of storage!).  This bookcase is a medium-wood (think oak) color and is REAL wood.  This was our goal to match.  We cleared off a shelf from the bookcase and took the shelf with us everywhere to see what we could match.  Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like it's a very popular color, because NO ONE had any cribs in this color of wood :(

3)  Longevity

To convert or not to convert?  Originally we'd decided not to do a convertible because we plan to just move our kids straight to a twin instead of doing a toddler bed.  But those are super hard to find and a lot of the good quality ones are just as much as a convertible.  So...convertible it is!

4)  Time frame

We're not doing a bassinet/cradle, so we need this crib pronto.  I know we still have more than three and a half months before baby is born, but I've heard horror stories of things getting back-ordered and cribs taking more than 15 weeks to arrive (because like everything else, a lot of the parts are made in China if not assembled somewhere else).  Not only that, but then you have to open the box to make sure you have all your parts.  And if you don't?  You have to send it back or wait for a part to arrive before assembly.  Talk about a pain.  And I don't really want to deal with that, so we really, really wanted to try to get something either locally made to be sure we'd have it in time OR be able to purchase it from the store floor to put it together quickly.  Just to be safe.

This being said...

We went to a few Muncie stores like Wal-Mart, Target, and Meijer and didn't really care for the quality and small selection of their cribs.  Maybe we're just picky...but we took a good look at the displays and how dinged up they got just from sitting in the store.  The woods were all soft and it looked like one good scratch could just about ruin the look of a crib.  So no.

Then, we figured we'd have better luck in Indianapolis at stores like Babies-R-Us, Buy Buy Baby, and Baby Depot (Burlington Coat Factory).  Pretty much the same deal, only tons more expensive!  We even searched some Indianapolis/Muncie furniture stores, but ALL their cribs were over $1,000.  And sorry...ain't nobody got time to afford that.  So no.

Seriously...we'd looked at about 15 stores and several different websites.  Nothing seemed to fit what we wanted and I figured we'd just have to settle.

But then I considered...what about an Amish-made crib?  

My mom has purchased kitchen chairs from a furniture store called Bernhaus Furniture in Berne and we know that they are fairly reasonable in pricing and the furniture is superb.  I had a feeling that this was the place...if only I knew they sold cribs.  Using my sister as a contact (because I feel like now that she works in Berne she knows EVERYONE who lives and works there), we discovered that they did.  My mom and sister and I stopped in and we looked at a few cribs.  I was impressed with their quality and their custom-order process.  I looked through a catalog and found one that suited every single wish on our wish-list, made a copy, and took it home to show Kyle.  He liked it just as much as I did.  Kyle's parents offered to pay for the crib as their baby gift, and it really was as simple as that.
 
I ordered the crib this morning over the phone and bought a toddler rail to go with it.  It did cost more than Target or Meijer or Babies-R-Us, but it did NOT cost $1,000.  I was guaranteed a free delivery and free assembly by August 5th, plenty of time before baby arrives in September.  I feel like we won the crib lottery. 
 
Kismet!

1 comment:

  1. We didn't have a crib until Pete was 6 weeks old. Phil's dad built it for us and with a wedding in between along with life and work it took longer. His dad actually cut down the tree it is made of when it got knocked down in a storm. His is walnut. You will love the handmade crib they rock!

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