Hi KIT,
This link should help you avoid most of the worst choices when you are mattress shopping and help you with putting time and energy into the better ones. Because of the heavy advertising both by them and the major brands they carry … chain stores like Sleepy’s are often the place where most people buy a mattress when unfortunately these types of outlets are usually among the worst places to go. Sometimes outlets like these do have a few models that may be worth including in your research but the time, effort and knowledge required to find these few (if they have any at all) is usually much better spent at outlets that offer better quality, value, and knowledge about their mattresses and the materials in them.
While there are no local factory direct manufacturers in your immediate area (these are usually the best source of quality and value), there are some better options and post #2 in this thread should help with this.
Sleeping on the bottom of a one sided mattress … even with a topper … is not a great option (as you unfortunately know) because they are not built to work well this way. The good news is that at least you are on the right track to change things for the better … even if it has unfortunately cost you some money. There’s lots of information here that should help you “get it right” (in the mattresses section of the main site and in the forum) but if you have questions along the way feel free to post them.
Phoenix