Carpet Shopping, Part I

The exciting (and lame) thing about being an adult is that you have to do everything for yourself.  I always thought adults seemed like they knew everything.  They never have problems, right?  The whole point of growing up is to know how to do stuff, right?  Sure, my parents made mistakes, but that's more the exception than the rule.  Or something. ;)

I want new carpet.  I bet our current carpet is probably original to the house (built in 1999) and we've kind of finished trashing the carpet.  When we moved in, the carpet was not quite dry yet and we wore our shoes while moving in the furniture.  It was too late by the time I thought to protect the carpet with cardboard.  D'oh!

Anywho.  New carpet.  Where to begin?  My mom just got new carpet from Home Depot.  Quick, easy, whatever.  She recommended them, and since she's my mom, she's got to be right, right?  (What the heck is "right" with buying carpet anyway??)  And then I thought, "There are carpet stores.  I should go there too.  Maybe."  I tried reading stuff on the Internet about buying carpet and it just made my head hurt.  I like doing things on my own, sometimes I have a hard time with salespeople (okay, used car salesmen, BUT STILL), and ... I don't know!  It's just scary when you feel like you don't know anything!!

So the first mistake I made was going to Home Depot first.  You have no idea how much it costs to install carpet.  You have no idea what labor charges there are.  You don't know what's covered in this price and that ... how do you ask for just a final cost estimate so you have something to compare?!  Home Depot won't give you an estimate until you have someone come in and measure, and they charge you $50.  Supposedly it's a really good measuring (the guy had this little computer and did a lot of measuring and thinking and he was really nice) ... and now I have my estimates from them.

I went into two carpet places today, and one thing I thought was really nice was the price they gave me per yard included the carpet, the pad, and the installation.  Home Depot lists all those things separately.  They've offered to come to my house this week to do some measuring and give me some of their estimates - for free.

Okay, so right now I'm out 50 bucks because I had Home Depot come and do a measure.  But if they end up being the people we decide to go with for the install, they'll "refund" our $50 and apply it towards the installation of the carpet and stuff.

But, you know, "big box stores are the devil" and all, so we'll see what these more local companies have to offer.  I must say, I felt way more comfortable in their showrooms talking to the people about trying to get cost estimates and ideas than I did at Home Depot.  I might've felt awkward no matter where I went first, or I could trash Home Depot and be like, "These carpet stores were like, 'Yes, let us help you.' and Home Depot was like, 'We'll help you ... but give us some money first!'"  It's like they're trying to trap me into buying from them and only them!

Ever heard of sunk costs?  Some people start putting money into a failing project, but they keep throwing money at it because they've been throwing money at it and think that if they dump the bad project they've thrown their money away.  But it's already been thrown away!  Cut your losses and move on!


So ... carpet shopping lesson #1 ....... don't pay for an estimate. ;)
(oh, just wait until I have my car buying lessons! yikes!)