Carpet!

About a month ago, Greg and I stopped by Lowe's to get an idea of what's out there, carpet-wise.  Now, between the two of us, we do all right in terms of negotiating daily life--we make some funny mistakes sometimes, but we're not totally devoid of brain cells.  However, the conversation we had with the Lowe's employee made me feel comically stupid, like I had forgotten how English works or something.  We asked him about the deal Lowe's was currently advertising, and this was his answer, as it sounded to my ears:

"Well, if you look at these ones here, they're going to be the price you see listed, but you have to add in blah for installation and blah for padding and blah per yard for tacking strips.  If you look at these ones on the back wall, this price here [gestures to sign] is what you're going with. Total.  Except for [gesturing vaguely toward a wall covered in carpet samples] that one, that one, and that one.  Those go for the sale price, plus installation, but we might not have them in stock, in which case, blahblahblah.  Is there carpet already in your house?  No?  So you can subtract blah, but you'll have to add blah because blah."

We smiled and nodded, and he walked away so we could look around.  Greg and I turned to each other:

"So, that one is blah?"

"No, that one is blah, plus blah.  But minus blah because it might not be in stock."

"Wait, I thought THAT one might not be in stock.  Which adds blah, right?"

We called him back and got even more confused.  Greg claims that he understood everything perfectly while the guy was talking, but that as soon as he left and I tried to figure out what he said, I confused Greg.  A likely story.

We left Lowe's and went to Carpet Mill Outlet.  We saw a carpet that we liked.  An employee came over, asked for the dimensions of our space, and with a few quick sums on a notepad, said, "OK, with that carpet, in your space, you're looking at a price of X.  Installation and padding included."

Carpet Mill Outlet got our business.  We picked the middle carpet in the above picture.  It's a very tight Berber without any pattern or anything.  It will go in the office, the bedroom, upstairs hallway, and on the stairs.  Hopefully we'll get to schedule the installation soon!