The earth underground is 50-55 degrees F for much of the USA. Carpet and pad are very good insulators. This is important if you use the basement in the wintertime. Concrete/tile/stone are very poor insulators and the floor will feel cold. Of course, this is not an issue if you have radiant floor heating. Engineered wood or laminate are somewhere in-between for insulating value but not nearly as good as carpet and pad. I think replaceable carpet tiles with attached pad would be the ideal basement floor. I have never used this type of product. I'm not a huge carpet fan, but it works well in our basement with kids. We have a 1/2" nylon pile and standard pad that is soft and easy to clean in a darker color to hide stains. Ours is a bi-level, so we do have regular double hung windows for decent light and the walls are a light color. Insurance will take care of the backup or water heater flood or sump pump failure if it ever happens. Thankfully, our sewer line has no trees between our house and the main. The water heater is also new. The sump pump is the only real risk. I will be installing a battery backup in the near future as the power does go out here fairly often during big thunderstorms when it rains heavily. I have been home on two occasions when I had to bail the sump pump well, very LUCKY!

Update: I finally realized my great house cleaners were not so great after all. The feather duster was not touching the dust and things were rearranged to make it look like they had been cleaned and toilets were black under the rim. One day I had to leave the house for about 45 minutes and when I arrived back the cleaners were gettingin their car to leave. Hmmm....so much for cleaning my house. Yes, they were fired. I now have a truly great one person house cleaner that is very thourough and everything is actually cleaned. It takes her 4-5 hours to clean my 2,500 sq. ft. house.

weedyacres - That's a great idea! I volunteered once for them during college, but there were so many other people there that they didn't need most of us and had to find just manual labor projects like painting and hauling bricks. I've been to one of the habitat for humanity stores where they have the leftover doors and other materials at great prices. I was considering checking them out for a good deal. live_wire_oak - I don't own scaffolding, but I own/have access to several various ladders. I don't plan on having vaulted ceilings so scaffolding won't be necessary. If I do change my mind on the floor plan later, I'll leave that to the professionals. I realize I'll take longer to paint without a compressor, but with friends and family close by, all I'll be out is the cost of drinks and pizza. I see no reason why painting can't be done at nights and on weekends when the crew isn't there anyways. It wouldn't extend the time of the build. I have family that have done their own flooring, spending a few hundred in tools. Assuming that I can't just borrow theirs (since they do live pretty far), a few hundred in tool costs compared to the thousands for painters is well worth it. I'm still considering the cost of just putting in everything cheap and going back and redo-ing it later. I'll probably talk to my contractor more about any time constraints or other concerns in that area. AnnieDeighnaugh - From what I've read, the time it takes to GC a build is quite overwhelming! My contractor is not only well known in the community, but also built my parents house. I trust that with him I won't have to worry about anyone bailing on the build. I think if I were to GC anything myself it would be something much smaller. autumn - Thanks for the advice! I absolutely love my parents stone fireplace (they have their back porch in stone too), but because of the expense it's something I think I'll be postponing. (I love puzzles which only makes stone work that much more appealing to me). But I do plan on have a large unfinished basement, so hopefully in the future I can take on the same projects that your family did!

We have the pile/plush Smartstrand and love it. I wasn't sure about the "tracking" as you call it when we first got it, but now it just comes across as a luxurious yet casual carpet. You only notice footprints after it's first vacuumed. Walk across a few times, everything blends and you are good to go. Another option for less tracking would be the Smartstrand Frise. Have you checked it out? We plan to use it in our bonus room when we finish it. Stain-wise I have been very impressed. Even when DS2 cut his foot (& didn't realize it) and tracked quarter-sized blood splotches all over his bedroom, the stains came right out with just a tap water dampened clean cloth. Did I mention our Smartstrand is white? I was mortified when I saw what had happened (after I got him cleaned & bandaged up of course). I was thrilled when the stains came out with very little effort and no chemicals required. We looked at the Shaw, but it was no comparison (in our opinion) to the Smartstrand when it came to softness & the stain technology. Check with your local Lowes or HD--they also carry Smartstrand and I believe their contractors do the powerstretch--if not the warranty isn't any good. Hope this helps!