Our GC had a wonderful exercise for us. His assignment even before we met was to have DH & me write out our top 20 items/ideas for the house (in order of importance). We did this seperarately w/o knowing each other's top 20. We then brought this list to GC on our first meeting. This enabled him to get the big picture. We also took these lists to the architect. Along with this list, was a photo of what we desired & a layout we thought we liked. As the process has developed, all of our smaller, nitpicky items have come out. GC has appreciated the thought process that I've put into it all. He said it has made everything move smoothly. In the end, I will have less daily choices to make. Although I did SO much research prior to all of our meetings, I have welcomed GC's ideas & knowledge, as well. Afterall, we are hiring him for his skills, knowledge, & expertise. He has been doing this 30+ years & I have only just recently begun this process. I definitely would not go into this seeming like a total know-it-all or you will make GC's life quite unpleasant. Also, in all honesty, about 90% of our desires for our home, GC had already planned for, so I would really be looking for the best GC you can find.

That sucks. It is time to do some research. First, who did you buy it from? We have sent mattresses back for loss of consistency but it takes some effort. Helps if it is a model we still have on the floor. That way you/we can weight test it and see how deep xx pounds sinks on the display vs yours. Second, how is your foundation? If it is on a bad boxspring then the mattress will just sink. Third, how is the bed under it? My uncle had a nice wood bed and somehow only used two cross slats, one at the head and one at the foot. This wasted a mattress set we sold him but we got to the bottom of things. Do some investigating yourself. Especially if the frame or the wood bed is not right you want to make it right BEFORE the mattress company gets involved. Not entirely honest I suppose but some mattress companies hide from warranties often enough I don't feel bad. Oh, and search for any stains on the mattress and try to clean it before they come over. Thats another out they have.

Run, don't walk from Healthier Choice and frothed foam. Unless, you like a hard, heel jarring, industrial feel to your home's floor. I installed this junk in my beautiful new home. Once I've paid off the $10k carpet bill, I will yanking this junk out and replacing with premium foam at an additional cost of $3k, not to mention the pain of moving everything out of and back into the house. The frothed foam is that bad. My previous home had a premium foam carpet pad. It was WONDERFUL! It felt great on the bare feet and my home felt luxurious, warm and comfy. I now have to use slippers to pad and insulate my feet. I hate slippers. With the premium foam pad, I could sit or lay comfortably on the floor to read or watch TV. That is not at all comfortable on the frothed foam flooring. I found out the hard way that the Carpet Guru is nothing more than a shill for Healthier Choice and their junk frothed foam pad. I was a fool for his sales job and installed it in my new home. When, I complained to Carpet Guru about the hard floor, he added a line that the pad doesn't have the "squishy feel" of premium foam. Clearly an attempt to make luxuriousness and comfort a bad thing. An honest man would have said, "luxurious feel." Even more dishonest, that verbage was promptly removed and no mention of the feel exists (as before). Carpet Guru's averment that the frothed foam pad cells act as "tiny shock absorbers" is total BS. Ever walk barefoot on a heavy traffic office floor? This pad is marginally better. Carpet Guru claims, "This pad will NOT bottom out." Well, I'm not sure that it actually does, but it sure FEELS like it does. I guess cement doesn't bottom out either. Carpet Guru's averment that Healthier Choice's pad rebounds better from furniture indents is simply not true either. My previous premium foam rebounded way faster. Carpet Guru claims the frothed foam pad transfers heat from heated floors better because it's R rating is so low. Then he claims it provides a "thermos effect." Well, you can't have it both ways. A product either insulates or it does not. I can tell you, frothed foam does not. My floors are cold, upstairs and down. When I first brought up the subject to the Carpet Guru, he shot back that I should have known it would be this way due to the high weight rating. Well he holds himself out as the expert with no mention of his sales position. If he was anything other than a salesman for Healthier Choice, this information about the hardness would be in his "informational" page. He's conducting a sales pitch, folks, pure and simple. And a dishonest one at that. So again, run, don't walk, from frothed foam. Steve

kingradian, we haven't had to make a final decision yet as our contractors are way behind on the rest of the house. My brother just installed carpet, however, and chose to go with 8 lb rebond. The SmartCushion and Memory Foam have enough detractors and you have to be so particular about taping and what not, that he preferred the tried and true rebond. It is hard in our area to find someone who really knows their stuff.