Thank you so much for the responses! I fretted about it overnight, but decided this morning my main goal was for it to withstand the boys, their friends, and the dog, and I think of all the colors I considered, this was the one that would do that. And, it's not the end of the world if it is not the perfect choice. I always second guess myself in decorating, and it usually ends up fine. Trying to keep it in perspective:) sueb20, you have reassured me so much! Your basement is beautiful - I'll be thrilled if ours ends up looking close to that! I'm envious of your stairs - love the hardwood. I even thought about putting laminate in the basement (that is how much I dislike carpet - carpet never feels "clean" to me). Did you build your media area? If not, where did you get it - I love it. The cords and components are a fact of teenage life, but yours is contained and organized - yay! I had to laugh when I saw all of the "guitars" in the basket..I can't wait to get ours out of the upstairs family room. Busybee3, I originally intended to get a flecked carpet, as I definitely think it would hide the most. Laying out all the samples, the flecks just weren't speaking to me - go figure. Love the idea of a sage carpet - my favorite decorating color! braider, thanks for the link - very useful for me to have in the future!

Some good ideas. Painting is not an option since I am a parent and they are steel and therefore not safe for kids unless covered somehow. We can not box them in b/c we took down a wall to make the room bigger and boxes would close in the space even more so all the work and money knocking down the wall would be wasted. Its not an option. I spent 3k on the rug alone so I want the room to look nice. My local lowes does not have the pole wrap in the size I need and I am having flooring done on Mon. This whole reno has been a lot of strress. I know carpet is not great but we spent so much on reno if we had to do it it wont look like a 70s rec room just not as nice as the wrap. Well, I am off to check and see if we can find wrap and a cheap saw somewhere else in another town. wish me luck lol

Thanks. We had some concerns as we built on a hill and have family on same block that had flooding in their below grade basement. So we took pretty much all precautions.. Turns out that a "friend" did their extension that included the below grade basement and basically no waterproofing measures were taken which is why they get water.. We have been living in house since April and have had many bad storms and still have yet to hear the sump pumps kick on.. And not one ounce of water (knock on wood) has been found in the basement.. We currently have the hvac for first floor hooked up in basement so it is a conditioned space already.. Just doesn't have its own zone.. We haven't noticed any odors coming from basement.. Going to throw a unit down there to measure humidity and also going to try the plastic taped to walls and floor test.. i guess we can go from there and see what happens..

Well the green rug arrived and we unwrapped it and put it in place today, and.... Sigh... I'm not in love with it. I'm trying to love it, but it's just okay. It's darker and drabber than it appeared in the listing photos, and is not as soft as I had hoped. I've ordered rugs online before and usually been pleased with the quality, but this one is a reproduction antique (which I realized after ordering it) and seems to be lacking in quality. It's not awful, it's just kind of blah. My husband feels the same way... He doesn't dislike it but doesn't love it either. I like that it's monochromatic and has a subtle pattern, but don't like that it looks kind of heavy and dark in the space. If the quality/feel were better I might be able to get over the color being darker than I'd hoped, and if it was super cheap I'd probably just make do. But it is returnable, and as much as I dread the idea of repackaging an almost 10x13 rug to send back I'm kind of leaning toward returning it. I guess I'll sleep on it, but would love your honest opinions. I think it might look better in the pictures than it does in real life. Here's the runner in the adjoining hallway that has a similar green in it. If I return this one, I'm not even sure what to look for color-wise. As much as I love green, it feels like too much in a large rug. I would love to find a neutral-ish wool rug that's soft and not difficult to clean. We have an Oriental Weavers wool rug in my husband's office that used to be in our living room that has stood up to a lot of abuse over the years from pets, so I'm open to non-antique rugs too. If anyone has any suggestions for brands or places to look, please let me know. Or maybe I should just look locally as now I'm nervous to order another large rug online.