Thank you so much, echoflooring. You were absolutely right! We went back to the carpet store to get comfortable on all this before finalizing the order, and I figured I'd circle back for the benefit of anyone in the future who looks at this question. We went back and compared the carpet we chose to the "true friezes" and "true saxonies" they had. This Essential Living is something Karastan calls a "textured saxony." Fiber is much, much thicker, and considerable looser than a real saxony. Unlike the saxony, you can't make lasting footprints (or draw smiley faces as my son did), in the Essential Living carpet. About the same texture as the friezes, just a teeny bit longer and a little bit looser, and a bit softer. It's not as long as I remember it, and carpet vendor says they've had lots of experience putting it on stairs with no wear or safety issues. With his guidance we did scale the padding on the stairs back to a dense, thinner, pretty unyielding felt that should reduce concerns about too much padding/curve on stair treads. Thanks so much for all your help!

Hi Wakieone, No stairs but excellent quality and should do well for stairs. Very dirt resistant. Should give Carpets of Dalton a call and check it out. I am working with "Pam" now. Number is #888-514-7446, ext. 437. Here's the scoop: At Carpet One this exact carpet is called something different, and so are the colors. I believe my carpet at Carpet One was called "Easton" but at Dalton "Edleston". My color was "Beehive" at Dalton and something different at Carpet One. Your "Linen Suit" sounds familiar but I'm not sure if that's the same color or not. It's sort of a Buff color with a goldish tint, if that helps. It cost me $3.00 a sq. ft. at Dalton, ...$27 per yard. Only remember it was much higher at Carpet One. No taxes if shipped out of Georgia, so the shipping fee is pretty much a wash, and you can save 30-50%. You just have to find your own installer. Dalton may have a list of those in your area. Good luck! This carpet is so soft--it feels like Pima cotton on the feet.

. . . and now it begins I had SPECIFICALLY insisted that the carpet be power stretched. It was written on my order. It was written on the installers' job sheet. So what do I find when I check on their progress? A stinger. Which punches holes in the carpet and is explicitly prohibited by the CRI. I took a picture of it and emailed it to Lowes, and told them that the installer had violated the Mohawk warranty requirements. And hopefully didn't take chunks out of my subfloor in the process, but probably did. The installation team manager called Mohawk to confirm what I told him, and they said yes, stingers are a no go. So, I told them they are going to have to do it all over again, with new fresh materials, and do it right. more fun.

I have son who is terribly allergic to everything he was tested for (except animals) as well as asthmatic. He has two vials of serum and received 2 shots 2x a week (one in each arm). We are just beinning 2 shots 1x a week on the maintanance vial. Dust mites was one of his biggest reactions. After testing, we were about to replace his carpet with hard flooring when our pediatric allergist at the children's hospital recommended that we put in a low pile carpet. The Allergen world is now saying that a low pile carpet is ideal for allergy sufferes and asthmatics, as it traps the allergens rather than being constantly dispersed everytime they are walked on, or by any movement of the air. It does require some work though. Helping with allergies and asthma is not just a flooring issue but goes way further than that. In our case: * we rearranged the furniture. Only his headboard is against the wall so we can get to baseboards easily. * Night stand is off the floor, replaced by a cool shelf and bracket we got from ikea, with a clip on bendable arm reading light. * Dresser now is wall mounted in the closet (raised 11 inches off floor and from ikea) * One tall bookcase (also from ikea) that is attached to the wall and sits on the floor. Ikea makes the bottom cut away for the baseboard so the unit is totally flush against the wall. Minimal dust gets back there and also cant be disturbed by air movement. *He cannot be in his room when it is cleaned which is done faithfully every week. *Hepa filter vacuum is a must. *Room is vacuumed, baseboards are wiped down *as well as the crevice where carpet and moulding meet) with damp rag sprayed with dust mite control spray. *Dust mite control spray is again applied to the low pile carpet (we put in Shaw Tuftex). Wait 1-2 hours (which he cannot go in there) and we vacuum thouroghly again. *Blinds are vacuumed weekly and wiped down monthly. *Ceiling fan wiped and dusted weekly. *Matress is encased in a protective zippered cover. *Pillow is an allergy control pillow also encased in allergy cover. *His comforter is allergy control but encased in a regular duvet cover that is washed on sanitary cycle weekly. *No window treatment or wall mounted pictures in his room so we put cool wall decals http://www.whatisblik.com/ I bought a steamer mop at a hardware store and I steam his carpet 1-2 times a month. I do the rest of the house (wood and carpet) more often. Because there is some costs involed, we did some things right away and some things over time. It is overwhelming at first having such a rigorous cleaning routine, but after a while, it becomes easier. We have now begun doing the other two kids bedrooms the same way, though neither has allergies or athsma. Here is a link to a swedish study about solid flooring vs carpet, where carpet was outlawed in public building in 1973 and carpet became only 2% of all flooring, yet allergy sufferers incleased dramatically over the 30+ years time. Here is a link that might be useful: Carpet vs Hard Surface Flooring for allergies