DIY Basement Makeover: Part 2 - Flooring from Rite Rug + a Giveaway! - CLOSED

As I shared previously, my husband and I (more my husband than me!) started a DIY basement makeover project about 7 weeks ago. And like all of the home improvement projects we have completed, this one came with a tight budget. We have not really been saving up for this, so it has been a "pay as you go" project.

Thankfully my husband is great at figuring out how to do home improvement projects himself, and we estimate that we are going to save anywhere from 30-50% by doing everything except the carpet install on our own. I am planning on sharing a cost breakdown of the project at the end of this series.

To give you an idea of what this project entails - we are finishing approximately 500 square feet of living space in our basement. Because we have so many things in the basement, we divided the project up into 2 parts - a work out space (for our treadmill etc...) and a family room space. We chose to start on the work out space first. 7 weeks in, my husband has completed the framing, electrical, insulation, drywall (this took 3 weeks!), painting, and he has now started on the flooring.

As I mentioned previously, this whole project began with Rite Rug asking me to complete a review of one of their stores as a part of their 75th Anniversary Celebration. One of the first things we did was choose the flooring for our space, so it is really exciting to see it finally going in!

We have replaced nearly 2000 square feet of flooring in our house over the past 8 years, and I had never been to a Rite Rug store. I don't really have a good reason - we just never found our way there. The Rite Rug store that we worked with on this project was great - they were extremely helpful, giving us advice on what types of flooring would be best suited for a basement.

Rite Rug has a huge selection of flooring - tile, laminate, carpet, wood - and in my opinion, their prices are both reasonable and competitive. As I mentioned previously, we are on a tight budget with this project, and I loved that Rite Rug gave us the option of purchasing the wood flooring and installing it ourselves - this saved us approximately $2/square foot. The store we visited also had a small area for kids to play in - which was extremely helpful as we had to take our 3 year old shopping with us. In fact, she cried every time we left the store because she didn't want to leave the toys. :-) I also love the Rite Price Guarantee: If any store in the same city beats their price on the same product within 30 days of your purchase, they will refund you the difference plus 5%.

We are also planning on ordering our carpet from Rite Rug when we finish the family room portion of this project, and I will be sharing my thoughts about working with Rite Rug on the delivery and installation of the carpet.

I am really excited because Rite Rug has given me a $199 gift card to give away to one of you, so that you can purchase an area rug, or start a project of your own!

What am I giving away?

1 winner will receive a $199 gift card to Rite Rug. This card can be used on an area rug, or toward any item/project of your choice, and it expires in October, 2010.

How can you win?

You get up to 4 chances to win:

1) Leave a comment letting me know what your favorite type of flooring is. (Note: Scroll to the bottom of this post and click "Post Comment". You must be on my site - you can't do this through a reader)

2) Become a fan of the Stretching a Buck Fan Page on Facebook. If you are already a fan, you can leave a comment letting me know that you are already a fan (thank you!).

3) Subscribe to my feed or email newsletter and stay on top of all of the deals I write about each week! If you already subscribe, please leave a separate comment letting me know that you are currently a subscriber (thank you!).

4) Promote this giveaway and/or blog. If you don't have a blog, you can Tweet about it (follow me: I'm @stretchingabuck), post about it on your favorite forum, or tell your friends about it! However you decided to promote it, be sure to come back and leave a comment letting me know how you did it.

**In order to tally your entries correctly, please include an email address or link to your (VALID) profile with your contact information. If a winner with no contact info is chosen, the next person on the list will be the winner. If you choose to leave an email address, I recommend that you use a generic email address as this info is viewable by anyone who views my comments. I strongly encourage you to create a Google profile with this info in order to better protect you.**

Who is Eligible?

You must have a valid US address to be eligible. Please be sure that you have a Rite Rug near you and that you'll be able to use the gift card.

When does this giveaway end?

Friday, November 6th at 10 PM, EST.

The winner will be chosen via the random number generator at random.org and will be announced no later than Monday, November 9th. Please note that if I do not hear from the winner within 4 days that another winner will be chosen.

Good Luck!

Review/Giveaway Disclosure: Rite Rug provided me with approximately 150 square feet of Bruce Engineered Hardwood flooring. No other compensation was received. Rite Rug also provided the gift card for this giveaway. You can view my full disclosure policy here.