I had to share because this seems to be one of those things where going cheap has never paid off for us (though always seems strongly encouraged by the frugies).

General rule of thumb is to only clean or replace or use up items "half as much" as recommended. Or even less. My other rule of thumb is I'd rather work (to pay someone else) than do a chore that I Can not stand. (There are plenty of chores that I don't mind and am not strongly opposed to. The list of chores I'd rather pay someone is pretty small, but makes life a lot nicer).

Carpet Cleaning...

We had someone come in and do the carpets for about $40 early on. Maybe every 2-3 years was a fine schedule. (I am sure they recommend every year).

Would I rather pay someone $40 to handle it or go through the hassle to rent out a cleaner. *no brainer*

Our carpet cleaning guy disappeared, and so we have been in carpet limbo for many many years. Saving Advice talked me into buying a carpet cleaner. Meh. I don't regret the purchase as it has come in handy (particularly in recent years) to clean up pet messes. BUT, cleaning the carpet would take probably days with this stupid thing and it's not very good (nothing at all compared to professional grade). So, I don't think it has been a useful purchase. But, hey, I got it and maybe cleaned the worst areas of the carpet once.

We were initially thinking of going petless when our cat passed, and new carpets were on the horizon. The kids had really thrashed the carpets (we were way too tired - with babies - to clean every spot as we went and deal with it at that point - a few years later and it's so overwhelming). The cat also did a doozie on the carpet in her final months.

Our family room is where most the cat/kid mess is, so it's not horrible - would just be one room to replace. We also had quite a cat mess in the other room (kept litter box in distant corner - no good non-carpet surface to keep it). I really wanted to clean that corner up ASAP but we didn't get a carpet cleaner out until this week.

This place was recommended as "reasonable" and awesome, and I checked online reviews to see "stains disappeared forever."

After being quoted to pay $150 for what we once paid $40, I was not sure on the "reasonable." One large room, a hallway, and the cat corner. Dh might have said "2 rooms and a hallway" which is a fair approximation. BUT, I had high hopes they would do a very good job, so we bit the bullet.

They came over at 10am yesterday. Dh called me around 1:00 yesterday to tell me they were still cleaning. O.M.G. {I think this speaks less to our mess and more to how thorough they were. Maybe a little of both}.

I was so pleased to come home to a house that did not *at all* smell like chemicals. They cleaned up the pet mess like new - it is sitting right now with a special enzyme treatment. The carpet looks brand new.

**The bad thing about this is I don't really see the point to clean them again for another 10 years or so. If we can abuse them like that and they can look this nice with one cleaning. **

& the word is the carpets will stay like this. The stains won't creep back up. So, will see...

As of today, I am a convert. Screw this do-it-yourself, or cheap carpet cleaning people. Do it right and we can keep this carpet for many decades (which is also way more environmentally sound).

So, we are going to give it a few months (see how things settle) and then probably get the stairs and the upstairs carpets cleaned. (They aren't bad at all as there are no shoes or food allowed upstairs. Cat did not mess much up there). At this rate it might be $200+ to get 3 rooms and our large/open hallway done, but I think it will be money very well spent. (We have never cleaned the upstairs carpet - so it probably could use a scrub). I am crossing "carpet replacement" off our to-do list. I am crossing it off our near-term and our long-term to-do list. I doubt we will replace this carpet ever. Since we only plan to be here another 15-ish years.

So, saving that much money in the long haul makes me VERY happy.

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In other semi-related news, the 2.75% 15-year refi is an evil temptress!! Dh and I had a long talk about it over the weekend. On some level I think we could mostly flip a coin. But, we keep coming across two sticking points when it comes to tying up all our cash in a 15-year mortgage:

1 - We strongly believe in balance. We definitely are the most relaxed we have ever been on one-income and I am reluctant to give that up. We both are. We are richer now and saving more than ever before, so it's not like we have to try as hard as when we were in our teens and 20s. (We also to this day still have less income than we did earlier on, with the one-income situation). As far as "richer" I mean we have more assets. Most our savings is getting invested and compounding since we have far less short-term savings goals and pressures.

2 - We keep coming back to the point that a 15-year mortgage would pay off our home around the time the kids graduate college. BUT, we were just starting to get to a place to *start* to save for college.

We feel like it is better to keep borrowing at 4% (which is hardly anything!) and to 100% never have to borrow again. I am not sure I want to put ourselves in a position to have to borrow (at a likely higher rate) for college. & yes, I have said many times I am not overly worried about it and that college is quite inexpensive here. But I also believe in keeping as many options open as possible. So, we both think it's probably better just to lock in a good 30-year rate for the future.

It's just hard for us to get worked up about the mortgage. We got to have somewhere to live and if we had rented this entire time we would have paid a gajillion dollars more. It's hard to get worked up about the $600/month interest we pay to live in our *dream home* in *California.* It's infinitely less interest and payments than we initially signed up for in 1999 (8.25% on first home. We were paying about $1400/month interest on a CONDO, and renting the condo would have been about $3k per month. This is why it's hard for me to freak out about our current mortgage situation. My housing "Set point" is crazy high. To rent our current home would be $2k per month).

& finally, what would my wiser financial mentors say? Keep the mortgage. Not forever, but just for now.

The reason the 2.75% is such an evil temptress is because we do expect more income and windfalls in the near future. I kind of feel like we should lock it in. BUT, we decided we don't count our eggs before they hatch. This is the most basic of financial principles that we have always followed. We will survive. I think we would survive if we refinanced too, but I think it would be unnecessary stress and pressure.

I am going to keep an eye on 25-year mortgage rates. Rates are getting low enough that it might make sense. I have to run the numbers and doubt we would do this today, but if rates stay low a while, this might be a better compromise.

Yes, I am keeping debt to stay out of debt. But I am choosing debt that has been good to us and we have never had a problem with.

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In other real estate news - I saw final sales price on recent home sale. They asked $375k and sold for $381k. Our home will definitely be worth $400k come summer (if not already). That $381k home sold in minutes. What I am curious about is if homes will zoom past $400k. It seems like a logical tipping point (that things would slow down at $399k) BUT with these low interest rates and home buyers being so "monthly payment focused," I will not be surprised if home prices blow past $400k this summer. I don't think it's sustainable in the least, but it's where things seem to be heading. Will see...

This puts our home at 50% equity. We did not overtly discuss this point in our refinance discussions, but may be in the back of my mind. The main reason we were hitting mortgage so hard in recent years was because we were losing so much equity. Was fighting just to keep 20% equity. Was very important to us to keep that flexibility. Succeeded - saved by the bell. We bottomed out right about 20% equity, and then things bounced back in a flash. It's less pressing now. We are still paying down mortgage much faster than historically, because of lower interest rates, and mortgage chips. So it's not like we are totally ignoring it and not paying down faster at all due to large amounts of equity. We have most certainly learned that equity comes and goes - just try our best to stay ahead of the curve. This time we lucked out. (It got awfully close towards the end of the bottom!!)