The price of being cool

We had to replace one of our air conditioners this past week. :( Besides the obvious financial shock...my body is reeling from the experience. You see, the air handlers are in the basement...yes, my basement! And since the hoses, wires and all that other 'necessary to make air conditioning work stuff' feeds to the outside units through a hole in the basement wall. The old stuff had to be torn out and the new go in. Hole in the wall was enlarged, the ceiling tiles had to be removed...I don't know all the specifics, just that everything had to move ... embroidery machine, plastic drawer thingies, furniture, treadmill, Boflex ...everything! "Oh my aching back!" Anyway, what better time to continue the make-over of my work space? Now walls are freshly painted, Luster White - no, not exciting, but man does it reflect the light! which is a good thing in a basement. And it looks soooo clean! Everything has been dusted, organized and moved back to it's rightful place. New shelves (more plastic thingies) were purchased to hold fabric, embroidery blanks and other assorted sewing stuff. Had to order an additional set of shelves and am waiting for my ribbon rack to be finished and installed. Just need new floor covering and I will be totally satisfied with the basement. As you can see in the picture below, right now we have the most gosh-awful mis-matched pieces of carpet that were salvaged from hubby's office when they remodeled. Would love to hear some your suggestions for flooring...low budget flooring (very low budget...air conditions are crazy expensive).