Macbook stuck at OSX Utilities screen on startup

So I have a 2009 MBP that was experiencing trouble (It would not wake up from sleep sometimes without being restarted), so I tried to erase all of the contents and reinstall osx. I attempted this a few months ago and got to the point where I had erased all the contents. However, I got stuck because on startup I see the OSX Utilities page with four options -- to restore from time machine backup, to reinstall OS X, to get Help online, and Disk Utility. Regarding the first option, I don't have a time machine backup for this laptop and would just like to start from scratch. And when I try to reinstall OS X and set up OS X Mavericks, the system cannot verify my eligibility for the installation. I get an error that shows "An error occurred while preparing this installation. Try running this application again." Each time I try to install OS X, I get this error! When I try to restore my OS X Base System disk to my hard drive by using the OS X Base System as a source and my Macintosh HD hard drive as a destination, I get an error that shows "The startup disk can't be used as a restore source". I'm so confused about how to proceed with my computer without going to the apple store. Any help?!!!

Thanks so much!