Yeh I have probably over 100 potted plants this year. Im still not sure if I will let the big yuccas die, but if I do sometimes I take off the heads and root them. They root really easily. The yuccas came from Home Depot and the tall one was 30 dollars and the small one 20 something so they werent too expensive for their size. I wish I could take all my plants in, but I only have room for the more expensive ones, or the harder to find ones. The good thing about cannas and elephant ears though is they dont take up any room when you store the bulbs.

Tiger is right. Take the free money and get the better system. $1500 is just the from the Feds. Your state and/or local utility also will give you rebates, but you'll need to meet a minimum efficiency which your quotes do not achieve. If your cost delta goes from $2300 down to $400 that is a big difference. Your contractor is not being very helpful. I interviewed 8 contractors for my home and went with the the one that: a. did the load calcs b. worked with me and all my crazy thoughts on various system configurations c. was professional and responsive when it came to answering questions. d. made me and my wife feel comfortable with what they proposed. I did not go with the cheapest bid or the most expensive (although it was quite expensive). My costs were much higher due to a lot of duct work. Either way I can promise you that you will get what you pay for. Tigerdunes is steering you in the right direction. In the end it is up to you. I spent a month researching and interviewing contractors before making a decision. BTW I took an option for 12months 0% so I could actually get all my rebates and returns and spread out the cost at the same time. In my case I get the $1500+ 1200 more from my utility. There are also a lot of rebates for new systems. I know Carrier and Lennox have major rebates at this time for sure, but in general they are larger with the nicer systems. It never hurts to get a variety of quotes to weigh your system options (I had multiple quotes from the same contractors)

thank you guys for even reading my wordy post! and for responding with great/helpful ideas ;) i fixed the google sketchup drawings with correct wall height. alx and lzgdns - i'm not married to an accent wall, but dd wanted bright pink walls and all 4 walls = approx 713 sq feet of azalea pink! good info though, that focal wall has to be focal for a reason. i was trying to do a satisfying dose of pink for her, without losing the light reflectivity of the other walls, and trying to make the dingiest north wall/ceiling area look crisp white by contrast. the ivory on upper half of room now looks greyish-ivory "BM faded orphan dress" thank you for the paint color suggestions, especially on dealing with the northerly light (and website) purply-pinks clash with the carpet for sure. the color dd keeps coming back to is behr's springtime bloom - lol - fun job to name paint colors - BM peptobismol SW benydryl tablet pink FPE chalky calamine lotion would you really paint the ceiling pink too? there is no flat ceiling, it's all on a slope. that's exactly why we want the loft for her - cozy book nook, place where she and her friends will want to be as they get a little older - we wanted the area underneath it to have maybe a desk, storage, bookshelves too - something that i really worry about is that since the light is northerly, putting a loft on the far wall would actually pretty much lower the ceiling over both windows. this has to reduce the amount of light that gets reflected into the rest of the room, making it feel even darker. i Love beadboard, but i have been feeling that it's too out of character with the house to look right. my mil has the similar contemporary 1970s style home, and she has spent years gradually colonializing it - colonial wallpapers, paint colors, furniture. the overall effect is ODD. cottagy finishes in a room with an 15'high x 19'long wall -is it possible? crash&suero, you've both gotten me thinking, corner loft! a triangle wastes a lot of floor space, but a square works maybe? instead of across the room - because the shortest part is useless anyway - the one i drew is directly under the skylight, and has lowest ceiling height of around 4'5" like a staircase but that would take up a lot of space/$, for now i think ladder is best option? i also like that it breaks up the enormous expanse of wall. no kidding if i had a ds instead of dd, i'd do a mural of niagara falls, put fake boulders at the bottom, hang some barrels halfway on hte wall for bookshelves, decorate his bed in lifejacket orange and be done ;) Did another sketch! Loft is around 5' by 8'. Wasn't sure what size it should be but this doesn't block window, and is a golden mean ratio ;) added ladder. hope it makes sense visually. Any thoughts? the wall is pink for fun, will try other paint suggestions too ;) pink does not match actual paint choices. thank you so much! (sorry my messages are so long) my paint color name is: SW chatty blur Here is a link that might be useful: new sketch with corner loft

mike_home: my heat pumps are 4 ton units each; I went with slightly oversized air handlers. callights: Thanks for the tip on water temp, I will check on that, too. FYI, not sure if it's a clue but I am using the boiler for home hot water (showers) via indirect zone, and the boiler is maintaining I 150-170 degrees when the hydronic calls. HVAC support were prompt and helpful via phone; I told them to hold off sending someone onsite until I've gathered more data (plus they were dealing with folks who had NO heat last weekend, much worse off than I). With respect to gathering data, here's the latest: I've ended up setting the hydronic cfm to 1350; at that it looks like the system can maintain house at 68-70 if I wish...although wouldn't you know it the temp is now 50 degrees higher here in New England! Guess I need to wait for next cold snap for next test, but I suspect it's still not calibrated perfectly because it did seem to have trouble getting up over 70 degrees that cold day (after the cfm increase)...and no, I don't want my home at 72, it was just a test to see if hydronic could make that happen. Should I worry if it can only get up to 69/70 on a sub-zero-F day (as an indicator of some issue)? The VR1-40 is rated at 120-140K BTU, surely that's enough for a house my size?