It is like I wrote this! :) It is my first year as well, only herbs and peppers last year. I bought WAY too much squash. It is producing like crazy and taking over my small garden! I bought an old iron door to serve as a trellis and to hide a water heater junk behind my garden. Now I can barely see this 7ft door from the tomatoes! This is crazy! Good thing we bought the next piece of land also, I will need to expand next year...;) My dog is still chasing everything that flies, and I am trying to tell him to leave the wasps alone. Maybe he will learn his lesson... It is very exciting to see all the plants doing so well, but we are just now hitting 100F (North Dallas). Last year my peppers started producing in late September and I barely got them harvested before the cold weather. Good luck, it is so nice to read someone else trying out things too :) BTW, I just joined this forum too, and it seems like there are A LOT of good advice here! Suvi

What I did in my home was to, first of all, pull all the ductwork/furnace/ac and take it all to the dump. I replaced it with a Fujitsu dual for the upstairs bedrooms and a 25 seer/12hspf Fujitsu system 12 RLS for the first floor. It cools all three rooms on the first floor very comfortably. We remodeled the place last year extensively and opened the fllor plan and added some space. I put a new 15RLS in the new kitchen. I'm going to run it this summer and see how it does. being fairly centrally located I believe it will easily handle the whole downstairs and the 12 will end up in my daughters by this fall. We'll see. Research this carefully. I would suggest that you stick with Fujitsu, Mitsu, Daikin. Check the dealer locator at Fujitsu and Mitsu. Someone asked where you were and you haven't responded. Minot or Miami? It does make a difference. I found that I could separate my systems very economically. Well, Economically in that I rarely use the upstairs system. I haven't run either unit all winter. I ran both downstairs units all winter very effectively. The multi systems that are available today are not as efficient as the singles. So my upstairs dual is 16.5 seer and the downstairs is 25. I could have done it with a triple or quad in one system, but multi prices get pretty aggressive above two units. I bought the dual/single for what the triple would have cost and the system operates better. these are outstanding unit...when installed by someone that knows what they are doing. Flush the guys who don't think it a good idea.

I think that idea of excavating for a semi-basement is good, Earthworm. Perhaps something like the square concrete block structures around the opening to some below ground crawl spaces? I was trying to avoid permanent heavy-type block work because of septic tank drain pipe and septic tank nearby, but perhaps I can't. Thanks for your thoughts.

Did you install Zurn Thermal Track? How do you like it?