I have a kitchen that sounds a lot like your living room as far as wear goes. It's the hub of the house, largest & brightest room. The garage door and backyard sliders open into the room. The floor gets the heaviest traffic and toughest use. We're also on a slab. We had a flood over two months ago and are currently without any type of flooring over the concrete slab while we 'negotiate' with our insurance company. I'm in my 50s and hope whatever flooring I choose will be the last flooring I have to put down. I'm sick to death of 28 years of cleaning vinyl. I thought I wanted tile. I decided porcelain was my best bet due to the hardness rating and best durability. Why I don't want tile: I am usually barefoot. The cement is COLD and HARD and my back and hips now hurt if I stand in the kitchen long enough. My 2 year old grandson has fallen twice on the floor--the thud was sickening and he really got hurt. Tile is too hard and cold a surface for me. Same for etched concrete. I considered laminate. Kitchen=moisture and spills. I am a decent housekeeper but not a slave to it. I worry that the traffic will be too tough on the surface or water will lift the seams. I also don't care for the artificial look of it or the sound it makes when walked on with shoes. A weird kind of clicking. After doing a lot of research and shopping around, I'm going with engineered hardwood in a distressed style. It will be warmer and softer under the feet (and grandkid's head and limbs). The distressed style in a matte finish won't taunt me daily to "come clean me . . .I'm not shiney anymore." I've been told a daily Swiffering keeps it mostly happy and presentable. I like that the finish is baked on in the factory and won't need on site finishing. We really can't afford to have the room out of commission for days while it cures. I'll use mats or area rugs at the doorways and sink. That said, I raised two boys in this house with vinyl in the kitchen and carpeting throughout the rest of the rooms. Where there are children, there is cleaning and upkeep and repairs to be done. You're smart to try and minimize your work.

In my three years there we never once felt the need for A/C. It will take a long, long time to recoup the $9200 difference in equipment costs - particularly with low cost electricity. If you are currently not using any A/C, there will be no savings cost on A/C - and indeed if you do start to cool there will be an INCREASE. If you are paying peanuts for electricity to heat, then reducing peanuts to smaller peanuts by spending and extra $9200 will take a long time. Unless global warming has taken a toll, I'd stick with what the majority does in your area. I can't believe that a mainstream approach will hurt property values. Take the money saved and go to Alaska each summer - lol. :-) This post was edited by saltidawg on Sun, Jan 20, 13 at 17:39

Heres a Link: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/saving-energy-manual-j-and-manual-d Even when they do the calculations, the results are usually wrong In his posted comment, Bailes raised an interesting point: the problem of “garbage in, garbage out” (GIGO) Manual J calculations. Several energy experts have commented on the GIGO problem, including John Proctor, Hank Rutkowski, and Allison Bailes. Hank Rutkowski, the mechanical engineer who wrote the original Manual J document, was recently interviewed for a profile posted on the Green Building Talk Web site. The piece notes, “Rutkowski estimates that only 10% of heating and cooling equipment sizing decisions are based on some type of Manual J calculation and that less than 1% of the jobs are based on an aggressive implementation of the recommended design procedures.” Rutkowski explains the GIGO problem this way: “Manual J is a good tool if you use it aggressively. Follow the rules and it will give you a reasonable margin of safety. But the average contractor says, ‘Better safe than sorry,’ so he fudges here and there. He adds 5 to 10 degrees to the summer and winter design temperatures, calls the building ‘average’ instead of ‘tight’ and doesn't take credit for shading by interior blinds and drapes. Then when he finally comes up with a load number for sizing, he throws in an extra half-ton of AC just for the heck of it.” For a high-performance home, sizing by Manual J may still result in oversizing Several years ago, I had a conversation with building scientist Joe Lstiburek about air conditioners installed in Building America homes in Las Vegas. “HVAC designers are committed to the institutional oversizing of air conditioning equipment,” Lstiburek told me. “The average system is sized at 150% to 200% of the requirements of Manual J. They oversize because they don’t know what they will get for a building envelope, and to compensate for duct leakage and inappropriate refrigerant charge. If you size according to Manual J, there is already a fudge factor built in. But most designers then add another fudge factor.” According to Lstiburek, their experience proved the high-performance Building America homes in Las Vegas could have had HVAC systems sized at about 60% of Manual J. To be conservative, his team recommended installing systems sized at 80% of Manual J. Does oversizing matter? There are strong arguments against routine oversizing of HVAC equipment. The best argument is simple: oversized equipment usually costs more than right-sized equipment. Oversized equipment suffers from short cycling. For example, an oversized furnace brings a home up to temperature quickly, and then shuts off. A few minutes later, it comes on again, only to shut off quickly. Many homeowners find the see-saw sound of a short-cycling furnace to be annoying. When air conditioners short cycle, the units don't run long enough to achieve much dehumidification ��" at least in theory. (During the first few minutes of operation, an air conditioner cools a house. But not enough moisture has collected on the cold coil or on the pan below for any water to have actually gone down the drain. When the air conditioner turns off, all of the moisture in the pan and on the coil just re-evaporates.) The conventional wisdom may be wrong, however Increasing evidence shows that energy experts have exaggerated the negative effects of equipment oversizing, however. Studies have confirmed that oversized furnaces don't use any more energy than right-sized furnaces. Moreover, newer modulating or two-speed furnaces operate efficiently under part-load conditions, solving any possible problems from furnace oversizing. Although there are ample reasons to believe that oversized air conditioners are less effective than right-sized equipment at dehumidification, at least one field study was unable to measure any performance improvements or energy savings after replacing an existing oversized air conditioner with a new right-sized unit. The bottom line The main reason to choose right-sized equipment is to avoid paying too much money for equipment you don't need. A Manual J calculation will ensure you don't spend more than necessary for your furnace, boiler, or air conditioner. Moreover, a Manual J calculation will provide room-by-room heat loss and heat-gain information that is essential to good duct design. Without good duct design, you're running the risk of comfort complaints.

I can tell you that the new GE washers are not what they were bck then. I purchsed new GE washer and dryer from Monkey wards when I bought my first house back in 1998. by fall of 2004 I started having trouble with the washer not spinning right and leaving the clothes real wet.Before that it had never seen a repair man. the repair man said it was the transmission and that it was not worth fixing unless it was under warrantee. I called GE and the Trans was under warrantee (10 year) but only the part, labor was not covered. GE wanted to send there tech out to replace it at a cost of like $250 for the labor and only they could do the work under the warrantee. the machine was like $380 new so I used it untill april of 2005 by doing a second spin untill that was not very effictive, at that point i got a frigdaire FL with 5 year service contract. I still have the GE profle dryer that matched it but the sensor dry no longer works, but other than that the dryer has been ok. you don't get what you did back when your washer was new they are not built to be used and serviced for 20+ years any more. they are made of alot of plastic which is good since it don't rust but not good when its plastic in the drivetrain of the machine. Most new washers are made to last 10 years at best with a few minor repairs and then be cast off when not worth the cost of repair, then the materials they are made of reycled. I would keep what you have as long as it works and doesn't leak.