squids I will offer my opinions.First Bryant is very solid equipment. It appears you have been quoted both the 80% eff and 95% Evolution furnaces. Great equipment. You do want the Evolution controller-no substitute please. For your area/climate, I see nothing wrong with the 80% eff furnaces(315AAV)-as long as they are paired with appropriate heat pump/evap coil. If you do not pair with heat pump, then go with 95% eff furnace(355CAV). As far as condenser line, stay with Preferrred 15 series, AC and HP "H" model. either way, you do want to take advantage of Fed Govt Tax Credit. 80% eff Evolution Furnace with qualifying HP 3107587 Active Systems PREFERRED 15 PURON HP BRYANT HEATING AND COOLING SYSTEMS 265ANH036-A CNPV*4217A** 315(A,J)AV048090 35000 12.50 15.00 35400 8.50 21400 3496618 Active Systems PREFERRED 16 PURON HP BRYANT HEATING AND COOLING SYSTEMS 266ANA036-A CNPV*4821A**+UI 315(A,J)AV048090 34600 12.60 15.50 37000 9.10 22200 95% Evolution Furnace with Preferred AC condenser 1390145 Active Systems PREFERRED 15 PURON AC BRYANT HEATING AND COOLING SYSTEMS 165ANA036-B CNPV*4821A** 355(A,C)AV042080 35400 12.90 15.00 3485032 Active Systems PREFERRED 17 PURON AC BRYANT HEATING AND COOLING SYSTEMS 167ANA036-A CNPV*4821A**+UI 355(A,C)AV060080 36800 13.00 16.50 IMO Good Luck!

Typical systems are oversized by design and then by selection. A "Manual J" load calc program is based upon "Design Condition". DC is a historical calculation of the coldest temps you are likely to see. Therefore, your load calc says that if the MJ is run and the equipment is selected to meet the proposed load when you are at design condition, the equipment will run continuously while maintaining 68-70* in the space. The problem is that you are typically at those coldest temps about .5% of the heating season. That is the oversized by design part of the equation. We have weatherstripped and caulked our way into hermetically sealed homes. We have taken the technology of the thermos bottle and applied it to home construction and our heat loads are tumbling back to us. Now, put yourself in a contractors shoes for a moment. As noted the last thing he wants is a call from Mrs, Magillicuddy on Christmas Eve when it is design condition, he followed the Manual J, but the house wasn't built to spec and Mrs M is...(you pick the appropriate adjective to describe). Hence a calculation of 50,000 btu generally becomes a 75 or whatever the guy has in the barn.

If the company you chose has a good reputation and a history of happy customers then it may be a matter of miscommunication, where each party is 15 percent off in understanding what the other is saying. Sometimes that just happens. And when it happens each party gets irritated. I think for customers it feels like we are staring at a black box in terms of the actual building process. We don’t know what we don’t know. Four days, for example, is not a long turn around time to get an estimate on a counter, because the shop needs the specs from the contractor first and then someone on their end needs to sit down and do the math and a rough drawing and get the bid back to the contracter. In my case one stone .outfit took a week to reply, another took two weeks. And maybe the designer is frustrated, thinking they’d done all this work to get you the price in a timely manner, what do you care about the details? It is a good price btw, i would thank the person for their fast reply (despite the rude All Caps thing) and ask where I should go the view the material. You don’t know what they’ve found for you until you actually see it. Re In picking a slab at the stone yard, the people there mark your selection with your name. In my case I took a pix of the slab and the inventory number while at the yard. What you pick on-site should be what you get. I would then send a cheerful note to the project manager with the inventory number and how you are looking forward to your counters. I did a succession of fairly major projects ( kitchen remodel, rebuild of corner of house and basement, replacement of fencing, and deck, gutters, HVAC, appliances, flooring for the entire house, installation of new sub panels, and rewiring for kitchen, replacement of lighting fixtures interiors and exterior, etc. It involved multiple subcontractors. My take away was this: most of these people are working on multiple projects and when you leave them a message their first thought is “is it on fire?” If there isn’t anything on fire and if you sent a page of questions then they will take care of any parts that seem sensible to them for that stage of the project then wait a couple of days and send some laconic message that seems completely opaque. It doesn’t mean things aren't on track or that stuff isn't happening. If you stick with these people then focus on your part of it - it’s fair to ask when they need your selections, and then get them the information they need. If the job is now slated to start in late July and they have the cabinets onsite then, to their mind, the job is “on the calendar“ I.e. it’s a happening thing. That is their reality and their understanding of the process. Nothing so far says they are going to flit out of town or refuse to supply soapstone instead of quartz. My suggestion would be to keep things amicable, keep good records, politely stick to your choices, and see how it goes.

Do you have actual project design documentation from which a contractor can quote the job? Floor layouts, elevations, cabinet choices, counter choices, backsplash choices and patterns, plumbing changes and products, under cabinet lighting, pendant lighting and locations locations? Wall paint and sheen? Flooring material and patterns? If you have 3/4 of all of that, they can give you an “allowance” aka, Guess, for the things you haven’t selected. But that’s how you go over budget! They always pick the cheapest guess possible, rather than what you really want. Here’s an Idea Book showing how some project documentation can be used to communicate what you want to your contractor. https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/105612493/list/project-documentation-samples Also, and please take this to heart, a contractor is not a designer. Neither are box store cabinet sellers for the most part. A contractor should never be suggesting materials beyond wiring, pipes, and insulation. Not if you care about the results! They select things that will make their job easier, not your project be better. The person who selects all of the materials and creates that whole design plan with all of those materials and space planning is your Kitchen Designer. If you choose to do that designing yourself, all of that still is part of the job, and your responsibility. Not the contractors! And not the clerk at the hardware store. Also remember that while cabinets are a large part of the renovation budget, they by no means are all of it. Many people forget all the other stuff that adds up.