Thanks for the responses. Will have to do more research, I guess, to understand the difference in price and quality.

I thought the LG Art Cool heat pumps are not as good as Mr. Slim or the Fujitsu units???? Yea I am sticking away from that company. But I think I should try and get a few more prices from differant companys or contractors that sell these units from the Fujitsu website.. I am also having someone from Homedepot that sells the Mr. Slim brand to give me a price in a few days...Jt

Probably best to know what State you live in and what the typical average low temperatures are during the Winter as well as amount of installed insulation, number of windows, sun's orientation etc. Having said that and assuming that the temperatures don't typically go below 15-20 degrees a mini split (without backup heat strip) should work well especially with no existing duct work present. If electric rates are very high gas heat becomes more attractive. Without knowing the exact layout I'm guessing you would need a mini split outside unit that would allow two inside units to be hung on the wall...one in the bedroom and the other to cool the living room and kitchen. I presently heat and cool a 400 s.f. sunporch with almost 50 linear feet of 6' high windows and R-15 insulation (not that great)with one 15000 btu mini split heatpump in Columbia,SC. As another poster noted only choose an installer that's got a track record of installing these type units. The Mitsubishi line is excellent as are some others. My personal opinion would be to stick with a brand that a reputable HVAC company has a track record with.(Note: typically HVAC companies that do some commercial work have more experience with these type units). The important thing being rapid availability of repair parts from a local or regional distrbutor. More often than not it will be a Japanese branded company mini split. I've used both Daiken and Mitsubishi in some commercial projects I've been involved with and in my sunporch use a Fujitsu (absolutely no problems with it). I'd recommend only looking at inverter models for best efficiency and comfort. I'm betting that you might need two wall hung units...a 9000 btu unit in the bedroom and maybe a 9000btu or possibly a 12000 btu unit to cover the Kitchen/Living Room area(assuming their fairly open to each other). As there's no duct work losses, comparing a mini split to a fully ducted traditional system is not apples to apples as far as sizing goes...fewer btus go further with a mini split. The better brands of mini splits can actually exceed their nominal btu rating by up to 15%+. They can also throttle down to fairly low btu's when the load is not great so there's little chance of oversizing the unit and having high humidity issues. Bottom line is that the mini split will produce warmer air at the wall unit in the Winter than a fully ducted heat pump system and cooler air in the Summer. The trade off is that all the air to the area will be coming from one wall hung unit (much like a window unit would produce but much quieter than a window unit) versus a number of strategically placed supply grills in a fully ducted system. Cost would be a wild guess without knowing all the factors but I'm guessing that a professionally installed major brand mini split with 2 indoor wall hung units might run around $4000 -$6,000 depending on the size required.

LOL I especially like the look on her face, sort of a "what?" appearance. I can't help but wonder if she had forethought when she drew the mouth like that. She often has her hair crossing her eye (drives her teachers nutz) but she won't wear baretts or anything... doesn't seem to bug her.