My other house is in Matthews. I'm in Weddington, for now. If I knew your price range I could point you in the right direction. Mecklenburg is high tax, average services,rising water bills etc. Matthews used to be a really feisty,independent town always fighting from being dominated by Charlotte/Meck politicians. I say, 'used to be'. Still, the taxes are lower than Charlotte even with Meck taxes added on and you get great services from town police and fire while getting Mecklenburg service for power/water/garbage and trash pickup. First thing to remember not to be impressed with is the cost of living vs. 'up nawth'. It only seems cheaper until you get your paycheck. Cost of living is tied to local wages. Now Waxhaw..I live near Blakeney and Prov. CC but in Union Cty. and Waxhaw 'address' but Waxhaw the town is a fur piece down the road and I've yet to make it there in 15 min. from 51 and Sardis or Rea and Providence. I'd say, if you stick to looking north of Newtown Road and in the proximity of access to Providence Road you'll have your hands full in any price range you need. Much south of Newtown and you'll have to get up half hour or more earlier to get to work because most of Union residents travel Providence or Hwy 74 to get to Charlotte businesses. I know, too much information. If you want great service from an agent you have to do some of the leg work first. Gas prices being what they are now, few agents are going to give you the whole tour to familiarize you with the area unless you define the area first. Wish I still had my license but glad I don't so I am free to tell you what to avoid without getting in trouble. One note, Mecklenburg just reassessed for property taxes and the values are wacko out of line. Way too high. Union is pretty stable because, as the fastest growing county in NC, it has exploded with new construction in the last 10 years. Be cautious with newer homes. Too many were thrown up in haste on fill soil that didn't have time to compact. The better builders took their time and did it right. Another thing, when you find a house you want to make an offer on, be SURE to make it also contingent upon determining where the water pressure reduction valve is located. You want it installed within a foot of your in-ground water meter on your side of the meter..no closer to the house or at the house. Union's fast growth has them buying water from all sources out of the county and the pumping pressure to get to all these new developments means higher pressures in some areas and pressure spikes that blow out your underground water lines. I had a $450. water bill last October before the leak surfaced between the expansion joints of my concrete driveway. Killed off a gorgeous evergreen so it had been seeping for a while underground. In a hot summer you expect high water bills so it went unnoticed until the tree up and died. I had a lucky solution that didn't involve having to tear up my driveway and repave it but other folks I know weren't that lucky. Find out where that pressure reduction valve on the main water supply line to that house is. Don't let the seller tell you they have a pest control contract in lieu of a 'clear termite letter' when you go to close the deal. If a house is listed with a Realtor they must provide you with a seller's disclosure form..things about the house and property you might not think to ask about. Builders don't have that requirement nor do 'for sale by owner' sellers. Schools...I can confidently say that Marvin Ridge middle and high schools, Weddington High School and any of the north west elementaries are better than the rest of Union and certainly better than the Mecklenburg mess they've made of their schools. Expect crowded schools..even the brand new ones. Union is still growing. Sorry all for such a long post.

We also have a dual fuel HP in ATL (13 SEER + 80% NG furnace). If you're going to invest that kind of $$ in a new system, plus pay to operate it for the foreseeable future, I'd do everything I can to ensure I got a quality install. Below is a link to a Southface Energy Institute fact sheet on blower door and duct blaster tests. They're an ATL non-profit. I highly recommend the info they have on their site. They might even be able to help or point you in the direction of a contractor to design your system and/or test your house/ducts. Ideally, you'd have the blower door done to feed into the Manual J sizing of the system. Then, after your new ducts were installed and sealed (but before insulating), you'd have the latter done to test how tight the duct system is. A brand new system, installed right, ought to leak at about 0.05cfm/sq ft of living space. That's only 125 cfm for your house. If at all possible, you want to maximize the amount of rigid ductwork, only allowing flex duct at the runouts (I'd get at least the Vision Pro w/ an outdoor sensor to control the switch to Aux heat. My understanding is that the IAQ version will handle the staging possibilities better than the 8000 series VP. It also costs more. I'd also be interested in getting a HP w/ good low temperature performance. Our gas bills have gotten smaller since getting the VP set up to control the switch. But on an old house, you're still going to use gas for the days in the teens/twenties like we've seen this winter. Anyway, food for thought. We have used ACS to do work on our system. They sell Carrier equipment. Here is a link that might be useful: Southface on blower doors and duct blaster testing

I think what you should do is look for already built homes in that price range in that area, and see what they are going for. In my experience, a custom built home of a certain square footage is going to cost more than an existing, similar sized one. If you can find existing homes that are within your price range, then you might be able to get something built to your specs for a bit more. It's been decades since I lived in RTP and I've heard that the housing market is much, much pricier than when I lived there, so I hope you won't be disappointed. About 10 years ago I tried to do much the same as you are talking about in my area -- the Pacific NW -- and after adding up the cost of a reasonably nice lot, the utilities I would have to bring in, the cost of an architect, and the services of a custom builder, there was no way I could build even an 1800 sqft house...so I kept looking and finally found something that fit my lifestyle, that was on a very nice lot, that was much bigger than what I could afford to build, was within my price range, and was only was 3 years old. So keep an open mind...

a good basic single stage system and it is an AHRI match. See below. Pricing on high side. 7548567 ActiveSystems TRANE XR14 TRANE 4TTR4037L1 4PX*BD36AC3 1050 *DD1B080A9H3 34400 13.00 15.25 1RCU-A-CB All 284 I would get the Perfect Fit Media Cabinet and forget the ext labor warranty at that price. The only question I have is whether you could get away with the 60K XT80 furnace model over the 80 K size. Ask for a load calculation. More is not better. Once a year PM is enough BTW. IMO