johnhvac - Thank you for the response! I'm glad you have a lot of questions. :) Questions = input, and I really need that. I'm cautiously optimistic because I had read so many bad reports of whole house units I halfway expected a "steer clear" consensus. We live near Kansas City, MO. Distinct seasons. After revisiting our floorplan it looks like our total used sq.ft. will be closer to 3975 sq.ft. (we're planning a basement finish that will account for about 1/3 of the total sw.ft. and are going with a larger area left unfinished than we had originally planned). Our house is relatively tight - we just finished construction this fall and invested in heavily upgraded insulation throughout, when the house was framed we had all the door & window framing sealed with foam and/or caulking, we had all outlets draft proofed, etc. We moved from a drafty house and did not want to go there again. Our house seems to default, during the winter, to around 22% humidity. We haven't lived there during the summer yet, so we don't know what to expect then. Our hardwood floors are complaining! (major contraction gaps) That's the general info I could think to add. Here are answers to your questions: I assume the $600 is for the unit and the installation, but that could be wrong. It was a conversation my husband had, and he then told me "He quoted me $600 to do it." Is that high, or low? (It's lower than what I would expect, but we're also linked to a builder that sends his company all of their HVAC work, so I don't know...) I googled the thermostat you mention and that's not what we have. But I know he suggested also changing the termostat if/when we added the humidifer, and that looks like the one he told us about (we have a brochure, but I don't have it accessible right now). I do know he said it would run about $250 more. You're pointing out how little I know, which means I need to make some calls and get some more information! I can give the HVAC guy a call this afternoon and get some more information on what all his quote/proposal included. You have a lot of experience installing these - how many problems have you run into? Were the issues mostly negated when the technologies changed (cool stagnant water vs. heated water, etc.)?

I just looked at HMF and there are actually quite a few different people growing it, but I've never heard of it myself. I hope someone else here can tell you more.

Keep the brick. Change the mantle.

I know this is an old post, but we are about to use Millboard. We have switched our plan from replacing our worn-out deck with another deck and have decided to have a screened porch instead. I still plan to go with Millboard though since it fits together without gaps for insects to invade. Did you end up with Millboard? I like that it is not slippery or as hot as other composites because our steps will be Millboard, too (second story deck/porch).