Jennifer Gilmer did my cousin's kitchen and bath. Beautiful work. 1950's small house with even smaller spaces with every inch made useful. Be sure you know what your budget is going into the project. You live in a very expensive metro area and want some very expensive changes. Are you prepared to spend as much on this bath as the average kitchen redo? (50K) Here is a link that might be useful: Jennifer GIlmer on Houzz

Thanks, all. I need to see if I can find paperwork on the existing furnace with the info tigerdunes asked about. It was here when I bought the house 13 years ago, and it's in an (inaccessible to me) crawlspace. Mike, you've said exactly what I wondered - I've heard it's wise to not get too large a system, but maybe they are all larger than I really need. Julie, that's a really good point. I just think it's bizarre to buy a high efficiency furnace just to solve a venting problem. And that guy made no comments about general ductwork, which is old and well, dubious, to be polite. The other guy did bring it up and is including $800 to replace the parts that will have to be taken replaced to interface with the new furnace. I am trying to get 2 more estimates because their approaches are so different. However, it is going to get a lot colder here over the next few days. I can stay with my partner, who lives a couple blocks away, and I have some good space heaters, but I want this resolved ASAP. Tigerdunes, my kitchen is usually too hot or too cold - but it's a lot of old, poorly insulated windows - I think that' s the problem there, more than the ductwork. Also, in this house, the vents are generally placed in the stupidest possible places. For example, in the kitchen, it's in the furthest corner from the core of the house, under a counter between 2 cabinets. The counter isn't very deep, maybe 10", but still . . . This house began to be built in 1938, has 3 separate foundations and 2 slabs - very typical of my neighborhood. Very quaint, very inconvenient.

Welcome to GardenWeb, Shazlaur! This isn't the wrong forum to ask this question, but the chances are low that there is another poster here who lives in your area who has had that type of work done. But you never know. . . You might benefit from joining Angie's List, if there is one in your area. Here is a link that might be useful: Angie's list

I say go for it. There are a lot of nay sayers out there but if you do some research about "owner builders" you will find many people do this all the time with great success. You will have headaches, you will have stress, but its a trade off. There are plenty of good reliable subs out there that are willing to do the work. You will just need to research them. Best thing to do is have a written contract for the work. Will GC's get better pricing. Sure. Then they mark it up and you end up paying more than you may have paid yourself. I did a full gut remodel a couple years ago and found a great set of people I will continue to work with. Are they the cheapest? Probably not (plumber is for sure) but I felt the prices were reasonable and I got good work out of them. Go by word of mouth. Get on Nextdoor (the app) and ask your neighbors for recommendations on contractors. If you have time to do research and understand the basics, you can do a lot. If I can rewire my house by learning off youtube and pass a city inspection, anyone can.