Hi, TigerDunes, Thank you for your response. I'm thrilled to see that we shouldn't be expecting a minimum of $10,000 to $15,000!!! I posted at close to 1:30 a.m. Pacific Time, and I just got home from work about 7:30 p.m. so I'm just now getting online, after 8:00 p.m. Yes, we're sort of thinking we'd replace the furnace only, keeping the outside AC condenser. We're not at all opposed to replacing the AC condenser, but it hasn't given us problems, so if it would be a huge increase in cost to replace it, we'd skip that, at least on this go-round. If it's not a huge increase in cost, we'd replace it along with the furnace. Yes, we'd want a unit that's tax credit qualified. I have no idea what size and efficiency we're replacing. I looked for the booklet/paperwork on it before I came upstairs, but I can't find it. Used to keep all of those things in a drawer in the kitchen, but I discovered tonight that my husband repurposed that drawer for wine accessories... and he cannot remember where he put all of the booklets/paperwork, although he states he didn't throw the stuff away. I do know that the existing units (furnace and AC) have been sufficient to keep the house nice and warm in the winter and nice and chilled in the summer. There are just the two of us living here, and we both work full time, Monday through Friday. The set-back thermostat is completely programmed, both for summer and winter. The appropriate unit is programmed to come on approximately 30 minutes before I get up (takes me longer to get ready in the morning than it takes my Hubs), to warm/cool the house as necessary, and then it goes off (well, maintains a colder-in-the-winter or warmer-in-the-summer temperature) about 30 minutes before we leave for work, until about 30 minutes before we get home when it comes on again to again make the interior comfortable. Then it will cycle on/off as necessary throughout the evening until about 11:30 p.m. when it again shuts off and only comes on if it gets way too cold (winter) or way too warm (summer) overnight. On weekends it's programmed to not come on until about 90 minutes later than during the week, and will maintain the "morning temperature" throughout the day and evening and then shut off at 11:30 p.m. As for "normal winter temperatures" here... gosh... OK, I just Googled "normal winter temperatures for Sacramento, California," and one of the results had this to say: "Sacramento, CA climate is warm during summer when temperatures tend to be in the 70's and cool during winter when temperatures tend to be in the 50's. The warmest month of the year is July with an average maximum temperature of 93.80 degrees Fahrenheit, while the coldest month of the year is December with an average minimum temperature of 40.40 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperature variations between night and day tend to be relatively big during summer with a difference that can reach 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and fairly limited during winter with an average difference of 16 degrees Fahrenheit. The annual average precipitation at Sacramento is 19.87 Inches. Winter months tend to be wetter than summer months. The wettest month of the year is January with an average rainfall of 4.18 Inches." Another site said this: "The climate for Sacramento is Mediterranean with mild winters and dry summers. There is usually low humidity in the area. Light rainfall usually falls between December and February. Sacramento average annual rainfall is 17.18 inches per year The average winter temperature is 53.5 degrees F. The average spring temperature is 64.0 degrees F. The average summer temperature is 88.0 degrees F. The average fall temperature is 72 degrees F." It can, and does, get above 100 degrees in July and/or August. Every winter we probably have one or two nights where it gets down to the low 30-degree range. But as long as the house is somewhere in the low to mid 70-degree range in the winter, and no more than mid 80-degree range in the summer, we'd be happy. Does any of that help?

*BM White Cloud and Cloud White are different colors! I have Cloud White, and Cloud White is the color I hear more often, not White Cloud! Ironically, I was thinking about those two similar names with the intention of NOT typing the wrong one... Confession: I mixed a couple shades of white I was unhappy with together, and the resulting color match is the same formula as the color match to Cloud White (total coincidence). In that sense, I didn't even pick my white, and I had actually already rejected Cloud White as being too "creamy" for my space. Now that it's done...I like it and it's warm, not stark. All that rambling to say that you'll probably be just fine even if your conditions aren't perfect, with lighting and flooring, etc. in place. :)

Welcome cristin, We are a friendly bunch. Our love of books and reading brings us together as reading is such a solitary hobby. Here in RP, we can discuss and chat and ask questions. You mentioned being worried about sounding silly or naive, please do not. We are not literary scholars. We are bibliophiles. Plain and simple. What drew US here is exactly what drew YOU here. Glad to have you onboard. You'll find that each of us has our favorite genres and are willing to try any book that sounds good be it classic, classic mystery, brand new fiction or non-fiction or anything in-between. My BEST advice would be to get a small notebook to keep next to the computer so you always have a handy spot to write down the titles and authors that grab you on this site. Otherwise, you'll have dozens of scraps of paper all over the place. PAM - who signs in all caps because there are about three or four Pam's on this site.

I agree with tmy_jax, the forums are separate. If you hover your cursor over the tab "Advice" in the upper right corner, you'll see a drop down box, with a section for the Houzz Discussions and a section for Gardenweb Discussions. I know some people read and post in both forums, but posting a question in each of the two forums would probably bring responses from two (mostly) different groups of folks. (Couldn't hurt, and it might be interesting...!)