I was quoted $ 2500 for similiar work. My uncle made the referral. Meanwhile the same plumber retiled his bathroom and fixed a leak whick took about 3 days. All material was included in the price except the tiles. The price was much less and more labor intensive. You gotta watch those plumbers! nyc.

Yes, we use AC here from April through September. This year we even used it some in October. We will need to replace our electric heating system, also. The one we have now is resistance heat and we would go to a heat pump. There is no gas line to my house. Well that stinks. I would call the gas company to see if they have any plans to bring it to your area. At my last house we had electric heat which was a big turn off, we immediately changed it in the spring adding central air. We just replaced our gas furnace 2 weeks ago. The whole job was around $5,000. We called a few places, it was ranging up to $7,000. Be sure to look in the phone book to see if there are any coupons, also call the electric company to see what they offer. We priced cultured marble counters yesterday at Home Depot just to get an idea of price. For the master it would be about $300.00 plus the faucets. For Silestone, which we have in the kitchen, it would be about $600 to $700 plus the cost of two undermount sinks and two faucets. It might be worth it to get Silestone since it certainly is a more WOW look. Even in lower priced homes people like nice kitchens and baths. What do you think? We just did custom counters in the bath & kitchen, the price you got sounds good. Pretty sure it cost us about $3,000 total, we didn't get anything fancy.

I would agree a 48" range is overkill for the vast majority of people, but it's nice to have overkill. Same as you can drive a Honda or a Porsche to work, having done both I can attest that the Honda is plenty sufficient but the Porsche is more enjoyable for sure. While often parroted here, I'm not sure where the "ventilation costs as much as the range" comes from. It's not a trivial expense, but as long as you are on an exterior wall you can vent through it shouldn't be THAT expensive. My setup (including mua), which works just fine, was not anywhere close to that. Regardless, I think a nice combo is a 36" range like Bluestar RNB in a color/hardware combo of your choice paired with a stacked Miele steam and speed oven (or a little cheaper, a MW drawer) would be nice and cost about the same as the Thermador steam range. If you think a 48" range is better, given the description of how/why you cook, you'll be happy with Thermador and the steam oven makes it worth it.

@Jackie Kemper, It should be obvious, but "water saving" is a standard that never applies to a tub fixture. If it takes 50 gallons to fill a tub, for example, slowing down the water flow doesn't save water... it still takes 50 gallons. There are no "government restrictions" on the flow rates applied to tubs. So when they say that, they are either very ignorant or they are covering for their mistake. Plumbing fixture manufacturers are also very aware of tub fill speeds. Nobody designed a TUB valve that would take 19 minutes to fill a standard tub. Again, assuming that it's 50 gal to fill your tub to "normal" bath volume, that's about 2.6 gallons a minute (gpm). That's approximately the flow rate for a typical water saving shower (2.5 gpm). Standard flow rates for a tub valve (not a big soaker tub) are 4.5 - 6 gpm. You need to get a lot more precise about this. Get a 5 gallon pail from the hardware store (you may even have to measure 1 gallon of water at a time and mark that level on the pail). Then fill it from your tub spout and time it for 1 minute. You should be able to fill the 5 gallon pail in just about 1 minute. Be sure to use about the same mix of hot and cold water that you would use to fill the tub in case it's a problem with the hot or cold water. Assuming that your test shows something significantly less than 5 gpm, there are a few possible reasons: 1. Debris from the inside of the plumbing clogging up the valve (this is common on new work or repairs) 2. Wrong valve 3. A pressure / flow problem in the house (not applicable here since the previous tub did not have the same issue) Here's the thing: It's not your problem to figure out, or to fix, or to put up with. They should rule out #1 by turning off the water, removing the insides of the valves and flushing them out. I've seen crud stuck in valve bodies that I've had to break up to flush out. I've had to cut the pipes in the basement and use compressed air to blow things out backwards. I've even had to replace a brand new sink faucet that I couldn't get cleared out. If the issue is #2 above then it's going to get very expensive for them to fix. The will have to replace the valve and re-do all the tile work unless they can do it from the back. Stick to your guns. It's not fixed until you are getting very close to 5 gpm and you really will have to measure that with a 5 gallon bucket and a timer.