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?

A well 6" diameter holds about 1 1/2 gallons of water per vertical foot. Subtract from 525 the static level of the water and subtract the distance from the bottom at which the pump will be placed for the usable depth of water. Multiply by 1.5. Let's say it is 445 feet x 1.5 for 667.5 gallons. That much is available without any additional inflow. and in the hour that it takes to pump that out, 240 gallons more will inflow. The average household uses about 200 gallons per day. And 4 gallons per minute is 5,760 gallons per day. Yes, I think your supply is quite adequate.

I'm happy to give you prices of my recent build - but according to the forum I am in a really cheap area and you are likely at the other end of the spectrum. Here are a couple examples - 1) 520 sq ft Diamond Brite plaster spa and pool, including 6 drain covers, 7 returns, 6 jets, 4 ft bench, 3 barstools and cleaning - total $2240. 2) Excavation - $2900 (125 ft dirt walk, no rocks, etc.) 3) Steel - $3200 - including raised spa, and a 43' long one foot high raised bond beam. 4) Plumbing - $8900 - about 150' gas run, 80 foot run to spa, minimum 2.5 in pipe, 1 water feature pump with about 60 foot run, 2 skimmers, 1 circulation pump, separate spa pump, separate blower, heater, salt cell, filter, included all Jandy valves. Price included the skimmers and drains, etc, known as "white goods." 5) $2500 for material for travertine coping, I did the labor myself. $10 for pain pills after doing the labor myself! 6) $2300 for tile labor - smart enough to hire it done after doing coping myself! (I had a lot of tile, including 1" mosaic in the footwell of the spa, and he tiled the whole raised wall (3 rows of tile at 43') - he also grouted all the coping. Tile material was about $1500, including 2 large dolphin mosaics) Took 3 guys 3 whole days. 7) About $4800 for 800 feet of concrete deck including 6 drains, 3 downspout tie ins, around 80 feet of drain pipe, foam backer between concrete and coping, various expansion joints, and a couple of 4'x2'x2' pads to hold water feature. 8) $2400 for spray deck, including building and spraying a 22'long 16" high seating wall out of cinder block. 9) Right around $5k for equipment all Hayward - two 1 1/2 hp pumps, one 2 hp pump, 400k btu heater, 48 sq ft de filter, with valve, Pentair salt cell, 2 hp blower for spa, 2 standard 500w pool lights, one spa light, Intermatic timer. About $3750 for electrical - hooked up everything, including 3 outlets along the back of the property, plus one at the outdoor kitchen. Also ran 4 switches to the inside of the house, and added an extra outlet to a room in the house. We had a separate 200w sub panel added, plus an outdoor motion light at the equip pad. This guy was a little expensive but VERY good. About $7000 for gunite - I think...3.5 to 6.5' deep, 43' raised wall one foot high, raised spa - 7' round and raised 6", 3 barstools, corner bench, 3 steps at 12 feet wide, and a 3'x12' pad for equipment with rebar and about 4" to 8" thick due to sloping yard. Again, this is in Katy, TX outside Houston. I started on Halloween 2008. Most was completed in about 3 weeks, although I waited until this past week to do spray deck. Hope this helps.

flyleft, send me an email and I'll give you the whole ugly scoop - I don't want to totally derail this thread into something that I could easily see devolving into a political argument. oakleyok says: "I think we all would like a pat on the back every now and then. [...] It hurts when we do a topic asking a simple question or just to show something off, and all we get is criticism." So SAY what you want and don't want. Say something like "Hey, I finally finished such-and-such, and I wanted some pats on the back from my buddies because I worked really hard and my family just doesn't 'get it' how much this project meant to me. I'm not looking for critiques because I like it the way it is, I just want to share what I did." If you want people to critique something but you're feeling extra thin-skinned (not the best time to post, however), tell people to go easy on you. If you only want them to consider one thing, like a lamp, and not pay attention to the rug or the curtains, say so! "I do get my feelings hurt when I do a topic and the replies have nothing to do with what I ask." I'm sure you'll probably take this as "criticism", but you do need to become better acquainted with the concept of "topic drift". Side discussions do occur, especially in long threads, when person A finds something in a post by person B that s/he wants to address even though it isn't what the OP has asked, but it doesn't quite merit starting an entire new thread. And sometimes the whole thread does drift off into an unexpected direction and take on a life of its own... when that happens you either put on the big girl panties and go with it (because frequently when this happens it can be a LOT of fun) or you shrug and abandon the thread as a lost cause, but it's gotta sink in better that it is NOT about YOU personally when every single post in a thread you start isn't about you and your question from beginning to end. It's just the way forums work.