"I live in a townhouse in NJ and have an old inside furnace/blower + outside A/C. The system is over 20 years old and certainly needs replacement." If it's running, it's up to you. "So I wonder what is my best and most cos effective strategy for replacing the above system- should I go for a heat pump or stick to the furnace/AC combination? I suspect that the line that connects the outside A/C to the inside unit is in the cement floor of my living room so this may limit my choices." Depends on many factors: do you intend to stay there for 5 to 10 years? As far as HP vs furnace, you need to evaluate your utility costs to determine which one will provide your backup heat (electric, nat. gas, propane, etc.). Calculators are available online for this purpose. Also, if you are used to the hot air feel of a forced air furnace, you may not care for the warm air of a HP. With regard to your lineset, being that you are in a townhouse, you may have other options where a new set can be run. Most new equipment use R410a refrigerant which is incompatible with older R22. Linesets can be cleaned out, but many new units require larger lines. Where is the inside equipment located (distance) with regard to the outdoor unit? When you talk about cost-effective, do you mean least expensive. Bells and whistles (2 stage, modulating, high efficiency) usually cost more money. Any furnace-a/c you choose can run efficiently if it is sized correctly to match the heat loss/gain of your home. That is of ultimate importance. Equipment should not be sized by (a) what you had before, (b) based on square footage, or (c) I've been in the business for 20 years, my experience, blah blah blah. Insist on a printed heat calc (manual J). How is your present heating/cooling; adequate, good air flow to 2nd floor? Where in Jersey are you. V

We had a pretty good experience at most of the slab yards we visited. There was one in our area that wouldn't tell us prices - said we had to tell our fabricator which stones we were interested in and he could call for a quote. That was one of the smaller slab yards and they didn't have anything we were interested in. Most would ask our fabricator's name and then quote us a price. My impression was that their discounts to fabricators may vary based on the volume that fabricator does with them or something. Most let us browse on our own. When we needed help such as when we wanted slabs moved to choose which ones in the lot we might want, we went on a weekday. They were crowded on the weekend and it is hard to get individual attention then. We found a stone that we really wanted. Only two yards in our area carried it and one had very small slabs and the other had slabs that weren't as long as we would have liked and would have required an extra seam. The latter was a regional chain. They held the slabs which we were willing to buy but also checked their inventory and found large slabs at another of their sites around 100 miles away. They moved the bundle of larger slabs to the local yard so we could decide if we wanted them and select the slabs. I can understand slab yards choosing to not allow minors - especially young children because there not necessarily kid friendly with heavy equipment moving slabs around at times. Possibly it is a requirement of their liability insurance. But they could have handled it more pleasantly and shouldn't object to a 16 year old waiting in their lobby. Our fabricator didn't accompany us - we were to select slabs and they would then visit to vet them to make sure they didn't have any significant defects that we had missed. Our fabricator quoted one fabrication price (not including the material cost of the stone) regardless of which stone we chose. They have been in business a long time - I think they quoted a high enough price to cover their risks and costs over a range of stone. We chose a fairly expensive quartzite and they did comment that they had to be extra careful because they didn't want to have to eat the cost of a replacement slab. Quartzite being hard also takes extra time on the fabrication equipment. Most of the yards are sellers of stone, not geology buffs. Even the pleasant ones are often pretty ignorant about details on the stones like which ones are really quartzite.

We built our 3000+ sq.ft. home on our land and it took 6 months from ground breaking to move in. It was totally custom with high end finishes. Our GC said that we started in perfect weather and finished with perfect weather. That's why it went so quickly. Plus, I am the world's most organized person. When he needed a decision, he had one immediately or by the end of the business day. And, I didn't change my mind. I was at least a month ahead of him when it came to decisions and finishes. What you need is a copy of his proposed schedule. Now days, these are done on spread sheets. It's not a contract, but it is a guideline. Having one will keep you off his back. But, it will make him more accountable, too. There should be something going on at the site every day. If there is a large gap in activity, start squawking about it. You should be nice about it, but you need to make sure you are a priority. You will know when it's beyond the GC's control. Still, stay on top, be part of the process, make firm decisions and ask what's next every time you have any contact with him. He will tell you when there is an expected activity gap so it's not a surprise. A lot of time it's due to wanting a particular sub contractor and having to wait. If the wait is too long, he may need to get someone else. Just keep on top of it.

Does it matter that it's a European miter seam (?) that joins in a circle shape at the corner? The silver lining for me is that if it's so clear that our out of level is a problem, then there is no question that the counter has to be replaced. A replacement was offered by our contractor due to his workers leaving too big of a space for the dishwasher that took space from what we wanted in our overhang. I really don't want that inch of filler vs. overhang space but I didn't have the heart to make it into a $3,000 mistake for him. I guess they'll be able to figure out what's wrong when fabricator comes out to take a look. Thank you for your guidance. I learn a lot from your comments on different posts.