Oh my. What is a passionate rose lover like you doing in that glacial hell hole? Reading about your endeavors has exhausted me and I haven't even lifted a shovel. I admire your grit and determination, but would love to see you rewarded with thousands of blooms on your rose bushes for all your hard work. I bet they could use engineers in zones 7 to 10!

While you can change pavers without destroying the invividual pavers themselves, it's a bit of a fantasy to think that you can do this easily. Installing pavers takes a lot of preparation and it's messy and costly. A professional quality installation, making changes, is not something you can do in a few hours on the weekend. That said, pavers are usually prettier than plain concrete, are durable and make a great patio surface. The key to not worrying about changes in the future is thorough PLANNING before you build. Pavers is what I have in a back yard about the same size as yours and I love them. However, there is NOTHING that is "maintenance free." Pavers need an occasional pressure wash (as would concrete) to get rid of algae, mildew and grime. They need blowing off in order to keep free of leaf and grass bits.

@cramereast Google landscape designers and architects in your area and go look at their websites. Your house so deserves a sharp landscape that shows off the architecture. You have to start with the design first. Imagine a few select trees and shrubs, magnolia and camellia come to mind as a good base, placed strategically on the grounds, growing unmolested in a flowering lawn.

@A 0108, Zoning isn't about efficiency; rather, it's about comfort. Since you have a 1st floor master suite, I imagine the conditioned living areas of the 2nd floor and basement are both less than the 1st floor. Typically, the heating and cooling loads of a 2nd floor with sloped ceilings (you indicated a 1 1/2 story cape) will be different from an equivalent 1st floor area and very different from an equivalent basement area. Indeed, the relatively low cooling load in a basement may result in little or no call for air conditioning and insufficient dehumidification as a consequence. I do not think you'll be comfortable trying to zone a single-speed system as three separate zones where each has very different heating and cooling loads. Nor do I think you'll be comfortable trying to zone an inverter-controlled system for three-zones in your climate zone. The notion that an inverter is a one-size-fits-all solution is, simply, wrong. To make the point, let's look at some numbers. First, let's consider a condition where all three zones all have roughly equivalent cooling loads and that only one of the zones is calling for air conditioning. That requires the system to operate at 1/3 capacity or a turndown ratio of 3:1. Even inverter systems aren't designed for that kind of turndown--typically, they function between 40% to 120% of capacity. That's a turndown of 2.5:1. But the "real-world" cooling load of the basement will be less (and probably much less) than 1/3 of the total home's cooling load. So, the turndown required will be even more than 3:1. If the system isn't capable of the required turndown, when basement cooling is called for, you're going to get blasted with cold air. The desired temperature setpoint will be achieved quickly and the run time won't be sufficient to provide any real dehumidification. You'll experience cool, clammy conditions--inverter or not. I don't think suggesting a three-zone system for conditioning a basement/first floor/2nd floor is something a competent HVAC designer would do--with or without inverter control. The turndown capability simple isn't sufficient. You may be able to zone a single-speed HVAC system to serve the 1st and 2nd floor air conditioning needs, but you'll need a separate air conditioning/dehumidification system for the basement. For mid-west climate zones, I would definitely go with a two-stage furnace with variable speed blower if the incremental cost is $800 even if it's only for two zones. I advise caution when installing a humidifier in cold climate zones due to the potential for condensation in the wall cavities during cold weather. You would need to insure that the home is constructed with insulation on the exterior side of the sheathing with a sufficient R-value to preclude condensation on the back (interior) side of the sheathing. You'll be well served to have a HERS rater size or check the sizing of whatever heating/cooling equipment your contractor recommends. The vast majoirty of HVAC contractors--replacement contractors in particular-- don't have a clue how to size a system.