I went ductless in my home and pulled all the ductwork out. I gained two closets and have a lot of storage beneath the stairs. I would look at Fujitsu's and Mitsubishi's web site and use the "find a dealer" feature. I think that because it is a bit out of your contractors comfort zone they are pushing you to what they like with the price. I spoke with a contractor who did two identical homes. One high efficiency ducted propane. The other was a Fujitsu Hybrid Flex Inverter with 1 condensing unit and 8 indoor evaporators. He said the installed cost was almost identical for both systems. The mini-splits were operating at a 50% savings over the ducted system. In new construction running small line sets is a snap. There are not as many good installers of ductless, but more and more are coming to it annually. Since '08 the only category of products that grew year over year is the mini-split category. Find the best guy and hire him. Check his references. Installing the best efficiency highest technology products in the industry won't reduce the value of your home. You will have very nearly the same efficiency as a geothermal heat pump for a fraction of the cost. One of the best features of mini-splits is their very quiet operation. mine are much quieter that the ducted system they replaced. As well, you gain efficiency by zoning the space. There are a lot of ways to save energy. One of the best is to zone the space and heat only the area you are in. My Fujitsu 15 RLS which I just installed a few months ago has a feature that will automatically set back the temperature if the unit does not sense motion in that space for 20 min. when you walk back into the space it starts up and recovers quickly. Pretty neat! I am partial to Fujitsu as I represented them in a 6 state area in my business, so bias noted.

hi there we have an old house with small rooms. our first floor sounds very much like yours, although our living room is NOT roomy. after living there for four years, our plans for reconfiguring the rooms have changed a lot. we will make one of the small bedrooms (2 on first floor) into a larger den with a closet (potential master bedroom, sort of). this is our tv room. we redid the kitchen and added a separate work area, rather than an eat in area. we are surprised at how well this is working, even though there is no seating in the kitchen. we eat in the dining room, but always have so that was not a factor. the changes that we have made so far that have made the most difference are changing the location of four doorways on the first floor. so the rooms are still small but you walk through them differently. for your small room near the laundry, that sounds like the perfect place for a closet to me. for your office, we have ours in a small upstairs room and the mess of papers is contained. our first floor is much more peaceful and uncluttered because of this. kren

It was NOPSI when I lived in New Oreleans, and in rental shotgun houses...NOPSI claimed a large part of my paychecks! New Orleans has a lot of Energy Raters, the highest concentration in the state actually. Entergy has made use of some of these raters in their efficiency program Energy Smart. here are a couple of links for you to check out: http://www.energysmartnola.info/one-stop-shop/ http://www.energysmartnola.info/for-your-home/ not being in that area anymore, I don't know how this program works..but you can find out if you are interested. my only advice would be to involve yourself with an experienced rater there in N.O. someone with experience in old homes...the newer raters I met may have the training... but couldn't tell gas from electric heat systems, or know how to identify balloon framing. so look for someone who has 10+ years of experience. La. DNR also has list of energy raters state wide, their efficiency incentive program isn't still in effect...but last time I checked the list of active raters was still online. DNR(dept natural resources) provided the training for all of us back in 1999. so they have a good handle on who knows their stuff...and who doesn't. it is hard to see detail in your posted plans. so I'll keep my questions fairly general. my first two concerns are air sealing & hvac system. I know you have a partial ' basement' (LOL) are electrical & plumbing exposed? was there ever a central hvac system installed? if basement isn't full size of house...what access is there to the part of the house without basement? how much room is there between ground & house? 3'...4'....more? is house all electric or is natural gas provided? as to heating...do you have a prefrence? if all electric..then look research heat pumps...great wintertime savings in our area. (I'm south central La these days) have you looked at mini split units? condenser unit outside, individual air handler units that hang on walls in rooms. I can't tell if your layout would work for this or not. is there a space in your home you could make into heating system closet? have you had any hvac companies come out to look at the house yet? involving hvac company never starts too early. it may be that ductwork will need to be installed during the reno. if you can't give up the sq ft for system inside house...I've seen people put the heating system in the 'basement'. quite a few flooded after katrina, but its not an everyday occurrence, and depending upon what part of town your house is located in...flooding is something to consider. I know uptown floods in a hearbeat with heavy rains...but areas like bywater stay dry. the top floor...full attic or are there walls of the living space that are shared with attic space? is attic space large enough to house heating system? air sealing.. there are really two ways to air seal. caulk, backer rods & more caulk which can be diy..or foam insulation. one is inexpensive & time consuming...the other expensive & fast. foam insulating the roofline will be biggest bang for the buck. then putting heat system & ductwork in attic keeps it in a semi conditioned space, so that you don't have ducts to cool the house in a 140 degree attic. by moving air & thermal barriers to roofline, a lot of the air leakage sites in ceilings are depressurized, so that house isn't sucking hot dirty humid attic air into the house to clean, dehumidify & condition when central unit is running. as most of our heat gain/cooling loss is through the ceiling into the attic space creating a tight air barrier, and thermal barrier (insulation) is very important. we use open cell in the attic roofline, depth to equal R-value required ( R-25 for cathedral for example is 6- 6.5" deep) also if house is balloon framed, foam seal at eaves to attic floor will stop air movement in walls. we need to air seal our walls...but insulating walls here isn't high on our list of things to do. foam in walls...is a huge waste of money. the next place for foam is under the floors. here we use closed cell. to keep moisture from ground from being sucked into the house. 2-3" is sufficient. this will also seal bottom of balloon framed walls. I've had issue with some of the foam insulators in N.O., because I am one picky b!tch. unlike most energy raters I oversee install of foam and test for air leakage with foam co on site, so that they can catch any leakage sites then without an added trip. as these companies expand into my area...they don't stay long. over the years I've learned which companies will actually create air tight seals...and who doesn't. and fyi...it isn't always the big companies that do it right. owner/installer companies are more willing to learn how to do it right. and the install of foam, just like the install of the hvac system is the key to the whole thing. ok...there are your questions to answer & things to think about for today. I'll check back after you reply. and think about investing in a blower door test of the house at minimum. this will identify leakage sites that need to be sealed. if you have ductwork, spring for the duct test also. better to know what you have to start with..what you need to do... and have it tested when completed. this way you have a goal to work towards...and an idea of how to do it. best of luck

I think you're showing the old and the new on the same drawing? As others have said, this is confusing. But the new master suite is a simple layout with a closet-bath-bedroom? Okay, if I'm reading this correctly, here are my specific thoughts: - Simple layouts are always best. Thumbs-up. - The hallway to the bedroom will make things private. But the hallway is something like 10' long and dull ... on the positive side, you'll be walking towards a door with natural light /makes for a good focal point. I'd like to see low-wattage motion-sensored lights in this hallway to make it pleasant at night ... if you place two lights midway in this hallway, the light won't spill onto the bed and disturb a sleeper. How wide is this hallway? I hope no less than 42" ... personally, I'd steal a foot from the ample bath and closet and add a set of built-in bookshelves into this hallway. I'd love to see it maybe 48" high with space above for artwork or display items. A 42" hallway with a half-high bookshelf on the left wall would feel luxuriously wide. This would give you a ton of storage and would create a more pleasant walk than an empty hallway. Imagine 10' of this: - I would definitely flip-flop the closet and the bathroom. Why? Because "as shown", you have the toilet sharing a wall with the bedroom, which can be noisy. In contrast, the closet is a quiet space. It also means when you want to use your own bathroom during the day, you're a step closer. - After making this flip-flop, keep the water items on the wall shared with the closet. This will mean more quiet for the secondary bedroom on the other side ... and if (when) you someday need service of some sort to the bathroom, a worker would be able to break through your closet wall, which means preserving your expensive tile. You could even ask for access doors to be left in the closet, which would allow you to reach the water works simply by moving the clothing out. - I'd definitely want a window in the bathroom, even if it's a small one up high over the tub. - Is that an open shower next to the tub? Eh, okay but not great. Personally, given that you have a very large closet right next door, I think I'd keep the tub at the end of the bathroom and create a shower that kinda "dips into" /steals space from the closet. I'd be willing to steal a bit from the large bedroom to make this happen. - In designing the bathroom, don't forget to plan where your towels will hang. - I don't know where you stand on closets-opening-from-bathrooms, but I think I might be tempted to close off the closet-door-from-the-hallway and open the closet from the middle of the bathroom ... meaning you'd enter the middle of the closet instead of the end. Maybe. - I note that you don't have a linen closet IN the bathroom, and that's something I really like. If you open the clothing closet into the bathroom, you'd be able to use that space for bathroom storage too. - I like the door in the master bedroom (fire safety), but I'd like to see a few more windows. The best rooms have windows on two sides to allow natural light from two different directions. - This is a fairly large bedroom, and you're showing only a bed in it. What do you plan to do with the rest of this space? My old bedroom was roughly this size (13' wide) and a king bed with two nice-sized night stands fit nicely on the short wall, but I was always a little irritated by the wasted space at the foot of the bed. - Where is your laundry? Ideally it'd be near the master bedroom as a step-saver. Your closet is large ... could you have a small stack-up unit in the closet?