So I got another quote over the weekend. Same ruud system as the order ruud quote. His quote was at about $7000 which includes a new line set and moving the air handler about 10 inches and the duct work about 2 ft. I then asked him about a trane quote. His response was that he did not like trane cos they have electronic/electric txv which is expensive to maintain/repair. I asked about american standard and he said that trane and AS are no longer made by the same company or will no longer be made by the same company. As I understood it, the company that makes trane is in the midst of divesting itself of the american standard part of the company. Any truth to these assertions? Thanks.

The "tape lines" are actually paneling seams. The original walls are aluminum sheets, some previous owner paneled the whole place, and they've been painted a dozen times since. It is interesting that the seams show more with light paint than with dark paint. It seems to be the case with this room as well (at least in photos; don't know if that'll be the case in person). Though not really in this one: As for the front landscaping, the helpful and well-meaning next-door neighbor cleaned out the beds for us during the week while we weren't there, and, well, over-edited a bit. Since he pulled weeds, edged the sidewalk, and fixed some concrete, we couldn't really be mad at him. :-) I did add a small bush to the right of the door and some mums and daylillies in between, though obviously that's not visible in these photos.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions and photos! Much appreciated. Some things I forgot to mention about my kitchen - first, it is small. Secondly, there are two windows, but there is a covered porch outside of them, so it doesn't get a ton of natural light. I don't mind the pine cabinets, but I prefer more of a rustic look than a country look (if that makes sense). The hardware on the cabinets now is a dark pewter color and the tile on the counter tops has beige/peachy/terracotta tones in it. I would totally redo this kitchen if I could afford it, but it isn't an option at this time financially. I do currently have two rugs of decent size that have warm reds, beige, sage colors in them in the room. I should also add that I'm considering selling my home in the next 6 months, so I have to take that into account when choosing a paint color. I took some additional photos tonight. Forgive the quality of the photos - I had to turn off the flash to get a more accurate color representation. Here is the tile countertop, with the pine floor color: Here is my wall of colors. I've tried to label the ones you've mentioned Colorfast (thank you so much for your detailed thoughts!). Here are two additional photos showing the island after I painted it. The Kittery Green Point was too dark for my taste. So was the Shagreen. The Sagey was too light/minty. Palladian Blue I liked, but it was a bit dark and the shade seemed to clash with the sage green sofa in the room next to it. I forgot to mention that when I tried Rainwashed and Tradewind, I did them at 50%. The "MI" in the photo is Mellowed Ivory. "GG" is Guilford Green. Colorfast, I looked up the colors you mentioned from Devine on their site and I did like them. I will try to swing by the store on my lunch hour tomorrow to take a look in person. Thank you!! I'm starting to think that maybe I should just forget color on these kitchen walls and go with a cream/ivory/off-white (although I'm not sure how that would look with my white trim). Then bring in color through accents. The frustration has become paralyzing! :)

Yup, that would be it! (There's something ironic about dogbane growing all over a hill where people regularly walk their dogs..)