Here's the laydown for this job. We are essentially starting from ground zero. The gas is at the street and needs to be brought to the foundation. The house is a 1962 ranch style with full finished basement, and also a second floor with 4 bedrooms and one full bath. An old central ceiling fan is in place in the second floor ceiling in main hall-but not connected. Attic has very easy walk in access. Currently a 10-year old Lennox AC cools the second floor (~600 sq ft) and drops three flexible-duct "tubes" down into kitchen and master bedroom. Heating on the second floor is via individual electric baseboards heaters. We have removed the first floor and basement baseboard heaters for the new HVAC. House needs complete new ductwork for basement and first floor - plan to keep second floor closed off and as is. We have removed the entire basement ceiling for easy access for HVAC work. Home is 1500 sq ft first floor and ~1500 sq ft basement, we plan to add 20x16=320 sq ft 4 -season room off rear sliding doors - this area in rear faces west, front faces east. Home has great bones, solid framing wood real 2x4 size, workmanship, etc....1962.... We are awaiting bids from SW Ohio vendors. Home has 2 wood-burning inserts that we would like to convert to natural gas, I know I know, the wood makes for great heat source but is this efficient? Truly this house would make a great "learning experience" for a vendor to train a team, all easy access, floors are open, not many structural changes coming ....lay gas lines, etc .... as a retired military officer I know the value of good training .... and trust Reading the posts in this forum I am leaning toward Carrier as my system, but have not seen bids yet. We will stay in this home for at least 10 years. Anyone caring to post a reply with advice for "this old house" please do... I will respond and also keep you posted on the bids.. thanks, and cheers!

I speak from experience when I say, the 8x10 bedroom is going to be narrow. If you could make it just 1 foot wider (at the expense of the other bedroom's length), it would be better. 10x would be even better/optimal, imo/ime. If you turn the hall bathroom 90* so you can move the wall between the 2 extra bedrooms to get a 10x wide bedroom, I think it would be better. You can rob the space from the master to be able to turn the hall bath. You could also move your laundry and take some of that space to better allocate space to the bathroom so you get 2 decent sized extra bedrooms. Currently, there is too much unused space in the master, for my liking, with such a limitation in that other bedroom. (though, something is off, now that I have typed all that and look again). You have a 10' marking on the master bedroom side that cannot be 10 feet if it is drawn to scale. Please verify.

I guess it's still not clear. The 2 story would NOT be adding onto existing foundation. It would be a two story addition on a whole new foundation and I'm trying to figure out if it's cheaper to do one large room addition (new large foundation) or a totally new two story addition tied it into our current house (new smaller foundation). I'm located in the northeast just outside Boston. I would try to plan on just a slab foundation, we already have a basement, and there's no reason to enlarge it. The plan would be for a single floor addition: expand the half bath on the first floor to a full bath and add on a family room and small bedroom. For a 2 story addition, have the family room on the bottom floor and the bedroom above it. We could still either expand the 1/2 bath on the first floor to a full bath or add on a small full bath upstairs too. (we already have a full bath upstairs, but we'll really need an additonal shower in the future as the kids get older). It seems like there's conflicting info here....with a 2 story it would be less foundation and less roofing, but I know a two story addition probably requires a stronger foundation and the strength of the ceiling to hold up the second floor.

I've been paying roughly $1000-$1200/month for myself since my husband's retirement over ten years ago. That does not include kids. We covered them on student health plans, which turned out to be cheaper in sum. I can give you a couple of tips: Don't bother with the Federal Health Exchange site unless you will qualify for a supplement of some kind. It's not a terrible site, but you'll have to do everything yourself. You are better off contacting a local insurance broker (I found mine on NextDoor). It may end being a very simple decision because in many markets there is only one company that sells to non-group members. So I can buy a gold, silver or bronze plan, but only from Community Health Choice (Houston suburb). My plan offers a 10% discount for completing an annual survey. I'd had the same plan the year before but never knew about that discount until the agent told me -so ask about that. Try not to panic when you read the crazy deductibles. I think mine is $5000 (whereas ten years ago, it was probably $500), but so much preventative care is now covered pre-deductible, thanks to Obama care, that I think I'm spending less out-of-pocket than I did before. But I'm a pretty healthy person who doesn't use a lot of medical services except preventative, so your mileage may vary... When I first began to buy my own insurance plans (after DH's retirement), I made the mistake of picking the plan first, rather than the doctor. The last few years (when I had a choice of at least 2 companies to choose from), I compiled a list of at least a dozen primary physicians I could abide, and then called their offices to see if they were accepting new patients, when I would be able to get an appointment, and whether they had any plans to cancel coverage with insurance company X the next year, etc. I had learned the hard way (in January), that I may have had a great plan, but I couldn't find a dr. on that plan who would see me as a new patient before August. I kid you not.....So that year, I was paying $1200/month and actually didn't have a dr. I could see until August.....