a holston, Ken meant 'compartmentalization', and this is the ability of woody plants to wall off injury through chemical and physical means. It is an interesting subject, but not something that can be briefly covered. At least, not something I'm up to laying out right at the moment! Suffice to say though that the tree either will or will not be able to close this wound-both externally and internally-and that all you can do to aid this process is the usual stuff that helps trees. The biggest thing, practically the only thing, is to ensure the tree is not suffering from drought. And if you do elect to water it, realize that this means watering the entire area. Conversely, if you're fortunate enough to not be in a drought-stricken area, then even this is unwarranted. But keep it in mind for a year or two hence, if it gets dry then. Trees have been getting dinged up-though not by cars-for millennia, and they've developed means to deal with it. No fancy snake oil is going to help. It could be warranted to fertilize the entire root zone, but that's controversial as heck. If you do decide, hopefully after doing some research, go easy with the stuff. A little might do some good but a lot won't do more good. +oM

A couple things to think about... First, the minimum auto insurance coverage in PA for property damage is something like $10K. I would be surprised if this guy has more than that. So his insurance is only going to pay that $10K to your insurance...your insurance is on the hook for over that. And if they end up stiffed, your premiums might go up. Yes it's unfair. But I'd ask up front about that, before you get too far down the road. Second, I'd be surprised if they pay to put the porch back exactly like it was. Unless you have a super spankin' top of the line insurance policy (generally offered for historic homes where the millwork is custom and hard to replace), they're going to fight tooth and nail to just build it to "standard workmanship" - meaning a concrete block foundation, standard off-the-shelf columns and balusters, etc. You can try to get what you want, but I wouldn't be surprised if you get big pushback. We used to live on Swede Rd in a 200 year old former-mill that was about 6 ft off the road. While we lived there, a car hit the stone wall in front of the house and demolished part of it - his auto insurance paid to fix and we had a friend of ours who was a mason do the work. But after we sold it, a landscaping truck skidded out and took out aqbout 100 ft of wall and the corner of the porch. They fought with the insurance for about 3 years before they got the wall rebuilt - the insurance company pushed back hard against paying for the stone wall to be rebuilt using the original stones. And I think they ended up using new columns and new porch floor that wasn't an exact replica of the original. You can go in demanding what you want from the insurance company, but realistically, I doubt you'll get it, and the process of fighting them could take years. And yes, I know that sucks because it totally wasn't your fault that any of this happened (but having been on the victim end in more than a few auto accidents, I've learned that insurance companies pretty much don't care.) Since you're planning to sell the house anyway, maybe this is the time where you pick your battles (definitely hold out for the paint job, but maybe give up on the custom millwork and just do everything new with standard components). Good luck!

If you install the Carrier, you may not get the same SEER due to a (possible) mismatch between the new condenser and your existing coil. Why not just get a new RXXX-042-JAZ? AM

Oh thank you all so much. I just found out he has some internal injuries, some broken bones, his right hand was crushed. I think they were going to operate on the hand today. Hope they can fix the hand, he said "cops need their gun hand"....... It could have been so much worse. He is a nice, man, and a good provider.