No anger here, Kathy. Life's too short for that.
I hope Steve is dead wrong about the windows. We have two large windows plus the double-door on that 32' span. We love to open up the house to the outside on nice days, and I certainly plan to do that whenever possible. That may only be a couple of months in the fall/winter and again, a couple of months in the spring/early summer, but I still wanted the ability to bring the outside in (but not the insects).
My contractor said NOT to extend either one of our central air units (AC/heat) into this large space but to install a stand-alone, HVAC, 1-ton mini split system. I checked this system out and it has been used extensively in Europe of many years, since the vast majority of those houses were never built for central air units. I liked what I found in my research and am sure it will do a good job heating and cooling that 5500 cf. space.
Do let Steve help you with some of the decision-making. He's got the experience and can surely help you. There is nothing wrong in having more than one option on the table.
