AC Feature Suggestions and Finding a good contractor

[woodcan]

We've called and had several local places come by in the last few days since our A/C went completely out and the consensus is that our 12 yr old builder system can be fixed (expensively) but we're on borrowed time so we are just going to replace the whole AC/Furnace system.

Two part question/advice request:

1) What's a good fit for our home? We have a 1-story, 2000sqft home, in hot Central Texas and dead 12yr old Lennox plain jane builders-grade 12 SEER, 4-ton AC and upflow gas furnace. The quotes and suggestions have been all over the place. Most places have quoted us a 16 SEER 4-ton AC system and one place said that's a waste of money and to just go with a 14.5 SEER system. Some say the "variable speed" furnace blower is worth it for efficiency and cooling and others say it is not and a single-speed would be a sizable bump in performance vs what we have right now. We have gotten prices for a two-stage condensing unit as well but they add significantly to the cost and we're not clear if it would be worth it. Overall, we have not been too happy with our existing AC for the past 8 years since there are always certain rooms that don't cool as well as others and our inside unit is very loud. Also, we plan to stay in our existing for quite a few more years.

1) The running theme around here on hvac-talk seems to be that finding a good "contractor" is much more important than brand and equipment. My predicament is how does one judge or find a good contractor?

-I've gone to BBB and see pretty much all the places I've looked at are A+ rated, even those with hundreds of complaints since they "resolved" all of them
-I've gone to Yelp and the local guys we called to came out were quick but I couldn't hardly get any details other than just a "price" for a system
-I've gone with friends' personal experience and that guy was kinda rude and had the highest price among everyone even the national chains
-I've gone through Home Depot (contracted with ARS Rescue Rooter) and the guy was nice but he's just the sales guy
-Last person who is sending me an estimate is a contractor that also does residential work that my brothers commercial construction firm has used


Thank you very much in advance for you input!

[comfortdoc]

I'm sure the Central TX guys will be along shortly with specific system specs for that region, but I recommend getting a temporary solution such as a window unit that will handle a room or two. With that you can take some time to find the right contractor that will investigate why certain rooms don't cool as well as others. After that, proper sizing calculations can be done and a proper long term comfort solution can be determined so you are satisfied for many years.

[woodcan]

Well, we got a couple of really good bids from the guy my brother gave our number to and we decided to go with the cheaper 1-stage cooling option since at least it's a bump from our builder's grade system. He was also the only guy willing to give us exact model numbers of all 3 components for me to look-up.

This is what we are going with:
Carrier Condenser 24ACC648A003
Coil CNPVT6024ATA
Furnace 58STA090-1-16