Our challenge so far has been finding fabricators in our area to work with us.  

Or hire the sub that figures out it only needs a new king valve and freon and fabricates a custom replacement condensation pan in his shop for $1K?

The problem is there is a segment of people on here who fabricate their data, and if you look into it you can see that some is egregious.

The fabric of our community and livability are changing.As demand for real estate increases, our property values rise and so do our property taxes, which makes it even more difficult as a buy-hold investor to meet the needs of the people we are trying to serve.

@Fabrice EliacinWelcome.

My husband works full time as a project manager for a fabrication company in the commercial building world and we do not want him to stop that.

The original living space also has the old fabric wires (I forget the name...).

Make sure you plan on enough time to source and fabricate the tops.  

No weed barrier/fabric or plastic will stop them, so have the rocks "fluffed up" and get some pre-emergent weed killer sprayed twice a year to keep them in line.

We ultimately purchased 3 standard precut slabs from Floor and Décor for $480 and had a local fabricator cut and install them with an under mount sink for another $975 in mostly labor costs and it turned out great.