Holy Cow!!! You guys are posting some great advice. Like I said in my opening post, I openly admit to being a newbie in the GA community and everything you guys are saying makes sense. I guess to narrow down my searches a little more, I NEED to narrow down my exact needs better.

Being a ski family occupies most of our time in the winter months (all be it East Coast skiing for now), I need to re-evaluate whether or not a twin is a NEED or WANT......We certainly will use the airplane for other trips along the entire eastern US, but maybe a single is the way to go.

A single-engine has been nice to me for 17+ years, so maybe I was over thinking the NEED for a twin to move the family around? While I would/will certainly put in the time to become smart on doing the routine things that I can do (i.e. anything not requiring an A&P mechanic for), maybe the single engines would suit our needs a little better.

BTW, you guys are awesome!!