[DIY]

I am new to this site as of today.
A contractor friend of mine and I just took out a 25-yr-old fuel oil furnace and 20-yr-old AC unit (central air) and replaced them with the following: Furnace-Maytag 95+ 2-stage gas furnace, and Maytag 16 Seer 2-stage R-410A AC unit. He is not certified to do electrical work. I've done most of my own wiring over the years but have never messed with this type of situation before. I've hard-wired in the furnace, and tomorrow plan on hard-wiring in the AC unit, complete with whip and shut-off box to be mounted on outside of house, as well as direct wiring the rest of the way into the breaker box.
I have the following concerns. The old thermostat, which was a programmable digital, is being replaced with a Honeywell 8000 series, which is also a programmable digital. The old thermostat wiring consists of a red, a white, a green, a yellow, and a blue. Being this is a two-stage LP gas furnace, I am not sure how to run the thermostat wires. Will I need to get a 7-wire thermostat wire? Is such a beast even made? Or can I simply continue to use the current 5-wire thermostat wire? If the latter, how do I go about making the appropriate connections?
On the AC unit, there are four 24V wires that are colored/labeled as follows: black = C, red = R, yellow = Y1, and blue = Y2. My understanding is that I only have to run the low-voltage AC wires to the terminal bar on the furnace, and not to the thermostat. How do I accomplish that task? Do I need only a two-wire cable, which is what the old AC had, or do I have to go with another 5-wire cable? What runs to what?
Thanks so much in advance for any advice.

[hvacservicetech_07]

First you'll need a multi stage thermostat. Second, you need to run an 8 count between the thermostat and furnace, and 4 wires between the A/C and furnace. You'll need the following wires hooked up at the stat... R-24 volts, G-fan,W1- first stage heat,W2- second stage heat, Y1- first stage cool, Y2-second stage cool, C-common, It doesn't matter what colors you use, just be sure to mark everything and hook it all up the same, R- all the "R"'s will go together on the terminal strip on the furnace and so will the common's , hook your W1 and W2's on the terminal strip on the furnace. Now for the A/C wires... R- will go to the terminal on the furnace, and common will tie in with the common on the furnace, Y1 and Y2 need to be hooked with the Y1 and Y2 from the stat... Make sense? If not I can try to explaine this in a little more detail.