New house - decisions, decisions

I've lived in my current house since 1992.  It's a small house on a large lot.  When I bought it, I contemplated doing lots of DIY on an admitted fixer-upper.

Over the years, I've discovered that I thoroughly dislike doing DIY.  I'd much rather pay someone to do the work for me.  I've also discovered that I have WAY, WAY, WAY more yard than I will ever utilize. 

In May of this year, I decided I wanted to reverse my situation with a bigger (not HUGE) house on a significantly smaller lot.  I called the realtor (Patricia) that I'd used to buy my current house.  She was a real sport and took me around to see a ton of houses.  There were a couple of houses that came close, but had factors that made me turn them down.  One backed up to commercial real estate space that hasn't been developed yet.  I decided I didn't want to buy the house only to have a McDonalds put in at a later date.

Finally, in late August I found a nice house that is spacious but is not a McMansion (keeping the McDonalds theme going).  It's on a much smaller lot, although I do have a 3-hole putting green in the backyard.

Now that I've closed, I've got lots of things to get done.  Utilities are on and in my name.  I do have to call a plumber.  When the gas company tech tried to start the water heater, the pilot light igniter didn't (ignite the pilot).  The tech said it's probably a problem with the wires and I'll probably need to have that small unit replaced.  No hurry so waiting for a Friday off to call the plumber.

One of the nice things is - I don't have to HURRY.  My current house is paid off and so I don't have to move NOW.  That said, I've decided to redo the flooring and paint before moving.  Much easier to do with an empty house.

I've called and met with folks to get estimates to me.  Waiting to get all the results back.  I plan on removing the wall-to-wall carpet (which I loathe) and put in laminate instead (much easier to clean up pet messes on laminate).  I spent some time at Lowe's yesterday and really like something called 'Galveston Oak' - brown with lots of blonde notes.

As to paint, I had been thinking a nice green (not emerald, more subdued).  Then I thought I might do a nice neutral brown.  The problem there happened when I noticed all the browns that I liked had a distinct pink undertone.  That could get really 'precious' very quickly.  Instead, I'm back to green.  It looked really good up against the 'Galveston Oak' (the brown looked blah).  I'm leaning toward 'Pale Pasture' - color for the walls but not TOO much.

It's the one on the left.

It'll be nice to get this all done so I can start moving stuff over.

Papillon