Oh, and I guess our style tends towards minimalist-y and old fashioned. Secretly, we want to live in Bertie Wooster's drawing room. Although to be contrary to that, I do love colour. Maddie's bedroom will be sunshine-y colours.

Wow, how cool! Congrats!!

(I love the pic where mr. gaspode demonstrates that you can, indeed, walk into the walk-in closet.)

Nice place! That living room is huge!

If you like colour, one way to do it is to put the colour on the walls and keep the furnishings neutral. It looks sharp, it's easy to coordinate, and you can change the paint colour any time you want.

First impressions:

Color will be your best friend. You own it? Paint those walls.

You have lots of window space with a good view, orient your furniture around the windows. Buy stuff low to the ground.

Lowe's sold a cd/rom of their house brand paint colors, so I could see how the various combos looked in photos. Home Depot should have something similar.

Get stone floors and counters sealed pronto.

What a lovely place!

Congratulations! It's great! I agree, paint and don't be afraid of color.

I like how Maddy is in most every picture, for scale.

Here are the home blogs I'm loving right now:

Young House Love - favorite favorite
Thrifty Decor Chick - a little more DIY then I, but still like it
House of Turquoise - inspiration!

I read Apartment Therapy, but it's hit or miss for me; lots of stuff I don't feel engaged with.

Congrats!
I loooove your bathroom! And I also totally love how the living room windows are all different shapes and sizes - the dark borders on those look great. And the exposed beams you could paint the same dark color as the window frames (leave the walls white) and it would look very mod, or paint them some bright unexpected color, or leave them white also and color the ceiling itself.

Speaking of paint, my aunt Pam runs a business called i pick paint color. You could fly her here as a consultant :D

Ooh, such a pretty blank canvas! I can't wait to see how it turns out! Keep posting pics!

I love natural light and I've got a lot of windows in my house, so all my walls are painted antique white and I let wall hangings and pictures add the color. I've also tried to theme each of the major areas of my house. My kitchen and the large area next to it are filled with things that remind me of California (most notably a lot of California fruit crate labels that have been framed and hung around the perimeter of the room). My living room is comfy furniture and dark woods, and a bunch of scrimshaw and gin pitchers I inherited from my grandfather. My bedroom is done up New Mexico style with lots of southwestern art and rugs.

I still need to redo both my bathrooms which are done up in tacky pink and mocha tilework. I love the old-time in-wall gas heaters in them, they're so retro, but I don't know how to keep them incorporated into any kind of new look. So I keep putting it off. Well, that and because the shower pan in my bathroom needs to be replaced and that's not cheap.

It was a lot of fun working from such a blank canvas. I posted a bunch of photos from the job back when we were doing it. Here they are.

It's just lovely! Congratulations!

oh, I particularly love the House of Turquoise blog, TPS.

Oooh, I can't wait to see it when you're all settled and moved in.

I'm not much good at design stuff, except that I know that I like the way my flat looks. I have plain walls (magnolia, a very pale warm yellow), white trim and wooden floors. That way I can use colour in the soft furnishings and wall art, which are easier to change than redecorating a brightly-coloured room.

Nice! It seems huge, and that bathroom looks tres luxe. Congratulations!

Rather than pick colors 1st, I recommend picking how you want rooms to feel, and letting that be the guide. I usually like murky wall colors(gray, taupe), but my house is a rehabbed cottage, and some rooms refuse to be murky. Even with a gray-ish purple in the kitchen, it's cheery. I blame the sunshine, but what can I do? The house had most of the cottage charm removed, and I'm slowly adding it back.

I predict (and hope for) a return to navy blue. A friend has a living room that's navy and silver, and I love it a lot.

I'll add Design sponge and This Old House.

Ugh, drywall dust. I sanded way too many walls when I was a kid.

Wow, what a great place. Lots of light, great details.

I love white walls and I like to let the color do the talking in the details like throw pillows and art and things. But mostly I like neutrals. A mix of vintage and modern is what I like best, especially vintage furniture with modern art on the walls, love that.

My favorite decor blogs are Greige and The Perfect Gray which both echo my style of rustic minimalist vintage really well. Also love Brabourne Farm, also lots of natural rustic touches mixed with modern, love that. It always looks fresh.

Place looks awesome! I think it would be tough to go wrong with all that lovely light; you can have a lot of plants which is so important.

ooh very nice digs!

I agree with casarkos. It looks like you have loads of natural light, so I'd take advantage of that in whatever decor you go with.

Any living space will look very classy and "pulled together" if you can decide on an overall theme and maintain that despite going with different colours / accents on walls and fabrics. Maybe just select a period / style or theme you like.

Also, keep in mind the "scale" of the furnishings is in keeping for what suits your space. The mister originally wanted to go with a Southwestern or Mission theme for the furniture, but the scale of that stuff is way out of proportion to the modest scale of our little midcentury ranch, plus we don't have much natural light. It would have just felt oppressive. So instead we opted for light/bright walls and darker wood furnishings but with airy clean lines; almost a Frank Lloyd Wright style. It works, and what's more, it fits the scale of the house and gives it a cozy, cottagy feel without being claustrophobic.

Examples:

these are our new kitchen chairs

this is our new bed

these are our dressers.

Note that we went with a different dresser set than our bed. The key is that the lines, hardware and colours are similar, even though they're not the same model.

Awesome place! I would keep the walls mostly very neutral - it's easier to change/add colours using things like cushions and rugs and, given that you have actual seasons, you can change the decor to suit. A splash of colour here and there in feature walls is great and relatively easy to change (you can re-paint a single wall in a couple of hours without too much drama).

Don't put colour on the ceiling in the living area, as it will bring the ceiling height down visually and ceilings are hard to paint later - keep the ceilings either white or a very subtle shade of whatever you put on the walls. Remember that the ceilings will take on the colour of the walls due to reflected light.

You are going to enjoy this.

Exciting! The easiest thing to do first thing is just to showcase the windows because they are there. As you live there, you'll get to know it's separate angles and areas, how it looks from different vantage points and where you like to cluster and how you use the space, and it will come to you. The touches and flourishes. What is the perfect piece for the right place. Just get things you truly love as you find them.

I can't believe that little one is so big now!

You have fabulous window areas and tons of great advice here. Your floor plan looks wonderful. Lots of closets=good. Also, you know you don't have to have every detail in place at once. Live there and see what happens.

Congratulations on such a lovely home.

Gorgeous! Looks nice & roomy. Awesome master bath & great view!

gaspode, your place is gorgeous. Like others have said, you can't go wrong. Color would look great. White and naturals would look equally as nice. I like the walls white with that floor. It is beautiful.

Here are a couple more blogs you might be interested in:

Desire to Inspire

Lauri Ward's Decorating Blog Lauri Ward has been in business forever. She knows what she is talking about when it comes to design for real-life. She gives lots of useful advice on things like proper sofa height, picture height, scale, furniture arrangement, paint colors (she's a fan of white), lighting, arranging accessories, etc.

Maybe red and white striped ceiling beams? It'd be like living under a giant candy cane. ;)

Ooh. I really don't have anything to suggest right now, but congratulations.