I would stain the flooring, paint can peel and be a bother. For me, I'd stain it dark but that's a personal call. Painting a bright green when the rest of the colors are muted may be too much pop. How about a light green that is in the historical colors so it's muted a bit. I love apple green but muted a tiny bit.

Take a look at my album and perhaps you'll will find something of interest. Thanks, The Porch Guy My Album

Whether you need permits depends on your city/county codes. How difficult it is to return to the original depends on how much framing was added. Start by removing the windows. The only way to find out how much framing was added is to remove the sheet rock. That should give you an idea of any framing added for sheet rock installation and/or how big the old screens were. To replace windows with screens means all the sheet rock has to be removed. Looks some was added to the old exterior. Most of the trim has to go. Not a really good DIY project unless you have some experience in demolition. To have it done may run a couple thousand dollars, and maybe that much more to refurbuish it.

We have a long afternoon sun, we don’t have a lot of time to spend on the yard unfortunately. I do miss the Scandinavian plants and I realize it’s hard to grow here but I prefer colors or keep it simple with 2 colors but lots of it:) I want it to look inviting, the previous owner had a French style and it’s not my style at all unfortunately. I’m also thinking some sort of tree but it might be close to the house? Thank you for all the input