Wow, what a list! First off, converting from carpet to hardwoods doesn't have to involve removing the baseboards. That's what the shoe molding is for. And yes the flooring stuff is all better done before move in.....as long as you are religious about covering the floors when any other construction is being done. We got lazy and it's only been six months, but looks like many years. Sigh. Luckily, paint scrapes off hardwood easily. We painted the kitchen after moving in, and that was hard, but doable. I felt I needed some time to finalize plans. As it was, I kept changing my mind about things and have a better kitchen now b/c I was living there. I'd also wait on the carpet. Once all your stuff is in, you might not notice it so much.

IMO I would live in the house a while before doing anything with the pocket doors. You may get to love them. If your house is old, you need to let it speak to you a while before making big changes.

I would make all flooring changes before moving furniture into the house. It's infinitely more difficult to do it afterwards. Since you are making your door opening smaller rather than larger, it could be done at any time because the floor shouldn't require repair.

When we bought our lake house, we hired people to do the floors before we moved in. We then did the kitchen and all the painting ourselves with huge drop cloths and taking care not to damage the floors in any way. We succeeded.

If the carpet is good quality and in good shape, you can also have it dyed, something to consider. I have never had carpet installed but like any flooring it would be so much easier in an empty house!

The usual order is, carpet out (and yes, take out the baseboard and replace it now if you want to), walls changed and prepped for painting, flooring installed but not finished, painting done, and then floor given its final sanding, and finished.

And if you possibly can, wait at least a week before you move in, to give the finish more time to cure before moving furniture in.

In any case, lay old carpet strips or canvas dropcloths for the movers to walk in and out on, and threaten to take them out in the yard and shoot them if they drag anything across your newly finished floors!

My advice....First, you should stock up on wine!

Personally, I would handle the knocking-down of walls before handling the floor, just in case something comes up with support structure issues that you hadn't anticipated.

But whatever order you end up doing things in, please don't paint until the end. You don't want to fall in love with a cabinet color only to find out that every flooring you try to pair with it makes it look wrong somehow. There is a much wider range of whites, off-whites, and creams for paint colors than there are flooring options. So at the very least, the paint job is something you can put on the back burner.

Thanks folks!

I don't think I'd like the carpet dyed. I prefer the Frieze (I think that's the right word?) look and this carpet is more...basic? traditional? style.

So my priorities are: WINE!, carpet out, baseboards out (I can do those two myself, yay!), walls changed, flooring installed/sanded, paint, finish floors, threaten movers with bodily harm. Got it!!

Of course, first I have to price it all out to determine whether I can afford to do all these things prior to the flooring going in/moving in. :D That's the kicker, I suppose.

B, one small correction - floors finish sanded after painting, then floors finished. Gets rid of any fine paint mist or spatter that you probably wouldn't even notice.

And I might put wine in more than one place - certainly at the start, but also in between the other steps! With the possible substitution of a martini or a shot of bourbon now and then ...