What still puzzles me about this stair is that given a 9ft. ceiling height and 7 3/4"+ risers, the thickness of the second floor (ceiling to finish flooring) would be over 16" if there were 16 risers and it would be about 8" if there were 15 risers. For the smaller floor thickness the floor joists could not be larger than 2x8's and for the larger floor thickness the floor joists would be about 14" Since a typical floor thickness is about 12" I am greatly puzzled about your stair construction. Is there something unusual about the floor joists at the second floor? Is the ceiling height 9 ft. plus a tray or coffer? To accurately define the stair riser height you should give us the floor to floor height and the number of risers. To increase the distance from the front door to the stair by turning it, you must put one more riser at the lower run which would extend it farther into the lobby. If this doesn't make sense to you, you should ask your designer to draw the two conditions to scale before telling the builder to modify the stair. I could draw it if I knew all of the dimensions of the existing conditions but what you have posted doesn't seem to add up.

I like the roman chamomile with daisetta on the back wall.

That's a lot of oak trim. There are a lot of web sites about selecting colors with oak trim, but I find this picture particularly appealing...maybe a color along these lines would work for you.

Thank you, thank you!! I will post some more photos later. Yes, exactly I'm trying to do some of the smaller items. We're replacing the kitchen faucet this weekend and some light fixtures. For the upstairs hallway, I already bought fixtures but again I'm not sure if they're the best - they are the drum kind (I got flush and semi flush to compare). We are also absolutely replacing outlets/covers - we did one in the kitchen so far when we installed the light fixture and it's amazing how much better it looks. And when I say 'we', I mean our friend because we are useless at this! For the kitchen, I'd love hardwood (we had it in our last house) - I just really always liked how it felt. However, of course again cost + we have a dog who was not kind on the last one so we'll see. I have to balance my anxiety over spending money with what's really important - I won't do this as quickly as I first envisioned. We were considering replacing all the doors upstairs (they previous owners recently redid one bathroom there and so it has a different door already). As far as paint color, I've typically always had 'color' but I'm open. If I'm doing the kitchen shoji white, I would probably prefer something a little more colorful elsewhere so the house doesn't look like one big off white place. I'm not skilled enough to make things pop with furnishings and etc...(plus don't want to have to buy more). At some point I will repaint all the bedrooms too, but down the line. One bedroom is currently named the Pepto Bismol room for its shade of paint. I try not to go in there :)