My current house is "reversed" as well. It's 3-stories/five levels to maximize the ocean views. First level is the foyer/garage, half-flight up is the master facing the ocean, half up from that are two guest rooms facing the street, half up is a story-and-half great room facing the ocean (over the master bedroom footprint). Half-flight up from that is the kitchen, dining room and library, all with ocean and street views. Every morning, looking at the sunrise and dolphins in the waves I know it's worth it to carry groceries all the way up!

I would probably stick with one color for both rooms, if it were me. I instantly thought of BM Grey Owl for what you are describing. It is slightly blue-green while still being a warmish grey. I love it, but it was too blue to pair with my pinkish carpet in my house (didn't want a pastel color combo going on!) I also like SW Passive, but it is a little cooler. If you do the blue kitchen, I would caution against a warm grey with too much pink in it (the baby room effect). I'm definitely no expert, but I just bought my first home too and have spent MONTHS researching grey paint! I ended up selecting SW Useful Grey. It is a greenish grey, which I never thought I'd pick. I guess I'd just suggest taking your time and keeping an open mind when looking at colors :) And definitely buy samples to test in your home...

You have a budget of $15K to remove, purchase and install 1850sf of flooring. That works out to be $8.11/sf - which includes install I am going to assume. Removal/disposal of laminate can be as much as $1/sf. With that assumption, you know have $7.11/sf. Assume that roughly HALF OF THAT will be labor (preparation and install). Excellent. We are down to $3.55 per square foot for flooring + under pad. Another HIGH END laminate will do the trick with a high-end under pad. CoreTec can START at $4.50/sf and go up from there. Other LVT = $1.79 from Home Depot...rising all the way up to $7/sf from high-end independent dealers. The "laminate is splitting" is the INSTALLATION in the KITCHEN...not the laminate itself. The LACK OF TRANSITION STRIPS through the DOORWAYS is causing ALL THE PROBLEMS (and the fact that they installed an inappropriate floor in a kitchen = big NO-NO)! With a budget such as yours, and a kitchen that you wish to "deal with" I would save my money, fix the floor so that it stops doing what it is doing, get a REAL kitchen floor installed and deal with the counter tops to suite your lifestyle. Congratulations - you've just spent $15K. The laminate throughout the house is fine...you just need to drop in some T-mouldings through doorways (couple hundred dollars) and install a PROPER kitchen floor ($1000 - $3000). You can do that when you deal with the counters/cabs. And to be clear, you will use the $15K just on the counters and cabinets...with only a small amount left over for the "proper" kitchen flooring.

We just painted our walls agreeable gray to match the kitchen island. The cabinets are alabaster white. I love the contrast especially in high ceilings and the angles. the agreeable gray is very sublte. Every wall shows it in a different view depending on the lighting. I'm pleased with it.