I have Bellawood BC floors in my foyer, long halls, back entry hall, and eat in kitchen. They're beautiful... . HOWEVER, I would not use BC again. No matter what kind of light, they darken... and darken fast. When Diego installed the floors, he used the blue painters tape on the floors for a day. When he pulled it up the next day, there were stripes all over the floors where the tape had been! Then, when he did the floors in the next room, he used straps because I thought there was some kind of chemical reaction with the tape. Wrong. It was 'light' that darkened the 'uncovered' flooring and the wood under the tape and straps was lighter. IN ONE DAY this wood darkened and the stripes were easily seen. We have deep porches (8' and 12') so there is no direct sunlight and the floors still darkened. This wouldn't be a problem if I didn't have rugs at my door entrances and in front of my sink, etc. Believe me, the wood is VERY light sensitive...to ANY light. Even a light bulb can darken the wood. Why don't you go get a piece or two and do your own little test to see for yourself? If I had to do it over again, I would strongly consider Bellawood's Mahogany Santos OR Brazillian Walnut... OR Pennington's Brazilian Walnut Prefinished Hand Scraped Hardwood Flooring wood floors. All depends on my pocketbook at the time of purchase. :) Here's the handscraped wood I love by Pennington. Here's Brazillian Walnut Here is a link that might be useful: Bellawood

"How do you pick art?" Art picks you. I would do that slowly, and when you see a piece of art or a photograph or a wall sculpture that really grabs you, pick it up and find its place on that wall. Art is personal and truly in the eye of the beholder.

and nothing in the hallway? I do feel I need the foot trafficked areas to have rugs to protect my floors. I like the idea of a wider rug in the entry area, but I still want a runner in the hall. I guess I’m just lost on how to approach mixing and matching rugs in a contiguous area.

Agree on maintenance. As for the toilet thing - enough room around the toilet - but not TOO MUCH room so that you can install a grab bar if necessary. Toilets that are ADA height at GREAT. And I also prefer ones with smooth sides that are also called 'hidden trap' - they are all smooth and don't have exposed bolts / covers and don't collet dust / crud around the base. Also - way easier to sit down / get up. My new build has 2 bedrooms that connect to the master bath. That could be separate beds if a spouse was a loud sleeper - or also could be used by a caregiver. I am going to have hard surface flooring (mostly a dog decision) but the hardness can be mitigated by having some decent "indoor shoes" (that can also help with things being slippery, etc). I have no steps from garage to house, nor from house to outside. I have 36" wide doors everywhere. We recently installed the metal door frames and it's weird now that that feels SMALL! We will also have the ability to put grab rails anywhere by using 3/4" heavy duty, marine grade plywood behind all our showers. Sheet tiles / large format porcelain / sintered material, etc. and a zero threshold shower. Handheld sprays. A tub with a ledge so you can sit and swing your legs over - but the shower is the key - it will actually hold a bathing chair AND a caregiver. My inlaws had care 24/7 for a few years. They also had a 1620's historic home. While it was their dream ho me, it was sad to see how the usable portion continued to shrink as they could no longer handle the stairs. My parent, OTOH, have a single floor condo, with a garage and a stair lift that is now allowing my Dad to be super mobile while he waits on his knee replacement surgery. It was a Godsend after Mom's hip replacement. (It also works fairly well to send up the groceries...). While their straight stairs are a design no-no, it worked well for the stair lift. I hope the best set of decisions we've made center around very low maintenance materials - metal roofing, concrete exterior, windows that are large, but not super tall, a plinth around the house to facilitate cleaning / spiderweb removal, accessible systems for HVAC, water heating, home automation, etc. Home automation that will work more and more with Alexa, Google home, Siri, etc may come in handy, too. For the kitchen - induction, as well as ovens that the doors open TO THE SIDE with ballbearing slides for the racks to make removing items easier and safer.