Probably a Hydrangea Macrophylla, mophead type or lacecap type. The link below will take you to a website that has pictures of the various bloom types and distinctive leaves. The ones sold at grocery stores may not be winter hardy were you live. They develop blooms in July-August but then winter comes in and dries out/kills the blooms. Winter protection techniques are necessary to make these blooms. Things like putting a cage 3-6" away from the sides of the shrub abd a cardboard 3-6" from the top/end of the hydrangea stems growing upright. Do this when the shrub begins to go dormant in the Fall. Pack it with fallen leaves big time. The more leaves, the more winter protection you get. Others use a variation of the this method: place a cardboard on top of the plant and slowly press downwards until the stems are horizontal with the ground. Slowly they will come down; it may help to do it with someone else the first time. Then they top it all off with leaves as previously discussed. To prevent the leaves from flying away, top them with cardboard that is held in place with something heavy. Make sure the cardboard is not in contact with the ends of the stems as this is the part where blooms form and the part which must be protected from the cold. If the end of the stem is in contact with the cardboard, it will not get much winter protection. There should be as much leaves between the end of stems and the cardboard as you can put in there. The more, the better. Save some leaves so you can add more in midwinter (due to settling). Remove the winter protection about 2-3 weeks after your average date of last frost in Spring. This is always a tricky date since some winters "end" early and others last longer. You sort-of have to "play it by ear". Here is a link that might be useful: Which hydrangea do I have?

Probably not the best choice for a beginner, but if you have the patience and want to learn, you have a ficus lyrata. Aka fiddle leaf fig. Its wants and needs are the same as ficus Benjamina. You can read and then here: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1476078/ficus-trees-in-containers-iv?n=223

Personally, I like continuous flooring, so I'd run the hardwood into the kitchen unless it looks horrible with the cabinetry. Otherwise, there are a million light tiles.......hard to say with no photo. But tile is much harder on your back!

Misting succulents every week as a general advice is not very helpful -:( - not your fault but store employee. It needs to be in container with drainage holes (I can't tell if yours has them or not). It should be potted in fast draining mix - what I see looks like peat with very little perlite in it. Simple and better mix you can make is 50/50 mix of Cactus & Succulent soil and sifted/rinsed perlite. It should be watered when potting mix is almost completely dry - use bamboo skewer or chopstick to check it. It needs as much light as possible but should be acclimatized to it if it was in darker spot. This is what just about all succulents need.