first, i am sorry fpr your loss. I suffered a house burning down 19 years ago. It was devastating. That said, as you say, it is time to redo how you want now. Can you tell us style of exterior of house? Your interior should work with that.I have a European English style house. I have pine baseboards and reclaimed random width oak flooring, which while expensive I just LOVE the character of it. It is finished only with Tung oil. Windows are trimmed with pine in several areas of house as are doors . My interior door frames, etc are painted in a cream. It is nice feel but needs to work with the exterior. Mine is stone. What else can you tell us? Good luck!

I've attached an older picture of the house. It's the only one I could find on my work computer, and all pictures on my personal laptop were lost in the fire. The wood siding is being replaced with a medium gray vinyl siding and there will be crimson/dark red shutters, with the balance of trim staying white. I apologize for not checking back here sooner, but I have had my hands full trying to do inventory on my contents. I think that is a never ending job! I hope this helps. I seem to be dwelling on the idea of a beachy, breezy, casual theme. That might be because I'd much rather be at the beach than doing this inventory! LOL I'm in Birmingham, AL and not so close to the beach in case that helps. Thanks in advance for any help and suggestions you can give me.

crimsonlady, i remember that inventory well.. worse days of my life. I juts happened to check in today and saw your response. Have you already decided on vinyl.. and that is a given?It's not my favorite. i would have suggested Hardie Board

Cost wise, is Hardie Board pricing comparable to vinyl siding? If so, and if the contractor hasn't already ordered the vinyl, I'm sure he wouldn't have a problem with changing it. I'd bet he's use to working with women that can't make up their minds or that constantly change their minds! LOL I haven't heard of Hardie Board and am wondering if it's basically maintenance free like I understand the vinyl siding is supposed to be? Is it available in a lot of different colors to choose from? All of this is new to me, and I don't know the 'lingo' nor what is best to ask for that is more durable to last over the long haul as well as being cost effective. Anything that is done would have to be able to be covered under my insurance policy, and since the fire happened I learned that I was slightly under insured. But this is a Preferred/Premier contractor for my insurance company (which I didn't know when a friend referred him to me), so he knows a lot of angles for getting "extras" with the additional insured portion of the policy that I didn't know was available. An even though I have a replacement cost policy, it still only pays up to the limit of the policy amount I was insured for. This sure has been an eye opening experience about various things you should always have in a policy - which will come in handy in a couple months since State Farm has sent me a letter of non-renewal on my homeowners. I'd still very much like to get input/suggestions on wood colors/styles since I'll have wood floors, would like wood stained baseboards, window/door trim, as well as the wood cabinets for the kitchen. I've never had any experience with this and I'm paranoid about my choices clashing rather than complimenting each other. Is there a program out there that I could download and show what various colors or stains would look like together? I prefer honey or medium or light colored woods, and I'm assuming I'd need to pick three to be cohesive with each other: wood floors, all trim, kitchen cabinets. I've had a wall removed that will now be a bar, and that will make my kitchen, dining, and living room more or less one big open space. With all the inventory on top of a full-time and one part-time job, my mind has turned to mush, so all help will be sooooo appreciated!! Thanks again!

Oh, and one other thing, the large bush/small tree to the left of the front door has been removed since it was badly burned, and the huge tree in the front yard, with the flag on it, has been recommended to be removed as it interferes with power lines and periodically has to be cut back by the power company from time to time which makes it not so pretty, and also to make maintenace of the yard easier for me (I'm 55) since the yard slopes downward from front to back and the leaves pile up around the front porch and the ground level window on the lower right of house and it's causing mositure problems.

Ask your contractor about Hardie Board. It is maintenance free. i used it on my beach house when I replaced the old wood siding. It's a very popular choice, looks basically like wood siding, only is it actually a cement based product ( Google it. that may help you learn) i can't say what the cost difference will be.. it may be slightly more, but so much better looking in my opinion.
So, for woods inside, do you have some idea of ehat you want? Can you look at some houzz pics perhaps and get ideas and post somethings you like so we can begin to talk about it.. so many choices. It will be easier if people can see what you like.
What style do you want to create? More traditional? European look? Etc?
Trends today are for darker woods but that is not to say you have to go that way if you like lighter.
How many square feet and what is the configuration? Is there any pic you can post of the interior before fire?
Pics help so much!

I will definitely ask the contractor - thanks for the tip! The only 'style' that has come to mind is to create something of a kind of casual beachy atmosphere. Of course the exterior doesn't look at all 'beachy', but I wasn't thinking full-on beach decor as you find in a lot of the condo's down in Gulf Shores, or Navarre Beach, or Panama City. My brain just seems to need something breezy and easy and calming for the soul. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures before the fire - they were all on my laptop or in albums in the the area that burned completely -- so everyone please be sure to back up your pictures and keep a copy somewhere other than your home! I'm knee deep in paperwork and online searching for replacement costs, and transferring all that info onto the ins. co. forms, so don't really have time to try and poll family or friends to see if they happen to have a few. But pre-fire the house was nothing like I'd like it to become, so I'm not sure how helpful they would have been. From the scope the contractor provided, it looks like I have a total of 2200 SF, and approx. 554 of that is a two car garage. The house is a split level, so that would make the upper level 1100 SF. There used to be a cornered wall separating the kitchen from the living and dining rooms, but I had that changed to a bar with cabinets on the kitchen side - this makes one large area of the three rooms and what you see as you come in the front door. There will be french doors in the dining room leading out to the deck in back and a large picture window in the living room looking out to the front yard. The one long wall that encompasses the living and dining room is solid, with no windows. the balance of the upstairs has 3 bedrooms and two baths. Besides the garage, downstairs there is a 4th bedroom, a storage closet under the stairs, a den with a fireplace and sliding glass doors leading out to the patio in back. I also had them add a small divided room, using a bit of the garage space, and they will make a two step platformed portion in it to enable a toilet to be put installed since there isn't plumbing for one already in the foundation, with the other portion having my upright freezer and shelves for storage. I did look through hundreds (maybe thousands?) of pics on the site, but didn't findy any with a wood combo on the floors, trim, and cabinets. That is the reason I posted my question here, thinking (or HOPING!) that would be something relatively easy for those in the 'know' to provide suggestions for a few three wood tones/stains/colors in the mid to lighter ranges that would compliment each other. Of course then there will be the issue of countertops to blend and be complimentary to those... LOL... My poor little pea brain is almost in overload dealing with all the inventory and paperwork, and I had hoped several variations might be suggested and then looked at somehow to make this stage easier. Thank you so much for taking time out of your days to answer all my ramblings! :)