Hello! New to houzz (so hopefully, I'm doing this correctly!) and will be closing on a starter home (for me, first-time buyer) end of August. I am wanting to update bits and pieces, but not go overboard - so from a cost perspective, which updates would you guys do right away or think make most sense to update terms of future resale value. I uploaded some photos to show the kitchen, the kitchen flooring, and the flooring compared to the hardwood in the living room.

I know I for sure want to paint all the walls on the first floor (lighter blue/grey tone) and eventually basement - is
this something DIY to save money or hire out, and if DIY, how long does a first floor generally take (the house is around 1064sqft)? I was also thinking of 1) taking down the overhanging cabinets (which means taking down the straggler cabinet by the window) and putting up floating shelves on that wall - not sure if it would look odd, with the cabinets gone, since the (don't know what they are called) soffits/bulkhead?? are there, but they flow through all the walls like that and I wasn't sure how to fix the soffit afterwards. 2) Taking down the divider between the "entry way" (front door enters into the dining/kitchen) - I'm not sure how anchored it is to the wall, floor, and ceiling. 3) Redoing the flooring - right now the "entry way" floor differs from the laminate flooring in the kitchen - I wasn't sure what kind of flooring & what color range would mix well with the oak cabinets and hardwood floors in the living room. The basement and stairs leading to it carpet would want to replace sometime, too. Thanks!