Congratulations on the house! I like your kitchen and if it were mine, it’s often suggested to wait and get a feel for your home before doing renovations. Your kitchen is move-in nice as is, and living there a few months to see if the layout works for you before you spend $20k is best. I say yes to Formica (I don’t know what is there now). Many color options and cost effective. The only thing I’d do before moving in is more neutral paint.

agree with 6 mo of waiting. Have the carpet shampooed and live with everything. Lack of up to date lighting ... get a lighting plan for the spaces instead of flooring...something actually needed.

I do think the current flooring in the kitchen is too dark. Contrast is good but that's sucking all your light. The fireplace surround appears could pop right off and you would have a more modern take on fireplace fronts. Your love of Formica reminds me of an HGTV show "Bang for your Buck" where the hosts compared materials. Laminate counters won for their utility and long wearing vs cost. There are literally THOUSANDS to choose from so I am sure you can find something to bring it all together so choose it last. I've had laminate always and never regretted it. I hope you embrace your wood. Painted is just never as dynamic.

I think the buget will be eaten by the time you change the flooring but please make sure you buy enough flooring to redo the kitchen down the road since I will bet that will need a redo. Store the flooring in the basement or heated garage until you have lived there long enough to know what you want to change. Change the light bulbs in the track light to LED 4000K and thats it for now.

If you are bound and determined to put a horse ahead of a buggy?

Pick an LVP you love, ignore the oak, ignore you can't paint trim

Buy enough to do the bedrooms with all the rest. Why?

Decent broadloom is expensive. It gets gross in bedrooms from bare feet, shedding skin, walked over and ground in. Area rugs , even large area rugs abound and can be inexpensive.

You will thank me later. If YOU EVEN remotely may change a kitchen layout? Have extra and store it

That's ALL you do for now. Then you realize that a new home is a beginning, not an ending. You paint, later, paint trim later.........and later is when you've lived in it, saved money, and work on projects as the resources avail themselves.

This article might help you thinking about colors. It has lots of mood boards for how to coordinate with honey oak. Just taking down those window valances will update it a lot! Congrats on your new house!

How many square feet of flooring do you want to replace?

Are you planning to paint the walls for the whole house? In my area, a good (not superb) professional paint job for the interior of a 1500 square foot house is well over $10K.

Hi @apple_pie_order! Looking to replace about 1500sf of floor as LVP. Painting ALL walls and ceilings at minimum. Just want to refresh it a bit and make it a little less early 2000’s.

I’d remove the curtains and paint the green/ blue paint in the kitchen and leave everything else as is.
This space has so much potential! I wouldn’t suggest doing anything with it until you can afford to really make it your own.
Don’t do it twice.

Thank you all SO much! The advice here has been amazing!!!! Appreciate it all!

You don't need to make any drastic changes until living in the home for like a year. Most of the time you'll figure out what you like and what you don't like and then you'll be able to come up with a solid plan for what you want to redo or change in your new home. We do a lot of ski homes and mountain homes and end up using a lot of wood. Here are some of our designs just to give you and idea of how things might be able to be incorporated well.

Mt. Washington Ski House · More Info

Mt. Washington Ski House · More Info

Alpine Ski Home · More Info

Contemporary Kitchen & Bath · More Info