The exterior stuff you're thinking about sounds fantastic!

I tend to go for bright or dark colours for paint (depending on how much light the room gets, and what it's for - dark colours in a bedroom where you're just sleeping can be ace) and then neutral for furniture, because a can of paint is a lot less expensive and bothersome to deal with if you want a change later.

I do like a creamy lemon yellow for the kitchen, though. It's a cheery colour that goes with pretty much any sort of cabinetry.

And sage green is a good all-purpose living space colour - goes with damn near everything.

Paler shades of marble counters don't show water spots nearly as much as dark ones, so keep that in mind for the bathrooms. Bathrooms are a good place for nearly-white paint - very pale blue, green, etc. - to keep the space feeling as big as possible, and then you can pick out that hint of colour in the towels and that.

And now that I've written a small novel, lol, I'm glad that things seem to be holding steady for E - fingers crossed that it continues. *hugs you*