If you have some furniture to start with, I would just use the basics for now and live in your home for at least 6 months - 12 is better - and get the feel of the house, the lighting, how the rooms are affected by heat and cold, decide how you are going to live in each room and what your needs will be. This will also help you determine traffic flow, which ultimately affects how your arrange your furniture. It is amazing how many times you can change your mind during this initial period. Most importantly, create your home for YOU, not to impress others, you are the one living in it and happiness comes from the peace and contentment you feel in your surroundings. In the meantime, look through photos on Houzz for ideas, save them in your ideas book for reference and use this to build your decorating.

Can you do anything with shelves on the blank or door walls? Are the cupboards a built in wardrobe, or is there capacity to put your chest of drawers contents either on shelves or in baskets in the cupboards? Is there room for a freestanding hanging rack of some sort if there is no wardrobe hanging option? Pics would help!

IMO the picket fence is at odds with the plain and fairly timeless house. Nothing wrong with corner windows per se, however if your climate would benefit from it you could enquire about replacing them with a more modern and energy efficient style. I don't see the need to spend on painting the bricks or roof tiles with possible maintenance issues down the track, unless you genuinely dislike the existing colours and have a clear vision for what you want instead. Sure they're sold as modernising tricks but the results vary and if not well done the house can look like nothing more than 'an old house, modernised'.

Look, you've got very modern tastes and its all lovely. I don't mind the placement of it all actually. But the downside to the modern monochromatic look is it can look stark and not cosy and warming. Especially, as most of the magazine styled homes that have this style are really high end custom builds, there is a lot of invisible finesse in those spaces that comes down to architectural design, light, shape etc... they also tend to not have stuff and families etc... check out the hygge trend and see what elements from that could bring some warmth and cosiness. everything you already have is lovely! maybe some splashes of taupe and clay and dusty rose? A few chunky throw blankets over the couch? A nice feeling rug under feet. I'm not feeling the zebra art, but you must have liked it to buy it right? you need a bit more personal touches incidental splashes of colour and texture and pattern to bring it together. test it out, kids stuff is a great source of colour, if you grab some random colourful things and arrange them onto those shelves and stand back does it look more inviting? Baskets of toys? a pot plant?