The foyer, kitchen, and bathrooms are in the lighter planks.  

The high density polyurethane as mentioned in the other posts is much lighter than a cement/mud mixture making it less likely to cause additional settlement due to the weight, another benefit is that it expands and compresses the soil underneath it to a certain degree.

i want to go with a lighter color. 

LOTS of people get down payment gifts from family, and LOTS of lenders & borrowers prefer that gift funds go directly to escrow to keep the paperwork a little lighter (one less round of "source this deposit" and bank statements and transaction histories).

Bottom line is that first, you have to go lighter, second you have significant prep work, and third if you do some searches you'll read lots of people that wish they had not done it.

Living room light wood paneling -1 of Kilz original primer to cover lighter wood color? 

I just paid about $2k to do a whole house but that included painting the walls a lighter color and repairing all of the small cracks and holes from the previous owner hanging pictures and shelves all over the walls. 

You have to follow their directions to a tee, you have to constantly communicate with them and the group they connect you with ( which is for a limited time), you have to work hard to save money (although you are $50k lighter) and follow scripts and guidelines including using your money how they tell you to in order to build your business within the image of theirs.

-Exactly 3 weeks after telling me how it wasn't their fault and they weren't damaging the place on purpose, one of the unsupervised children used a lighter and started a fire under a bed in the master bedroom.

Definitely more crime than other parts of Maine, but crime in the state of Maine is on a much lighter level than other states it appears.