Wagon wheels, pictures of horses, log beds, antler lights, horse designs on couches, etc. 

If you truly gut to the studs, you will save some money as you will be reusing most/all of the following; foundation, framing, exterior sheathing. 

There definitely are many advantages and a few disadvantages as well but very worthy of further discussion.It's curious to see that both a mortgage and the government run 401k's are designed to keep you from having access to your own equity/money.

I don't necessiarly agree with that because LLCs were designed to give you that protection provided you run the LLC exactly to the letter of the law.As @Brandon Hall mentioned, having and LLC will make it more difficult and expensive to get financing because the LLC has no real assets to go after in case of default or bankruptcy.

You can check details here.Image: STG Design

I am also interested in adding on to the side of the house to add square footage and additional bedrooms/bath).I am interested in doing as much of the work as I can myself (part of the reason I bought the house), but I don't exactly know how to go about getting permits and who to use for any design (arch/engineer) that might be needed in order to get the permits.

Don't think this isn't work, and you have to be savvy about how you design and market the property.

Some drywall patching, painting, exterior damage fixing (mostly rotten soffits/fascia boards), and a lot of junk removal.

“My first vision for Apple”– Steve Jobs reflecting upon the clean lines and open esthetics of the Eichler home in which he grew up.Joe Eichler designed many modern residences throughout Silicon Valley.

I have been doing my due diligence and have gain a large amount of knowledge in REI but still lack real life experience.But what I do have is a lot of knowledge and experience is design and marketing:Build professional websites that run fast, convert, and work on mobileLead generation funnels to help built email listsPremium graphic design like infographics, logos, ebooks, social media banners, etcSEO to rank higher in search enginesFacebook Advertising Product design and developmentSocial Media Management and moreSure you can go the route of using free website builders like Wixs and Sqaurespace, but your sites won't be very professional compared to industry standards.