Hi, Welcome.
Definitely check out Randy Jawas site as it helped me a lot 4 or so years ago, very helpful ( Thanks Randy)
Try to refrain from repainting things straight away, figure out your first decent bike and it does not have to be anything special, I personally thing anything 10-12 speed By Nishiki, Takara, Lotus, Centurion, Trek, will serve very nicely as daily/pleasure bikes.
once you have one very nice rider(even Hi Tensile can be nice) you are set, then you can start manically collecting like me, and many others.