Don't worry! You will eventually find a set up that works for you. Just know before hand that nothing you do is going to work perfectly. There IS going to be accidents. There IS going to be stressful moments. Be ready with good cleaning supplies and puppy proof the best you can. You will never know what is going to work until you've had your puppy a few weeks or even months.
When we first got Stella, we had an ex-pen set up with a puppy pad in a corner and her bed and toys in another corner. "Oh, this is perfect." we though. YEAH RIGHT. She pooped and peed all over and shredded that poor pad. We had to realize that this pretty little space we created was not happening. We put newspaper down (she wouldn't chew it or shred it like the pads) and covered her entire floor space. It was a lot of replacing paper and scrubbing floor for a few months. We would take up some newspaper bit by bit to test if she'd keep going only on paper. She eventually did.
At about 7 months, we could trust her to roam the house (bedrooms excluded!) and go back to her paper for potty. It was embarrassing having paper on the floor when people came over, but hey, it worked. At one point we got sick of cleaning up poopy, wet paper and decided to try for outdoor training. We didn't expect much from her (ignorant us). We let her out often and we realized, she liked going outside! She holds it all night now and sleeps with us. First thing in the morning, she goes out. When we're out during the day, we crate her or put her in the ex-pen. We leave paper for her but she never uses it.
She's 11 months old now and is pretty much housebroken. I wouldn't trust her at another person's house though and this coming winter will be our first with her for outdoor pottying so that makes me nervous, but like I said nothing's perfect and we'll find what works!
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