I was kind of in the same boat, here's what I did and I have been happy thus far.

Amplifier:

I looked at a lot of these in the $3-400 range and dailed in on a Pioneer Elite VSX-32, Denon 1612, Onkyo (don't remember the model) and a Yamaha (don't remember the model). I decided on the Denon for the following reasons, which may apply to you... I have all HDMI sources going into the receiver, therefore I did not want my receiver to touch any of my video signal, like upscaling etc.., just pass it right on through to my HDTV. So just based on audio, I wanted the best for what little money I was willing to spend. The reason I picked the Denon 1612 is because I was not interested in a 7.1 system, the large majority of movies, video games, music are all 5.1 format and honestly, 5.1 sounds great. Another reason I chose the Denon is because that amplifier has 5 discrete amplifiers, 1 dedicated to each speaker channel. The Pioneer, Yamaha and Onkyo have one amplification source that gets divided to each channel. I like having dedicated amplifiers to each channel, I know that each channel is getting pure un-divided juice. The final reason I chose the Denon is because it has Audessy speaker calibration. Plug in the included microphone and press go, the whole thing sets itself up.

Speakers:

I was also looking for a good first set of speakers, I went with all Polk Audio TSi series for the L+R+C, and the OWM's for the rear two channels, PSW series for the sub. They sound absolutely excellent. My friend who has a complete B&W set up was amazed that mine sounds better than his. 

Hope this helps a bit, and welcome to the club.

If you don't want or need a multichannel set up to mostly watch movies, don't get an AV receiver. If you want a home theater, there are better forums that are geared to that like the home theater shack and many others. Stereophile implies two channel. What exactly are you looking for?

If I was in your sutuation I would get a pair of good floorstanding speakers and hang onto the boxes and packing materials for shipping them when you need to move. I would put those together with an amplifier or receiver and let it go at that.

A pair of Monitor Audio M6 speakers would be a great choice, and they are available for around $500/pair at Audio Advisor.

THe Monitor Audio M1 speakers are $200/pair if you decide to get rear speakers.

I would recommend the Denon AVR-1612 receiver for good sound quality, a good list of features, and overall quality. You can find it for around $300 at Amazon and other websites. Check out the review on it at Home Theater magzine's website (Stereophile's sister publication). Save the box.