Nice work Dale — getting a free machine running again is the best feeling. My old walk-behind did the exact same thing after sitting for two seasons: hard starting and flooding. New plugs helped, but what finally fixed it for me was swapping the cracked fuel line and a gunked-up fuel filter...
I'm in northern Colorado and deal with the same cool mornings this time of year. What I've settled on is keeping my normal height through the last few regular mows, then dropping the deck about half an inch for the very final cut of the season. The shorter final cut has really helped my lawn...