Thanks kib96! I appreciate your input. The more I thought about it, it makes sense to have the door. We are leaning toward the barn door type install. I didn't think DH would go for it, but he seems on board. His concerns are sound issues and locking the door. I did find a lock that would work, and I'm not too concerned about sounds since it is an interior room off the upstairs guest bathroom. I'm really excited about it! I love the idea of having a glass paneled door, not sure if DH will go for that though ;)

The land is only assessed at $275,000 (I'm on another computer but it was close to that number) with the improvements (buildings) adding up to a total assessed value of around $1.1MM. They were asking 1.7MM so coming down to just under $1 was probably a stretch to them, but when the company was sold in 200? (I think it was 2007?) they only valued the property at $600,000 and some change when they made that sale (it was a corporate sale to a bigger entity). I think honestly...they have been smoking too much enbalming fluid....but given their recent drop, and their crazy previous asking price, I'm guessing they won't sell for $100,000 which is about all you'd want to pay with the work you say is necessary. FYI, I was actually just curious about the condition of the property, hence looking it up. I love an old house like no body's business :) I was hoping the damage you were discussing was overblown and maybe it wouldn't need the amount of work you mentioned...but given they show NO interior photo's...I'm guessing they know how bad it is. The other comps in the 8 surrounding blocks were all sales including a home and land at half a mill or less, a couple above that but just barely. Given most of them are on lots half the size, I'd guess they're in the 100,000 range but you could enter an address on your local tax records search engine and get that for sure. It is not taxed as two parcels so if you were to sell one, you'd have to have that approved (my land is similar) and in some places that's easy...some nearly impossible. Even if there are some multi-million mansions within the historic area (are there?) you still have to compare them with the other homes when doing a comp. If the local mansions are 6000 plus sq ft (seemed like big old homes are more on larger property? but I don't know for sure) than you'd have to have this place end up near that size or larger for a comp. THat's a big challenge...I'm guessing the old house used to be more like 3,000 to 5,000? The old house that was there was charming! And it saddens me to see that it's been destroyed, but sometimes you just have to sadly walk away and put your hard work and money into something that is more reasonable to save. :*( Makes you want to just shoot the people who destroyed it doesn't it? FYI, my house was a hospital...they can come back :) But in the end we will likely spend 1 to 2x our purchase price to get it there :( and it won't be appraised anywhere near what has to go into it. Such is life in the major old house remodel sadly! I was just lucky they didn't add flat roofed cement buildings to the back! (But we did find embalming fluid bottles as well as poison's in the cistern)

If you were to turn the island 90 degrees I don;t think you would gain anything and you would lose two things - aisle width and island size. You can't put the island any closer to the sink wall because you don;t want anything getting in the way of the 12' trek (sorry) between the fridge and stove. If you move it closer to the sink wall the island becomes a barrier to the pathway between the two. Your aisles widths would also be narrower. Currently they are 4' wide , now you could go to 42" (3 1/2' wide) but that only leaves you with an island length of 5' long x 4' wide (maybe you can go to 4 1/2' wide). You don;t want to go any wider because it becomes difficult to clean the middle of it - it's a long way to reach. However speaking of island size - You have it going beyond the reach of the kitchen - does the right side line up with something (not the overhang part but the cabinet bulky part of it) or is it just hanging out. If not I would shorten it so that the bulky part of the island (not the overhang part necessarily) lines up with the end of the oven/microwave. Is that maybe 6-8"? Now, if you moved the fridge over, which is wider, you probably wouldn't have to do that. If your wife is baking there - everytime she has to go to the fridge she has to walk arooouund the island and 8' to the fridge rather than just turning around to get eggs, butter, milk, whatever. What is the alcove on the sink wall with the window? Is that a lower counter or a window seat? And what is the drawer configuration at the end. Is this a coffee/drinks bar? (Prep sinks don't have to be very big, but, I know how you can get image of what you're kitchen is going to feel like and be like and if no prep sink - so be it.) With respect to the fridge - you can, which you probably know, put panels around it so that it is encased with your selected cabinetry if you move it to the end of the stove run. I'm just throwing out ideas because sometimes we can get stuck in a box and need someone to push us out of it.

Thanks Renovator8, furring out interior walls would be good advice for someone early in the reno process. Unfortunately we are well past that now. Walls are completely furred already and ready for sheetrock. The budget is to-the-dollar tight and I know my mom would not consider undoing all that work and re-furring the walls. She was told early on that there would be "plenty" of space for insulation as it is, and went with that. A very knowledgeable insulation team originally told her the cellulose would be fine (they also do spray foam, so it was not a selling issue) but I don't think they knew about all the gaps/cracks at that time, because the walls were closed up then. I've recommended she discuss this with them, of course, but wanted to see if other people had encountered this same issue and what they'd used to fill the holes.