I've never seen house wrap used. I think it's a north american thing because your construction techniques often require it, like your non-universal adaption of rainscreen instead using single layer paneling. We just built a house and here (Finland. Sweden, etc) and we put the moisture barrier (special type of plastic and special type of tape) on the inside. This ofcourse requires a good mechanical ventilation in a modern house. The biggest reason for the air barrier is that fiberglass/rockwool's hydroscopic, in older houses they use organic insulation like sawdust that can withstand moisture better and since there is no barrier, the moisture continually moves freely frominside out and it can dry out. This isn't possible using fiberglass or rockwool style insulation. Rain screen is probably the major reason you don't need house wrap. Commonly here the exterior is first paneling, which is wood, vinyl hasn't caught on here and hopefully won't. Then comes an air space to protect the exterior grade drywall (OSB and such hasn't caught on either). Then insulation which is usually plain rockwool or fiberglass wool, 250mm I think was used in our house, then the moisture barrier comes, then another air barrier of 45mm (can also be filled with rockwool, a little insulation inside the vapor barrier is OK, but no more than that), then interior drywall. The main purpose of this is to prevent the barrier from getting holes in it when putting up paintings and such. So anyway my point is housewrap isn't anything that is super neccessary, we don't ever use it here, but we also only build using rain screen which makes house wraps unneccesary. IMO rainscreen is a simpler and superior way to build. I must say in our arctic climate I don't see how an exterior grade wrap with all the insulation on the inside wouldn't lead to severe mold issues in a very short time span, perhaps it works where it's warmer but here it looks like a disaster waiting to happen.

Sorry, I don't have any skill when it comes to layout advice but I can tell you about replacing windows. We ended up raising three window openings so we could put counters underneath and lowering and moving another window opening. We removed the windows ourselves and we did our own trim work interior and exterior to match the rest of our 1915 house. We also repaired the exterior stucco ourselves. We hired out someone to install the new windows and to do the framing (there were some header issues and as it turns out some other support problems). The cost of labor was $2,000 for the four window openings (three window openings of about 70" wide by 45" high, one 35"w x 45"h). It was already a total gut job and we insulated while we were at it and got new drywall so I do not consider any of that additional costs. It was a big decision to make whether to move the windows or not but we are SO HAPPY we did. We also have a small kitchen and moving the windows made the layout process easier. I would get bids on the cost to move the window - the brick work might not be as expensive as you think. Also if you are getting new windows I think there are still tax incentives that apply. If you do decide to just drywall over it, my neighbor did that and just put blackout material over the window so it always looks like a curtain is drawn. It is not very noticeable but the window is under a carport and the window sill is above eye level. Personally I think with a small kitchen you are best to keep both window openings - it keeps it from becoming cave-like.

Thanks for those comments, todd and HomeSealed. The window that is leaking used to be over to the left of its current spot (we moved it to go with the kitchen design). Maybe, that was why there was no building paper to the left. I know most of the house had building paper. The siding guy resecured the building paper (put on by the original framers) as he went. Sometimes, when we came home a new section was done, and we never saw what was under. I hope to hell most of the house ended up getting building paper. I found some older pictures of the windows secured by the original framing team. None of them had flashing tape either (I assume no sill treatment as well). At the time the windows were installed, we did not have proper window detail/flashing as part of our building code. Now it gets inspected by the inspector. We just missed out on that check and balance. You will see in the photos there are even gaps in the OSB, like the contractor hacked away with a dull saw. Can we use Great Stuff foam to fill in the voids of the OSB? Carol

Doug, I know how difficult a small kitchen can be. I am not sure how the walls of the kitchen match up with the living room and dining room, but I will try to give you some helpful suggestions. For an L-shaped kitchen, I would suggest you close the doorway to the office and put the refrigerator to the right of where the office door had been. Then, install a base cabinet with counter space to the left of the refrigerator and then put the range beyond this length of counter space. I would suggest a lazy susan corner cabinet to the left of the stove and then have cabinets and counter tops going around the corner to meet up with the sink and dishwasher area. You still should have plenty of room for a kitchen table in the open, center space created by the "L." As an alternative, I would suggest the galley-type kitchen I had in my first apartment. There was a pantry just beyond the doorway to the left or in the left corner, one might say. Next were some wall and base cabinets with counter space, then the sink and dishwasher, and then more wall and base cabinets with counter space so that the sink was centered in this space beyond the pantry. At the end of the room was the outside wall with a generously-sized window that was opposite the doorway. On the right side, as one entered the kitchen, the refrigerator was on the right with the door handle on the left. Some wall and base cabinets with counter space were next, and then the range with a hood and a small cabinet above the hood. Beyond the range was another combination of a wall cabinet and a base cabinet with more counter space. If the "end wall" in your case would be the wall between the kitchen and dining room, you could have a pass-through instead of a window and have some kind of counter top or buffet on the dining room side. Since you have a dining room next to the kitchen, you might want to re-arrange the kitchen so that the range and refrigerator would be on the wall that divides the kitchen from the dining room. Above the counter space that is centered between the refrigerator and the range, you might want a counter top with a pass-through to the dining room. You could keep the sink under the window but have a lazy susan corner cabinet to the left of the sink. You could keep the doorway to the office or close it and add more base and wall cabinets and perhaps a pantry, should you need them. As another alternative, you could have the refrigerator and range on the wall next to the dining room and have the pass-through in the center. Then, you could close the doorway to the office and center the kitchen sink and dishwasher on this wall. The outside wall then could have a larger window or double windows to let in more light, or you could have an exterior glass-paned door instead of the window.. The wide doorway opposite the window would lead the way to the exterior door. I hope some of this will help you.