Here's the final outcome! We added sheetrock to the original walls, swapped out the old windows for new, replaced the plumbing and electrical in the room, added an island, got new appliances, refinished the floor back to it's original oak look and oh yea, did I mention the solid-oak custom cabinets??? We now have a LOT of storage space and I absolutely LOVE my new kitchen! (Now I just have to uphold my end of the bargain and start cooking more!) We easily quadruppled the previous amount of storage space in it in hopes that we'll never outgrow it and want to move somewhere else.