LTR Kitchen Questions

[Kyle McVay]

Okay, this is a home built in 1937, although this isn't the original kitchen it's definitely not what I would consider updated. I'm curious to know what y'all would do and why. This home is a LTR  in a neighborhood that is gentrifying. There are some gorgeous old homes in this neighborhood. In fact, we are thinking about picking up our second home in this neighborhood because of all the work we see going on it. This is a C neighborhood moving toward a B neighborhood. I live in a College town and it's becoming more expensive. Many people are moving to this town so they can get into BCS but not pay as much for housing. I'm hoping  to attract more B type renters.

Some issues I have with the kitchen:

1. There is no dishwasher. (I know this seems like a small kitchen but this kitchen could easily be expanded to a U shaped kitchen. Although I'd prefer to leave it as J) I'm thinking that we should have a dishwasher. (This is going to be a 3-2)

2. I'm thinking we need to rip the cabinets out and start over. It's not a lot of cabinets. But maybe we shouldn't take the cabinets out and we should just clean it up (I hear hydrochloric acid does wonders ;) ) Should I just get the stock cabinets from Lowes or do we upgrade to IKEA+ 

3. (Assuming we are ripping the kitchen out) The countertops... We are considering either laminate or something like granite? I'm wondering what folks do for counter tops. 

4. Microwave is this a must or do folks provide it themselves. I feel like in a small kitchen it would take up a lot of space. 

If you can please tell me why you'd do what you do, too. 

Thank you!

Kyle