I know "cafe" is French for coffee and may sound uppity to some people, but where I come from in Oklahoma, a cafe is just a small, humble restaurant.

However, we do have 3 major hospitals here, another in French Camp and another VA hospital slated to break ground just south of Stockton.  

The 30" french door is catty corner to this.There is also an odd, tiny area that adds storage.

I remember years ago mine wanted us to take French Cooking classes & I absolutely balked.But the class was full of attractive women, a couple of interesting 'males' & a lot of good wine, so we had a blast.

If we proceed this route, I may try to open up the space more between living and dining with french doors or similar.That said, I don't really like entering sideways at the front porch.  

I put glass, multi pane french doors on them. 

Then monitor it and if it's just as bad you can install plastic over the dirt floor and install a French drain around the perimeter inside the crawl space.

One of the bedrooms is connected to the master through French doors.

If it's a fieldstone foundation, you may need hydraulic cement to seal spaces between the stones.If it coming up from a high water table, consider french drains with a sump pump, or if you're on a slope, a gravity drain. 

I learned NEVER EVER to let the guy paint (honestly; I've been able to paint a room, the windows, the baseboards AND French doors while he's still working on one window).You mention you've been able to purchase your units with cash.