We did ad a pantry, I found 2 pantry cabinets on Craigslist for $30 pictured below, they needed some TLC well after a good cleaning and some painting they turned out great as you will see in the pictures. 

Also, it's helpful to provide a scope of work (roof needs replacing, landscaping, needs new cabinets, etc.).

Anyone still digging through dusty file cabinets for physical records out there?

Issue with opening it up is that you would lose a lot cabinet space  and I'm not sure if that space is big enough for a good sized island.  

After the repair, consider providing adhesive tiles at the bottom of your bathroom sink cabinet and kitchen sink cabinet to avoid this.  

Turns out my rental unit has rotten cabinets and will probably need to be replaced.

Granted, I was mostly aware of the first issue before closing (fixing a cabinet and outlets).With that in mind, what is everyone's experience when starting out, or acquiring a new property?

@Roger Vi great story. what kind of paint did you use for the cabinets?

That being said, my wife and I are looking for a trust worthy, qualified contractor that can do floors, kitchen cabinets, some work in the bathrooms, and maybe put in a few new windows. 

They break up the house into logical pieces (roof, windows, cabinets, flooring, etc) and then they assign a depreciation schedule to each one.