You may cook what's in my refrigerator or eat what I cook or bring your own food to cook.

Our contractor is suggesting we leave a small gap of ~3" from the wall to where our cabinets and appliances would come, but our concern is that this would lead to food/water falling through the large crack and being hard to retrieve/clean.

If it’s some janky home made deal, or a large commercial heater maybe their fault maybe not.

Her situation is chaotic and she may be forced to choose food over rent.

At that point you'd have to analyze exactly what you want, do you sell and buy a bigger home for you and your family, sell it to invest in better properties, keep it as rental, keep it as a rental and perhaps get a HELOC or Home Equity loan to invest in another property with the proceeds.Hopefully this gives you some food for thought.

@Mike Hillman  I think this has been  a progression as well many of these hedge funds entered the C D space because of super low price points only to fall into the same trap private non local investors fall into.. those props are tough.so they moved up the food chain buying nicer product and as stated buying entire housing developments.

Too many red flags.If we subsidize someone's "right" to own a home, why not subsidize their "right" to food, clothing, transportation, and everything else? 

Do not place excessive and or large food items down the kitchen garbagedisposal.

There's a lot of food for thought here that I'll have to chew through!

It's just food for thought.