He stopped by my project because it was all red clay that day as the grading/sod work just had been completed.   

Better than "contractor grade" is good, however no need to spend that much....unless maybe $35k of that is going towards a new roof and 4 AC systems.

opinion.In a very general overview, I current own my home with a mortgage payment around 1150 and have done a comparative market analysis on the rent in my area and they are anywhere between 2000 and 2750.With that being said, I have been entertaining the idea of renting this house out and down sizing/grading a bit and purchasing another home to live in.Essentially, estimating this on the low conservative end of the spectrum from my "due diligence", it appears as if I rented this out I could cover my mortgage for my current home and then also cover the mortgage on the new primary residence.What are your guys' thoughts on this?

In Portlandia were are see price concession and or free rent etc on some of the new build real high end 2500 dollar elevator buildings on the east side.. this is happening now.form what a friend of mine who owns a management company with 6k plus doors was telling me at lunch.a few buildings are stressed right now.take this scenario.. you buy the land 3 to 5 years ago it takes at LEAST 2 years to get through permitting then another year to build.. cost of building in this time has gone up 10% or more.. land is static .. and your proforma show this ever increasing rent.. you now come on market and your 4 story elevator building now cost you 400 a foot to build.so your in a new apartment 400k.. you need 2,500 a month just to hit your investor grade 4 to 5 cap.. and now rents start to pull back as they are or lease up is very slow at those values.. so you have full amount of debt on the building and of course everyone these days has max debt.. so debt service and DCR ratios start to go out of wac  you have annual reporting and loan covenants .. you no longer meet your covenants and you have a cash call to your lender  along with negative cash flow.. this is what I mean by some are stressed..

I quit school in tenth grade and have never been to college, and did I mention i'm 50?

We also noticed throughout the renovation that water was getting into the basement and we had to re-pour cement along the back side of the house and slop the grade away from the house this alone was an extra $3K expense.

If you have a slab-on-grade foundation a poly injection could be a viable option to fill the void underneath and lift the slab at the same time.

How would you update this kitchen to rental grade?

If it is not high grade rentals no big deal. 

Or worse, you'll find the wrong one and convince yourself she is the right one (that gets expensive).You just be happy being you, and stop looking -- and here's what will happen:  She'll find you.Not sure why, that is way above my pay-grade around here, but I swear on it, brother.