Domestic travel will most likely come back before international travel.

The roof was recently replaced, plumbing and electrical were upgraded within the last 5 years.

I was thinking that I was going to basically take out the wall and reconfigure the kitchen without having to move the plumbing much.

Their own "contractors" left a 2" hole in the furnace plenum of one house, drywalled over heat vents in another, improperly performed plumbing repairs causing dozens of maintenance calls...the list goes on.

Based on your thread I'd say you probably should try to start in a trade - plumbing, HVAC, electrician.

I prefer to own the land under my feet, even if it means more long term planning for capex (roof/plumbing etc). 

. $50/mo to go towards the maintenance of the property such as replacing appliances, paint, plumbing) , property management fees (even if you're managing now you do want to have an idea of the costs if you do need to hire someone), etc.Ideally you want to invest the minimum possible and use the bank's money to leverage the low interest rates.

In an older home, a full gut where plumbing Electrical and HVAC are all replaced would be more valuable than the same house with a quick remodel leaving the important behind the wall systems in place.

You also need to think about what else is ran in the 18" crawl space... plumbing?

Then I go through 6 major systems/features (electrical, HVAC, plumbing, roof, windows and foundation) for defects or issues.