My wife is thinking the railing would look better replaced with a bar matching the cabinets with stools overlooking the downstairs. 

My first clue was when I saw the name of the company on the building permit didn't match the name of the company with whom I had signed the contract.

also under sales info when i go to county assessor site, there is a grantor and grantee, but sometimes there isnt either, which i take to mean its owned in full.but what if the grantee doesnt match the owner, what does that mean?

It has old trim from 1985 so matching is not really possible.

But I'm also one of those crazy people who rounds out my tip at a restaurant so my total charge does not have change on it.Since then, I round down to the closest $50 increment that matches up with the current market rent, ie $1200 or $1250. 

After reading Rich Dad Poor Dad ~ 2-3 years back, I knew I didn’t want anything to fancy (fixed up) or to close to market value, so my first target for buying my first home was going to be foreclosures (ideally that did not require too much work).My plan was to gain a bit of equity by fixing up a foreclosure and eventually either selling it or using the equity in the house (3-5 years down the road) to buy my first rental property.As luck would have it, I was fortunate enough to find a house that matched my criteria and was also fortunate enough to win my bid on a nice house (foreclosed).The icing on the cake for this deal was that my initial purchase price was $50,000 less than the appraised value.As a result, I now have a potential $60,000 in equity in the house.

The "new appraisal" part of what you said sounds like it doesn't match what I said.

First figure out a few options and what matches your interests!

You can order the matching stuff on line but you just have to factor that into your timeline.

I ended up getting molding from lumber liquidators and it matches perfectly.Another online retailer, lightingdirect.com has really good prices on lighting and free delivery.For tile I ended up going with Home Depot as they had some styles I liked that were in my price range, but all the other above places have tile too.Another good source of info is to ask your contractor where they shop, good luck!