The condition of these old homes seemed to be very scattered, single blocks having completely unlivable homes, to homes that have been remodeled one or more times through the years, all the way to much newer brick built with slab foundation.  

New bathroom, new kitchen, refinish hardwood floors.

In my experience, floors, roofs, plumbing & electric are more important than new kitchen/bath...and every community has it's own personality.

I have a fire damage property in Louisiana, the fire was only in the kitchen, the structure is sound.

I know the tenant is replacing the floor currently in the other side of the duplex, and I believe she said she is putting in new cabinets in the kitchen herself.

We finally were able to the living room and kitchen, but that's as far as we could go, they kept mentioning a dog, but I only heard it bark once when we were out side and never when we were inside.

we only got in as far as the living room/kitchen, and were told we could not go into the bedroom/bathroom because the dog was in there. 

I tried looking it up on amazon and all I got was The Creative Real Estate Investor's Notebook of 525 Rehab, Remodeling, Repair, and Maintenance Secrets (v 2.2) and I don't think you mean this book.

I got some tile for more than 50% off there and redid my own kitchen back splash.

I have been a builder and have remodeled a few homes.