Old Houses always throw you a monkey wrench

Not sure what's to come with my kitchen. The latest contractor to come out and give me an estimate brought along his electrician since I told him the house was built in 1947. I knew we would be rewiring the whole kitchen because there aren't enough outlets, some aren't properly grounded & we're rearranging most of it too. But the electrician asked to look at the meter & main panel & told me that trying to permit my kitchen would most likely trigger a whole house rewire from the bldg dept. We were well aware of many old boxes, old meter cans & some stuff we couldn't identify, but he showed me some things that are a bit scary. I really don't want to construct without permits or add to what is probably already a fire hazard, but I wasn't expecting to redo the whole house. This may now knockout my whole kitchen budget. The only plus side is that we will then move the elec panel that's in the kitchen & really in the way of a good design. So I have to wait for his rough estimate and see what I can budget. Meanwhile I'm going to continue demolition cause I just can't stand looking at it any longer. I'd rather look at an empty room with holes in the walls than my gross old kitchen.