The bike looks great. Nice work and congrats on the weight loss! Keep it up.

If you go to 9 speed brifters you will need a new wheelset since you can't get a 9-speed freewheel. If you are serious about brifters and want to to it cheaply you can watch CL for a deal on a bike with brifters already and move things over. That way you have the wheelset brifters and anything else you need in one package. Its not everyday that you are able to find that deal on something like this (or be the first here with cash) but its possible. You can then sell off whatever is left from the donor bike and make your cost even better.

A set of 8-speed Ultegra Bar end shifters is what I would suggest. They run about $60 on amazon and you can run them friction or set them up to work with 7 speed.

Also since thats an aluminum frame you need to measure the spacing on the rear dropouts to see what is the max you can fit back there. Since is aluminum you can't spread it farther open so 8 speed might be your max idk.

EDIT:

I agree the Kelly Takeoffs while a nice design are kinda pricey. If you want something like that you could go the cheap route I have tried out with some success is getting some thumbshifters and mount them up on the bar like the takeoffs. You need to get some like these below with a metal clamp and possibly a longer screw so they will fit over the road bar. Its not the most elegant solution, but it works ok. I prefer the bar end shifters to this setup But its something cheap to try and out (you can always use those shifters on another bike you find in the trash or something) and you enjoy tinkering. =)

http://www.google.com/products/catal...ed=0CCIQ8wIwAA