MacBook Pro (mid 2010) - Slow Startup and Initial Load of Apps after Mavericks Install

Question

Hello everyone,
Long time Snow Leopard user here.  I've been absolutely, 100% thrilled with my MBP's performance / speed since mid 2010.  Since installing Mavericks I've noticed two things:
1. Initial on boot load times seem much slower
2.  The first time you open an app (Safari, even TextEdit) is far slower than in Snow Leopard.
Now granted, once the computer has been on for about 5 minutes, and once you've had an application open for 1-2 minutes, than performance is okay once again.  But it seems that quite literally everytime you do "anything" for the first time since the computer has been turned on you run the risk of a spinning beachball and an extended wait.  This simply never happened in Snow Leopard.
I'm not a computer science major but I do understand that when you do something for the first time since a reboot it will need to load new files into the RAM which takes time.  However, I've been using this computer since 2010 and have never experienced this behavior / speed / delay, etc... something seems fundamentally different.
For example, even just opening finder, and navigating to the Applications folder results in sluggish behavior the first time.  Also, anytime you first click the top menu bar in an application you run the risk of a beachball.
It doesn't seem like a failing hard drive because I can read/write large chunks of data one an app is finally loaded.  It's just initially loading the app takes quite literally 10-20 times longer than Snow Leopard.  It seems like perhaps Mavericks itself, the core of the new OS was perhaps installed in a bad sector of the HD, but none of my other files are on bad sectors... if that makes sense.  Again - I'm not a computer science major so I'm largely just making things up
It also seems as if multitasking and switching between several open apps has seen a decrease in performance.  Could it be that perhaps Mavericks RAM management is superior to Snow Leopard, but only if there is a TON of RAM to go around?  Could it be as simple as Macs with only  4GB installed should not be allowed to even install Mavericks? 
Does this sound normal for Mavericks considering I have a C2D processor, a non SSD, and only 4GB ram?  I know those specs are "outdated" for 2014, but keep in mind these were the specs that I've always had and with Snow Leoapard I was consistently thrilled with the speed of the computer.
I suppose my question is: should my strategy be to simply turn the computer on, get a cup of coffee and let everything load and maybe even have my frequently used apps load on startup, etc... and carry on as normal?  Does something seem off?  Should I invest in a new SSD / RAM upgrade?  I know the upgrades couldn't hurt, but the issue is that I was perfectly content until upgrading to Mavericks
I've tried booting into OS X Recovery mode and using the Disk Utility.  I've tried Safe Mode.  I've included a "EtreCheck" report below.  I'm open to any ideas / suggestions.
Thanks!!
Hardware Information:
          MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010)
          MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro7,1
          1 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2 cores
          4 GB RAM
Video Information:
          NVIDIA GeForce 320M - VRAM: 256 MB
System Software:
          OS X 10.9.1 (13B42) - Uptime: 0 days 0:10:48
Disk Information:
          Hitachi HTS545025B9SA02 disk0 : (250.06 GB)
                    EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
                    Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 249.2 GB (228.46 GB free)
                    Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
          MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-898 
USB Information:
          Apple Inc. Built-in iSight
          Apple, Inc. Keyboard Hub
                    Logitech USB Receiver
                    Apple Inc. Apple Keyboard
          Apple Internal Memory Card Reader
          Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub
                    Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
          Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
          Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
FireWire Information:
Thunderbolt Information:
Launch Daemons:
          [System] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist 3rd-Party support link
Launch Agents:
          [System] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist 3rd-Party support link
          [System] com.adobe.AdobeCreativeCloud.plist 3rd-Party support link
User Launch Agents:
          [not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist 3rd-Party support link
          [not loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist 3rd-Party support link
User Login Items:
          None
Internet Plug-ins:
          FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 11.9.900.152 - SDK 10.6 3rd-Party support link
          Flash Player: Version: 11.9.900.152 - SDK 10.6 Outdated! Update
          QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
          JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 14.9.0 - SDK 10.7 Outdated! Update
          AdobeAAMDetect: Version: AdobeAAMDetect 2.0.0.0 - SDK 10.7 3rd-Party support link
          Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9
Audio Plug-ins:
          BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9
          AirPlay: Version: 1.9 - SDK 10.9
          AppleAVBAudio: Version: 2.0.0 - SDK 10.9
          iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9
iTunes Plug-ins:
          Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.9
3rd Party Preference Panes:
          Flash Player  3rd-Party support link
Old Applications:
          None
Time Machine:
          Time Machine not configured!
Top Processes by CPU:
               4%          WindowServer
               1%          EtreCheck
               0%          mds
               0%          mds_stores
               0%          airportd
Top Processes by Memory:
          111 MB          com.apple.IconServicesAgent
          94 MB          Finder
          57 MB          Dock
          53 MB          SystemUIServer
          53 MB          EtreCheck
Virtual Memory Information:
          1.64 GB          Free RAM
          1.42 GB          Active RAM
          314 MB          Inactive RAM
          390 MB          Wired RAM
          316 MB          Page-ins
          0 B          Page-outs

Answer 1

Wish I could be of some help, but I'm having similar issues on my mid 2011 macbook pro with 8 GB ram. It's very frustrating. I haven't worked on a computer this slow since the early 90's. Even simple things like signing in to this site bring up the beach ball for maybe ten seconds. When opening up apps I often have to wait minutes, and often end up force quitting when they hang. I'm using force quit a dozen or more times a day, when it used to be very rare.
I don't know if it's Mavericks. I installed a new hard drive in November, but the problems really started getting bad since the latest upgrade.
It's not just opening apps. If I have an app open in the background and switch to it I have similar issues. Watching a simple video is often accompanied by stalls and delays - which is really bad as I'm often using the laptop to edit video. It's become unuseable for work.
Perhaps the most frustrating is clicking on a link, only to find Safari decides to complete a previous scroll that it had paused. The page jumps down, and sometimes I end up clicking on a link I didn't want. Then I have to wait for THAT spinning beach ball before I can go back to the previous spinning beach ball.
It can take up to ten minutes to restart. I've tried everything I could find on these pages so far, and nothing has worked.
I thought maybe it was something I've done (and perhaps it is), but I keep seeing others with similar issues.