Also, we have decided to forgo a basement and therefore have a bit of extra square footage that can be re-allocated. I have posted a picture of this half of the house below. If I move the mudroom and door from the garage down, I can move the bathroom down a bit and gain some space for a walk-in type pantry. That sounds REALLY appealing to have a place to park my appliances, but I m just not sure where a fridge could go. I could put it to the right of the pantry and steal a bit of space from the garage, but I am not sure having the fridge behind the island will work well?

I only know how to post one picture in a post, so this one is of the current floor plan with the stairs that will be removed. I will follow up with what I had in mind with the pantry.

And here is what I was thinking....

Some actual dimensions and appliance spacing would help a lot, but at first glance, no this kitchen doesn't have the type of space needed to do what you want. It wastes a lot of potentially useful space in hallways surrounding the kitchen as well. If the rest of the plan is as poorly laid out, you are right to have concerns.

Your dining room reminds me of our last home, which I just loved. We had a kitchen about your size, maybe a little longer. We had a peninsula with sink facing the bank of windows in the casual dining room. It was as if I had one big window in front of the sink. You probably don't need a walk in pantry when you have a butlers pantry. I'll try to draw out something like what I had a little later.
I can see your kitchen and eat in area are 14 ft wide. How long are each of the rooms?

Thanks for the quick feedback!

The length of the entire space is 23'11" and it is almost exactly cut in half. The kitchen area is 12' (so 12 x 14'2").

That would be so helpful to see your layout! Thank you so much! I will start to play around with a peninsula style. I was REALLY set on an island design but if it is really just terrible, then I will have to reconsider :(! A peninsula might be a good solution!

As far as the hallway space goes, there is not much I can do about that :) I really do not want our guest bedroom's only access point through the kitchen, so the hallway is necessary. I have posted a picture of the entire floor plan if that helps any.

I am working on marking the floor plan up with more dimension so I will post that asap.

Thanks again for the feedback! Any more suggestions would be fantastic!

I marked this up the best that I could... I hope it is understandable! Please let me know if I need to include anything else.

Also, would it be strange to extend the island and back wall of cabinets? Or would it be strange to see them from the living area?

I tried to fit the peninsula into your layout, but I'm not sure it works. My kitchen was actually a little smaller, but open to the hallway with a shallow pantry across the hallway. My isles were not the standard 42 inches, but they worked well in the kitchen (better than the the kitchen I have now with the 42 inch clearance) The stove sink and peninsula as drawn are similar to what i had. I'm not sure you have room for the bar seating in front of the sink. My fridge was a little further from where I drew yours and I'm not sure if where I put it is ideal. Also I took another foot from your garage to give you extra width.
I am definitely not an expert in this area. I went to a couple of kitchen designers to get layout help before we finalized the floor plan and one designer was excellent and had great ideas.
Actually, I like your original floor plan and shallow pantry. Putting a 30 in cabinet next to the fridge should help when setting things down and using the fridge.
I don't think you've allowed enough room on either side of your stove and I don't think I would want to switch it with the sink.

Thank you so much for taking your time to draw this out! So helpful! I am still playing with it but it seems this might be the route to go! Thank you so much for taking your time to draw this out!