Since it sounds like you have limited space for a door swinging open, the sliders make the most sense to me. I think pantry organization should help minimize the annoyance of sliding open one side for some items, then the other side for other things, and then, gosh, realizing you forgot something and then re-sliding open the first side you were in. If, for example, everything related to baking is kept on one side of the pantry, when baking just grab and go, leave the door open as it's not in the hall blocking anything, and then put things back. Rather seamless and efficient. Your kitchen is turning out spectacular. I remember your planning thread. It's fun to see it coming to life.

Just a note. If this is a condo, it's possible that pipe vents and electric may be running through your walls to the unit above or below. This could limit your possibilities. If this is a condo, I recommend you try to find some other unit with extensive remodeling so you can find out what might be running in the walls. Otherwise, it's time to make some small openings in the soffits and walls to see what's in there. Personally, I would change the drywall pantry to a small cabinet pantry. You'll still gain counter top, but not lose the benefit of a pantry that most people prefer. Two photos showing the same thing are not as helpful as two photos showing different sides of the kitchen.

Thank you all for your comments and advice, it is very much appreciated. I met with a design person from a local cabinet company on Saturday and he sent me some preliminary concepts. @Bob W - Thank you, it was my husband's vest that he wore all the time and I don't have the heart to remove it as he always hung it on the chair when he took it off. @live_wire_oak - thank you for your input. I work for attorneys so I am going to have them review the contract prior to signing. I meet with the contractor next week. @Patricia Colwell - Thank you. I am going to get rid of the oversized pub table as well as the small bench sitting under the mirror. I plan on putting a much smaller standard height square table and/or rectangle to sit maybe 3/4 people. I am a cooker so I spend a lot of time in my kitchen. As far as storage, I have more than enough as it is just me. I do have a dining room (below) off of the kitchen, which after the kitchen is complete, I may or may not put a small dining room table in there. It is empty right now. I have had it both ways over the years (i.e. dining table and I also had it as just another sitting room). It never really got used as a dining room. My budget is around $50,000.00 so I would like to stay around that. Considering the house was built in the 30's. I have been getting bids for the job for over a year now and have had contractors bids from $45,000.00 to $75,000.00 but that also included the back porch and bathroom. The bathroom has already been completed. The contractor that I am going with (I have not signed the contract - meeting next week) has bid the job at around $45,000.00 including materials. We are supposed to go over specifications when we meet. I have a detailed list of my specifications which need to be included with the contract. @Design Girl I'm not going to change the layout, other than I am going to extend the cabinets over a little i.e. on the other side of the stove and also extending over to the doorway to the back porch door. I have also asked him to send me an image with white cabinets as well. As far as the LVP flooring, I have it just about in my entire house. Unfortunately when I started renovating back in 2017, the only wood flooring in the house was a mess and could not be salvaged when I tore out carpeting, so I opted for the vinyl plank flooring because it was within my budget. Would love wood flooring but I just can't afford it. The wood floors were a mess and I also had a large iron metal return vent where you see the plywood square. I wish I could have salvaged the wood floors but they were so damaged with nail holes, digs, cracks etc. This is my current vinyl plank flooring: I have to say that I do love my vinyl plank flooring. I also put vinyl plank type tile in my bathroom and even my best friend who likes the finer things in life, thought that the bathroom tile was marble. She had to take her shoe off to feel the floor LOL. As far as tile, I had ceramic tile flooring in my bathroom prior to remodeling and I ended up with 3 cracked tiles from dropping stuff (I am clumsy), so that is why I opted for the LVF. The cabinet company sent me some computer images of what it would look like in grey. I do not like the countertop. Also, I want the cabinets to go to the ceiling with crown at the top. My ceiling are an off size. Right now they are 8'9". I want the ceilings tore out so that I can have recessed lighting installed so the top will changing depending on how far down they come with the ceiling after tear out. Thank you all very much, any suggestions and/or comments are appreciated as I am all over the place right now.

Are the pantry and base cabinet the same depth? If not, there's a question about where the countertop stops and whether it gets notched. Here's my kitchen (Ikea), with a pantry shallower than the base cabinet. We went with a full height pantry panel plus a base cabinet end panel mostly so we could have the countertop overhang the base cabinet on the left hand side, but if the pantry and base cabinet had been of equal depth I think we would have had just a single panel down the side of the pantry and no end panel on the base cabinet (rather than an upper panel stacked on top of a base cabinet panel, which would have left a seam at the front around counter height). I just realized you may be referring to a third scenario, where you have no panel at all sandwiched between the pantry and the base cabinet. In that case, think about how the countertop is going to work. Basically, it would either stop half an inch in from the edge of the base cabinet (cut to fit up against the edge of the pantry panel) or the pantry panel would sit on top of it. I think either would look a bit weird. In all of these scenarios I think a full-height pantry panel is wise!