It would be really helpful if you could tell us about you and your family, what you're looking for in a kitchen/how it will be used, and maybe post a layout of your entire first floor (or whatever floor your kitchen is on).

Have you had a chance to read the "Read Me" thread? Scroll down to the "Layout Help" topic. It describes what information we need to help you design a kitchen that will work for you and your family. Without this information, we'll comment and design a kitchen that we would like b/c we have no other information to go on.

In general...

• I think this is a case where an island would be better than a peninsula. Do you have a burning desire for a peninsula? Would you consider an island instead? An island would open your kitchen up a lot, especially to the dining area. (And, a single-level would be better, regardless of island or peninsula.)
• How would you feel about opening up more of the wall to the FR? Is there a window with a nice view on the other side of the FR? If so, it would be nice to (1) have the view from the kitchen and (2) bring in light from that direction as well as the DR (assuming the DR has windows).
• What's between the range and the refrigerator?
• For seating, each seat needs 24" of linear space and, for counter-height seating, a minimum 15" overhang.
• You have a lot of (expensive) pantry cabinets. Would you consider a dry-walled or walk-in pantry?

Here is a link that might be useful: Read Me If You're New To GW Kitchens!

Here is the first floor floorplan:

What are your goals? E.g., more counter space, more storage, seating in the kitchen (island? peninsula? table?), etc. The new house will have 1 dining area, the kitchen should have room for 3-4 kids to dine. We want to have a hood over the stove rather than microwave. We don't want the microwave on the counter. We'd also like a large pantry area. Kitchen should work for both tall (6'6", and not-so-tall (5'2")

What is your family composition? Adults? Children? Age ranges of children? Current? Future? There are 2 adults and 3 children ages 6, 9, and 11. No plans for more.
Grandma's come to visit for up to 1 month at a time.

How many kitchen workers are there? Cook(s)? Cleanup? Helpers? Now? Future? There are 2 kitchen workers, the kids also enjoy helping.

Do you or anyone in your home cook? We rarely eat out. We cook or prepare breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

How do you see your kitchen used? Just for cooking/cleaning up? Children doing homework while you cook? Party place? It will mostly be used for cooking and cleaning up. We'll do occasional entertaining.

Do you entertain a lot? If so, formal? Informal? We don't entertain a lot now but used to when we had a bigger home/kitchen.

Do you want your kitchen to be a "hang out" place? Parties only? Everyday?We spend a significant portion of our "at home time" in the kitchen. We'd like to be able to host a family or two for get-togethers.

Do you have a separate DR? Do you use it frequently? Infrequently? If infrequently, do you want to begin using it more frequently (e.g., for daily/nightly family meals)? The house will have a single dining area which will be used for most all family meals. The kids may get breakfast in the kitchen.

Would you like to open up the kitchen to adjacent areas? Close it up? The kitchen is planned to be open to the dining area and also have some visibility into the family room. Originally it was open to the family room as well but we were concerned there weren't enough cabinets.

Do you plan to merge two rooms/areas (e.g., Nook and Kitchen into a Kitche only) No.

Where are you flexible? We'd like to use the space currently set aside for the kitchen but are somewhat flexible with layout changes

Can windows or doorways change size? Yes

Can they be moved or eliminated? Yes though the kitchen doesn't have exterior windows.

Can windows be raised/lowered? n/a

Can any walls come down? Yes we haven't finalized.

Does the sink have to be centered under a window? It should have a view into the family room.

Does it have to be under a window at all? It could have an open view to another room

Do you bake a lot and do you want a Baking Center? Yes, my wife loves to bake

Do you want a coffee/tea/beverage center? We love our Keurig.

Do you want a snack center? We like an area for the kids lunch snacks to be...

My overall impression is that the kitchen occupies a large footprint, but the functional part of it is heavily weighted to the lower left portion. You have very little space between refrigerator and range, and a lot of counter space to the north of the sink .

For starters, since your pantry run backs up to a large walk in closet, I would consider placing the refrigerator over there and recessing it so it was counter depth.

I agree that I would explore an island configuration.

Since it is an adjacent area, I will also bring this up: you will have diagonal views from the sink and range area to the bed in the MBR and also a straight on view into the MBR from the family room and seating area of the peninsula. This means the room is presentable at all times or the door gets kept closed. I would consider a different door location for th MBR or the creation of something that gave a better sense of entry/privacy into that space.

Here is the updated kitchen layout with a walk-in pantry. The master bedroom entry was also updated. I think I like the idea of closing the door better.