how exactly does bumping out the dining floor height into living room improve the walkway into kitchen? which bar area are you removing:the 7 stool area or some other section-it's hard to read the print....If you are taking something out,and considering the large sq footage,does creating another small use area like office,half bath ,mudroom,laundry,pantry,in this part of the home have any value to you? The context of the home is not shown,but space should be utilized wisely these days,in any home.

Thanks for the questions, I've attached original kitchen plans.
The bar area I mentionned removing in current design was the two cabinets/wine fridge that were positionned to face the dining area.
The change in the flooring, as you can see currently, the living floor comes much further into the dining area and we have a U shaped wrapping counter bar height now, so the flow from the entry, forces you to navigate past the dining table and around the peninsula counters into the kitchen. We are opening the flow of entry to the kitchen.
I originally wanted to incorporate a mud room, since my kitchen does connect to my garage, but my husband wanted the open kitchen and will build a mud room space in the garage to catch the shoes, etc from the kids. (We have 4 by the way and so one reason he likes a large table height counter connected to the island, for easy meal time serving.)
I'll upload some real pictures as well to help with the visuals of what we currently have.
Appreciate all the feedback!

Image from current front door entry, looking into sunken living area. (We are planning to redo the fireplace wall by the way, with our tv currently in front of the wood burning fireplace.
Remove the rock wall and update with hearth, gas insert, mantle and tv hung above.

View of from the edge of the counter bar now in kitchen looking back at entry. This will be opened up. Current plan is to remove the post and small wall (the one you see with the stacked 3 paintings) and replace with steel beam in ceiling and then also move the entry/dining level of the floor over to the wall with the mirror in entry.
Currently, I walk up and down through the sunken living area to get to kitchen without passing closely by the dining table.
Hope this helps give more perspective.
Share your comments!

are the doors that say"relocate door" next to pantry and down at the deck[sliding door] negotiable? I would move them both over to the right-make the long kitchen sink wall have a turn at both top and bottom. Get the freezer and ovens into this area...abandon the walk in pantry. Where the oven and freezer are,place tall pantry-cabinet type with rollout or doors with storage behind-then the serving area starts to the right of this,but stays mounted against the wall-as far extended into that seating area as you need. The reposition of ovens/freezer would be a priority for me...shifting pantry style to as mentionned would actually benefit you-this is a busy large household and the tall type with each section getting known to people for various purposes would be superior to the jam up in the closet/room type. Using the walls up at the top end of the turn[and lower if possible] for getting all the working stuff repositioned will mean the ovens and freezer aren't so forward out in your living space,which I don't care for. As that sink wall then gets longer,I would contemplate 2 medium sinks-somehow placed on it-leftish and rightish and do away with the island sink....place the range more symmetrically.Your needs make 2 high use sinks warranted and I think that would actually look good on that back wall as a design-this is your work horse part of the space,and the island with symmetry will look better-and a cleaner look now where freezer/ovens were.Then you can do something cool with pendant lighting or such above island/seating and have greater value in that space. lastly-the seating you have way up in the corner beyond dining table:is this planned for use-or looks? Because if for looks, you could rethink placing dining table up that way-then more options would ensue for kitchen-but I'm not going there-I assume you have reason for it but it could be wasted space, in the back of my mind.

I do not have any real layout info to offer, but that looks like LOT of chairs! Could you do some benches? I also don't know if the center of the island is reachable. At my house, all the stuff would end up there where a kid would have to climb on the table to retrieve it.

Random thoughts.

Nancy

I certainly see your problem. So much to like in your home, but what on earth were they thinking about with that kitchen access?!

I really don't have an understanding of all this because of all the issues involved, but just speculating. Is that dotted line running across the page through the new dining area/current steps and ending at the back kitchen wall a peaked roof beam or change of ceiling level? It looks architecturally significant.

Is there a compelling reason why you don't put the stove on the back wall? Perhaps with an architecturally appropriate vent stack terminating that line? That'd be much safer and cleaner, leaving the island for preparing food. Cleanup could stay right where you have it drawn in.

I so agree about all those stools and chairs, but I always do when people do this (and they always do). It'd end up looking like the whole thing was going to wake up and crawl off at any minute. Two major seating areas right next to each other with the same views, same sun at the same time of day, etc., just don't...make for great design?

Besides, it's so big you'd end up walking around to serve the children anyway. Also, what a job to clean under all that every day. Plus, that would give you 3 large surfaces to keep wiped up all day every day. Did I mention cleaning under dozens of chair legs every day. Oh, yeah. But I did forget to mention cleaning the chairs and stools themselves...

How about dumping the kids' table thing and just moving the family table closer to the island? Serving food would be no more difficult than around the kids' table, and they'll soon be doing it on their own anyway. Maybe set up a little sitting area at the other end of the dining space?

For some island seating for little snacks and just being close to mom and dad, maybe you could deepen the island somewhat, running a curve along the deck side, curving up toward the dining room? Remove the extra cabinetry in the deck-wall corner to make room for 4 stools, which would now would at least be more toward the deck side of the kitchen. Maybe cantilevering them from the island! The stove, of course, still being safely on the back wall.