I want to thank everyone in advance since I've been reading the various forums here for a good while, but this is my first time actually posting!

I recently purchased a house that I love, but the kitchen is in some serious need of updating. I've attached an Ikea drawing of what the kitchen looks like at the moment with the following notes.

- I didn't put in top cabinets. Basically, they need to be scrapped as the wood itself is in pretty bad shape. I don't think I can get away with just sanding & painting (Currently everything in the kitchen is a pretty...unique orange. It does match the shag carpet remnants I found underneath another carpet, though.).
- The windows on the top left corner are both very large and extend a few inches below counter height. The corner faces northeast and has a beautiful view of the mountains outside.
- The door on the left side that opens inward is an external door that leads to a carport.
- The circle next to the door is the water heater (more on that later).
- The box next to the water heater is a cabinet.
- Waster & dryer in the lower left corner.
- "Below" this room is the dining area for the house (door on the bottom wall opens into it).
- There is currently no dishwasher.
- Black thing is the range opposite the fridge.
- Ikea doesn't have them, but there's a corner sink looking into the window.
- To the right side of the room there is the entry hall into the house.

As of now, only my girlfriend and I live in the house. I do most of the cooking, but she likes to be able to keep me company.

The rest of the non-bedroom space extends below this room further down. I'm hoping to remove wall C and replace it with a little peninsula. This will allow a lot of airflow through the house, going all the way from the back sliding door through the kitchen. I live in sunny southern Calfornia without any sort of central AC or heat, so being able to move air between rooms is essential.

The big question for us right now is how do we go about laying this kitchen out. Initially we thought about removing the two walls that jut out into the room to create a lot more space. However, this leaves us without a very good spot to put the fridge other than in the middle of wall A. This then makes the dining nook in the top left corner pretty tiny. By leaving the wall in we have somewhere to put the fridge. I'd then still remove the water heater and replace all the cabinets on that wall with a pantry. However, leaving the wall keeps the dining nook secluded and limits air flow.

I plan on putting countertop over the washer & dryer plus some top cabinets for extra storage.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!