May be I should describe my use of the kitchen. I cook for breakfast and dinner, for a family of 3. Breakfast is simple, may be some eggs or just toast. Dinner is 95% stir fry, with some stew or soup or roast at times. I am the only person cooking 99% of the time. @palimpsest Thanks I absolutely agree with your thought. But may be because I am new to this(first timer), I am still not getting why a range on the current fridge side is better? I would really appreciate if someone can explain. @cluelessincolorado Thanks for the suggestion. That is definitely something I can consider. It is just more involved as wall demolition and build is involved. I would definitely consider this if I cannot find a way to not move the wall at this point. @caligirl5 Yes I do agree that table is not doing us much good here. If I do not remove the table in the intermediate stage, i plan on using it as a counter top when I'm cooking so the narrow gap is not really my concern. and yes, there is more room between the current fridge and dishwasher. The reason it looks narrow on the plan is because i took measurement in the interior of the whole floor but it seems the visio dimensions are exterior. And because i make other rooms before kitchen, i shrink some walk space width to accommodate other items. SO between the fridge and dishwasher there is at least another 8 inches in space.

I am not sure where the walled in heater is that you are referring too. Attached would be a nice layout for your space. Ref= Refrigerator R=Range DW= Dishwasher C=rolling cart

uh, I'd keep looking. that fireplace presumably has a chimney that continues up through the roof (and any floors in between) and could be tied into overall structure. changes here are many (tens of) thousands of dollars before you pull out any walls or replace the required flooring... as for pantry, a walk-in requires reworking the whole floorplan. it looks like you have plenty of cabinetry here, including a bank of tall (presumably pantry?) cabinets in the hall facing the kitchen. I'm not sure I'd invest what it would cost to make the pantry enclosed or what it would do to the kitchen layout. it's best to live with a kitchen for a year or two before doing a huge overhaul, as often you find out you like and dislike different things than you might have expected. this looks like a nice layout, but if it isn't scratching your itch, keep looking until you find one with bones you really like.

Little update - after talking this over with DH and consulting a stucco guy, we are leaning away from plans that involve moving doors or windows in ways that would require patching of the stucco. Making a patch blend in will be difficult (our stucco is natural and we don't want to paint it), and overall it seems like it will probably be more expensive than it's worth. However, the window on the back could be eliminated without stucco repair because it is under a portico (where I believe the original back door was) and the entire portico area is trimmed in wood. We could easily seal that off and use the area on the exterior for floating shelves, etc., plus it gives me a lot more options inside. We'd lose light, but that's easy to remedy by expanding the current door to a slider and/or expanding the side window. Here are two new ideas with all of that in mind: Island plan (we'd lose the back window, but DH prefers this, as he likes to sit at the island and chat with me while I cook): Galley-esque plan (keeps the back window and I like the separation of mudroom/laundry and kitchen here, but not sure I want to eliminate the possibility of kitchen seating):