#5 is my favorite as well! That's why I chose it for the Zone/Traffic illustrations! :-) You have room for pot/pan storage next to the range, dish storage above the DW, plenty of prep workspace as well as cooking landing zone/workspace, and, with the ample upper cabinet storage, room to store most-used food items, etc. Dish Storage...If you notice in the last 3 layouts, I added a "dish hutch" style cabinet b/w the windows. it's a 24" cabinet that goes down to the counter. It's over the DW and partially in the corner area (but not too far since you want to be able to reach it), so it shouldn't take away from your Cleanup Zone's workspace or that wonderful expanse of workspace you have on the peninsula. DR Wall...Yes, you need to take the DR wall down for the refrigerator to fit. I tried a smaller one (33" wide), but then you really need to get a full-depth refrigerator and that takes away another 6" or so of aisle space b/w the peninsula & refrigerator, making the peninsula too narrow. (It cannot be recessed into the wall b/c it's on an exterior wall.) I suppose you could leave the wall up in front of the peninsula, but I was trying to give it a more open feel that I think will help encourage your family to use the DR more and be happy using it. We were never that happy with our closed up DR even w/the 53" doorway b/w it and the LR (there was only a 33" doorway b/w the DR & kitchen)...it always seemed isolated and cramped. Now that the wall is down, the DR seems bigger, even though the peninsula overhang actually takes space away (*sigh* another measuring issue forced this!). Maybe if we had a big DR we might have felt differently, but our DR was only: 13'8" x 11'1". (With 12" of the the peninsula overhang now extending into the DR, the DR is now only 12'8" x 11'1".) Another nice thing about the fully open area + peninsula is that the peninsula is a great place for staging food & dishes for setting the table, taking food to/from the DR, and clearing the table. Even if you moved the doorway, you will be dealing with structural issues, so I'm not sure how much you'd save by not taking the entire wall down...unless it's load-bearing, but I don't think it is given the layout of the walls... I think the load bearing walls are the ones b/w the kitchen/DR and LR/Foyer and b/w the FR and Laundry Room. BUT, I'm not a structural engineer so do NOT take my word for it! (I'm just guessing based on what I've seen here & in my home!) If, however, you did want to keep that wall, you could do something like this... OR

I'm not a fan of TV's over fireplaces. I would close up the niches if you could and then use a console with the TV above it. Since you already have limited wall space with all the windows having the niches is just overkill.

Just wanted to thank groveraxle, and hollybar for taking the time respond and share some design suggestions. We haven't received our keys yet, but I am just sharing some photos of how the realtors had decided to stage the property. What we didn't mainly like about the way it was staged was that the focal point of the living room was looking right into the kitchen. In addition, having the dining table on the opposite side, and not next to the kitchen seemed a bit odd, to us at least. Thanks again for your suggestions, as well as suggestions for furniture options! My wife found another potential sofa below as well: https://www.structube.com/en/falcon-3-seater-sofa-46-19-68?pid=18218

You have posted what appears to be a blank slate for the most part. Are plumbing, gas, and electrical already in place? If so, it will be more cost-effective to keep those in the same places. You'll also save on cost by shopping for cabinetry first and looking at the standard or semi-custom offerings available from your favorite line. If you work your layout around standard or semi-custom cabinet offerings, then that eliminates your need to go with a full custom layout which can be more expensive. One of my personal best recommendations would be to look at workstation sink concepts from companies like Havens Metal, Julien, Kohler, Rachiele, The Galley, or Create Good Sinks. Those brands span a range of price levels, but the concept of a large workstation sink is a fairly recent one in kitchen design and can be a boon for small kitchens to help make the working space more efficient. I selected a Havens Metal apron-front sink in the Prestige finish for my re-design and am just as excited about it as with my new Wolf vent hood and Beleza soapstone counters. We are using a local custom cabinet maker for our small kitchen because our layout was extremely tight, we wanted custom raised countertops, and our layout was too specific to work with standard or semi-custom mass-produced brands. Harmoni, Shiloh, and Signature are good cabinet brands to look at for mid-range, semi-custom brands. If you have a ProSource in your area, they'll offer good pricing on a variety of other custom cabinet brands like Kemper and Omega. If your budget is generous, Jay Rambo is a little-known gem of a manufacturer that produces beautiful natural-wood finishes at reasonable prices. Kennebec specializes in quartersawn, inset cabinetry that is outstanding. Don't overlook IKEA cabinetry if you really want to slash the budget but still get some decent cabinets. Places like Scherr's and Semihandmade are door companies that cater to fitting IKEA boxes for a custom look.