Welcome to kitchens. I hope you don't mind if I cropped and enlarged the kitchen area--much easier to see and think about.

Thank you, Mama Goose. I was wondering if the refrigerator would be better in another location. In the set up that you suggested, would there be any kind of wall against the side of the refrigerator that is closest to the breakfast area? Or would the refrigerator just be exposed?

You're welcome. You can frame a stub wall, if you have a few spare inches, or have an enclosure to match the cabinets. If you have no preference, figure out your cabinet widths, and decide which will better fit.

Fridge enclosures

Stub wall, which looks questionable to me--the wall needs to be behind the fridge doors, as in the next pic with the enclosure. The doors need to open past 90º in order for you to take out the crisper drawers for cleaning.

A fridge enclosure can also include cabinets that open to the side (toward the breakfast room). Either enclosed cabinets for storage, or open bookshelves.

Thank you for the picture Mama Goose. It is amazing how much a picture helps me visualize something. AnnKH, thanks for the suggestion about cabinets to the side. Good idea!

Mama Goose, if I move the refigerator down to the other end, would I want the dishwasher directly across from it? Seems like that could create a traffic jam.

In a small kitchen you have to make choices. How often do you move things directly from the fridge to the DW? From the DW to the fridge? If two people want to use the appliances at the same time, one has to wait a few seconds. I prefer to have the fridge where someone doesn't need to walk through my prep space to get to it, but there's plenty of room in your aisle (5'?) for two people to pass, and it looks as if there's also room for both appliance doors, if you like to leave the DW open for dishes to air dry. (I do this to avoid using the high heat drying cycle, but not while I'm prepping a meal.) If you'd prefer to see the range, rather than the fridge, from the LR,
that's fine--it's a personal preference, and you should have the view
you want, as long as it doesn't impede function.

OTOH, with the fridge closer to the breakfast area, and the DW on that side, there's more room for someone to start clean-up, while another is cooking, out of each others spaces.

The fridge is OK for prep on the wall side--just make sure that you have sufficient filler, or a pantry cabinet, to allow the door to open. We've had a few people posting when the fridge was placed in the new kitchen, asking what to do because the door won't open against a wall. :(

Lots of food for thought. I am leaning toward moving the refrigerator down by the breakfast area. The area between the counters is wide. I think it's actually closer to 6 feet, so that should help prevent too many traffic jams.

6' is a very generous aisle--definitely consider deeper cabinets, or pulling the cabinets out to make the counters deeper. In a kitchen with short stretches of counter space, deeper counters will provide more space in front of small appliances or other items stored on the counters. The upper cabinets can be set out a corresponding number of inches, or made deeper for extra storage also.

Gardenweb threads on deeper counters.

I don't have any new suggestions, but thought it might be helpful to add that our temporary residence during our build has a layout very similar to the recommendations by mama goose (ie, fridge on same wall as cooktop/oven, with fridge on the end next to the dining area; dishwasher on right side of sink and across from fridge). There is 60" between the fridge/cooktop wall and island. There is plenty of space for multiple people in the kitchen doing different tasks. I think we have had the dishwasher open with somebody at the sink, somebody at the cooktop and somebody coming into get a drink from the fridge with no problem!

I would personally keep the cooktop/oven centered between the fridge and other end for aesthetics.

Also, already suggested above, but here is a picture of a shallow cabinet on one side of the fridge.

Alley2007 - thanks for providing your personal experience as a reference. And great idea in that picture!