You should be able to make much more of this kitchen. The walls can be better designed, and I think you could do away with your current table in favor of an island that would add storage while keeping plenty of seating. What you want to do is draw a very careful floor plan, including doors and windows, and take it to a real kitchen designer (not an ambitious friend). You could post it here too, but a lot comes out of the back-and-forth between a designers ideas and your preferences.

Anyway, you should be able to get a white Shaker kitchen (keeping your white appliances for now, to help with budget), more storage, and a generally better designed kitchen, all within your budget. For sure, forget about the wall -- if you were going to drop a couple thousand on a specialty project, I'd make it running plumbing to a sink in your new island. But anyway... Maybe start with a free session at Lowes and see what ideas they have and what it's likely to run you. That will give you a much better idea of what's possible, and real stuff to chew over before committing to anything. Good luck!

Hard to get a handle on the space without a floor plan as for budget 25, 000 for a full kitchen remodel is pretty small so good you are doing Ikea the base cabinets all drawers is definately the way to go . Before doing open storage think about how much time you want to be dusting because it gets dirty really fast in a kitchen. Send a floor plan and you will get ideas for sure a counter depth fridge would IMO be a must in this kitchen

how about if you swap the dishwasher with the trash drawer (assuming thats what you are using your compactor for..), that would put it out of harms way with the fridge.

a counter depth fridge would help that corner as well, is your current one over full? is there room for this fridge to go in the basement for holiday use?

i'm fine with having a cabinet in front of the fixed slider panel. if you put a one way draw drapery panel on and not open it all the way no one would hardly notice. although you might want to do freestanding cabinets in that area.

going to a standard 18" counter to upper distance, and reducing your soffit size if you cannot get rid of it completely, will vastly increase your storage.

(your sonos speaker will sound better in a higher location, too, unless your doggy is the one that likes the music the best...)

Here are some kitchens with your approximate layout.

Kitchen 2 · More Info

2nd Avenue · More Info

Are you open to replacing the slider doors with a single door?

a single door would have to swing tho, and be in the way when it stands open in the summer.

I would make removing the wall a priority even if you have to wait to upgrade appliances. It will make your whole house feel more updated. Do the demolition yourself to save some of the expense and have the contractor do the resupport.

Your kitchen looks about the size of mine and I do have room for a small island with seating on one side.

If the wall came down, you would have a dining table next to a kitchen table. Perhaps the plan was for an island then? We use our dining room, which is not a formal room, for meals. That leaves room in the kitchen for cooking and storage. I do not have open concept, but I do not want it so I am happy with they way things work. I have thought the opening between my dining room and kitchen should be wider. Maybe the same for you - perhaps a large doorway (with proper header) between the dining and kitchen, but retaining the structure of the wall would give you the flow you want without the need for trying to take down an expensive load bearing wall.

I really think you could benefit from taking your layout to the kitchen forum on the gardenweb side of houzz. They work wonders on layouts.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/kitchbath/

I was just going to suggest what jhmarie has outlined above. Close off the current kitchen door to the hallway. That will give you 2 long walls to work with, which will make a work triangle easy to arrange and let you keep your existing refrigerator, just move it to the left a few feet. New pantry will be in the corner.

Cut a wide doorway into the kitchen, in the load bearing wall. This is a much smaller job than removing a wall, because there is no ceiling repair, just the floor, and you need a new floor anyway. A header over the doorway carries the load. Make the door opening wide and welcoming.

You'll probably want to turn your dining table the long way in the room. If that is a fireplace in your diagram, you will now be able to see it from the kitchen - bonus!

My sister moved the door opening between her kitchen and family room because she needed a longer wall space in the family room to place her couch. It was not a big job.

On the other hand, have you priced the cost of removing the wall and replacing it with a metal beam in the ceiling? We did it in our home as part of a larger renovation and are happy with the result, but we did need to re-do the ceiling too. But recognize that you will lose the feeling of a dining room, and that it might look odd for 2 tables close together.