Our house is small--1,300 sq ft. We entertain family often and have 2 little ones. We'd like to open up our kitchen to the dining room more and eliminate our eat-in. We eat in our dining room, which is adjacent to the kitchen and small. We have an eat-in that is used as a computer area and is mostly wasted space. Our kitchen is awkward. It was just updated 3 years ago but the previous owner didn't fix the layout issue unfortunately. We are considering an addition to our home but I think this can be addressed sooner and will help us feel less cramped regardless. I'd love a peninsula or something for flexible seating options and to use as the computer area.

I believe the main stack is going through the wall on the right here:

This is so cramped, but the plumbing stack is here on the left wall:

I can't open the refrigerator and dishwasher simultaneously :)

When we cook, we fight over this corner:

Any advice or before and after pictures? I'm having trouble finding anything similar.

If we can open it up more, we are considering adding a half bath where the dining room coat closet and pantry meet. But then I would need a pantry somewhere else in here.

Here's the pantry, which is so cramped with the basement door across. It's so shallow, the other side is the coat closet in the dining room, so eliminating both would give us bare minimum for a half bath. I'm thinking we'd close up the wall where the pantry is and use the dining closet as the entry.