Thanks for the reply.

 Sorry it was too much to read.  I am desperate for help and since this is my first time asking for help here, I Googled   "How to get good answers in your design dilemma post?" on Houzz then clearly over-did my attempt to "be as complete as possible!"

Worse, when I pasted all that information, I didn't notice it lost most of its formatting making it a true wall of text ( suppose I was blinded by frustrated exhaustion.) 

 So an extra thanks for your reply. I can't make the space any larger, but input on making it less cramped is invaluable. If we get rid of the peninsula, my concern is with the flooring. The dining side has walnut pegged oak while the new kitchen floor is unpegged, so to unify the two floors, the flooring company put in a strip of walnut. This shouldn't be too noticable with walnut under the peninsula. But what about without the peninsula? Clearly, not ideal but is it worth the compromise? Is there a way to make this work?

With only a 11' 8&3/" wide space and at least two feet on each side taken up with countertops and base cabinets, an island is not practical.

Depending upon the kind of range hood you have (vented or not), you might consider swapping the locations of the stove and the refrigerator, totally removing the pantry and putting traditional cabinets/countertop space on both sides of your stove. ... all the way to the hallway without a wall.

You could also keep a "peninsula" ... I would.

Probably a wild thought: Can you do without the dining room table and relocate the hutch, lose the current peninsula, extend base cabinets on the east wall and create a new longer peninsula, enough for 3 chairs at the long side and 1 chair at the west end of it (seating for 4)?

My kitchen/dining area (11’3” x 21’) is currently being remodeled, is a very similiar size to yours. We nixed a dining table for seating at a peninsula, except we’re doing just 3 seats, none on the end.

We have our peninsula beside a window and didn’t want to extend it too far past the window. So with the cabinet on the opposite wall, so close to the end of the peninsula, we did not have enough room for an overhang for a 4th seat.

I’m hoping you find the best design layout for your family and look forward to seeing what you eventually decide.

The peninsula is a nice place to prep.

Kathy, that looks great.

If we had  space for a dining room table elsewhere in the house, I'd consider doing the same. I really like eating at a table. Even when I used to live at my mother's huge beach house years ago with a fabulous island big enough to seat six, I always wanted to eat dinner at the table. I'd say it's the intimacy, but that darnded table could seat an army and was sized for giants!  It's probably because I'm a disaster who can't bear to look at my  mess!

I did consider switching out the table for another one and adding banquet seating.  Maybe I need to revisit that idea. 

Your plan will make reconsider that. Thanks for sharing.

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Gosh, it's late.  I regret I lost my reply to another great comment and will. have to wait until tomorrow to rewrite it and read an other comments.

I am so grateful for the input in of all the comments. After waiting so long to finally get the floor put in, I  have been paralyzed by indecision in moving forward and am lucky my husband hasn't thrown in the towel and left me. Please know your advice is a holiday gift that goes beyond your imagination.

Hi I agree with another commenter - I would keep the peninsula. It provides functional prep space. Its proximity to the fridge forms a nice prep zone. Other things to consider: get rid of uppers along the sink wall to give u a more open airy feeling. change the uppers and lowers on fridge wall to full pantries to make up for loosing the upper storage on the sink wall. just keep a few uppers along with your hood fan on the range wall. Be mindful of the clearance between end of peninsula and your cabinets since this will be a traffic flow. U can always go with narrow and or shallow pantries to give good clearance to the peninsula.

Sorry I ghosted the replies till today. After my reply to Kathy, I bricked my computer and haven't had time to get back to Houzz until today.

(I wrote a simila4 version of this reply to suezbell but lost it when the app crashed before my computer died. It was a bad day for technology. )

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Thanks for your comments about whether this kitchen is big enough for an island.

My butcher block is only 20"x22".  I would have 3 ft on the working sides (more between the oven) and had read an article saying in small kitchens, while not optimal, 3 ft was enough.

But just because an article says it can, doesn't mean it will in our kitchen, and that advice is possibly something realtor tells a buyer concerned about kitchen size  in order to make a sale.

I've attached a picture to show dimensions with the butcher block to to show maneuverability in case in case that information reopens whether that option could work.

Regarding the impact the change would have on prep space.

If we moved the dishwasher and 15" cabinet currently under the peninsula to the sink wall, we would lose their countertop overhang (12" x 39" total width). But some of that's offset by the gain of the butcher block space, right? (3.2 ft to 3.06 sq ft change if my calculation is right).

That isn't a large loss, but are you guys also pointing out that the peninsula is likely more convenient in our situation?

Responses to Other Ideas:

Suezbell re swapping stove and refrigerator removing pantry putting in traditional cabinets all the way to hall without wall.Aside from the cost issue (new cabinets not in budget)
---The stove is unvented because room  in the middle 2story house
---Not possible to do anything without a wall because there is a stairway and utility  closet housing HTC venting behind the current refrigerator wall

Astm re removing sink side uppers and putting in floor to ceiling cabinets to make up for lost space
-Clearance should be no issue with keeping the peninsula because that's the way it was before. We would be using same countertops
-New cabinets, unfortunately, are not in the budget

All 
Again, I really appreciate the advice you guys are giving. I wish we could redo the entire kitchen, but with most the rest of the house needing major repairs and upgrades, reconsidering if we should change the layout of the current base cabinets is the best we have. 
.

Not sure how big your table is, but what if you think of it more as a large eat in kitchen. Extend the sink wall cabinets all the way down. Then have a round table or even shorten the cabinets by the ref and have a rectangle table going the length of the room. If needed , the cabinets that are in the table area could be shallower ( maybe 18" deep instead of 24 ) .

Personally, I would try to move the window to the right so there is more room between the sink and stove..

Just a thought.....

The butcher block will not replace the prep space of the peninsula. Even if it is close dimensionally, the corner counter area of the peninsula gives more room. If you decide against the butcher block and eliminate the peninsula, then the prep space has your head in the cupboards. I feel your pain, I have similar kitchen, not sure why on earth they didn’t make them a couple of feet wider.

Thanks Andrea!!! That makes it clear to me that I would reget getting rid of peninsula.
I could deal with the size of the kitchen if they had made the dining area larger.
But, it was the 1970's.  "Cozy" was the trend. When we bought the house, like other houses of the era the kitchen had upper cabinets over the peninsula. 
I appreciate everyone's insight and apologize for going AWOL on my own post. I didn't realize anyone had replied and  got overwhelmed by the tasks ahead that I shut-down.

That's  what I was trying to do, only I put the butcher block between the sink and refrigerator  (offset towards dining room so not in line of traffic between them.

I suppose to do that I would truely extend the cabinets all the way to the front wall. $$$

I am at least relieved you could see what I was thinking so I would know I am not totally nuts. 

I wish we had the money to invest in cabinets and redo the kitchen. Sadly, it is the only room in the house that ever did get renovated. There are to many other costly updates, repairs and renovations begging our attention and budget. 

Thank you so much for your suggestion. It must be a dream defered.

(That last reply was to Debbi, I forgot it wouldn't be nested with her comment)