If you love having the table in front of the window you could have a fitted window seat for one side of the table and chairs on the other. I would create an L shape kitchen to include units on the top wall so go round the corner from the cooker - put the fridge/freezer here. I would then have a floor to ceiling unit on the wall where your fridge currently is for all your storage. You could have this in a different colour than the rest of the kitchen so it stands out.

If you are in a conversation area then removing the chimneys (and therefore the fire places) is probably not an option. In which case, instead of making the fireplace an obstacle to a long room, why not reinstate the wall and work with the family/living room and a semi open zoned space at the font of the house with the fabulous bay windows, leaving the kitchen/dining at the back of the house. Removing the green carpet will lighten the space, as will inclusion of better lighting (there is only one overhead light currently). Moving the washing machine to a laundry using the cupboards in the shower room would open up the space. If funds are available, you could consider re-arranging the kitchen within the larger room, repositioning doors and windows to make the best use of sun and light, depending on orientation of the cottage. Final point, as someone with a north facing living room, sometimes roll with a space and focus on making it cosy. The fireplace will certainly help with that.

Could you switch the whole thing - have a big cupboard run on that wall with the pitched ceiling, and a nice big island where your table is. Move dining into the current kitchen area.

I’m glad you are excited about your new home- you are spending a lot of money so you should be excited. And I’m pleased you like my alternative- I really wasn’t keen on the first plan. In fairness to the architect though they may have been designing to a specific budget and my original plan was a fraction bigger- if you want more still that means building bigger again. so the revision below is bigger. I use an app called HouseDesign but it’s no longer available on the App Store. It does however illustrate you can get good amateur results when exploring creative options. Although you are of course going to check the measurements I think I have correctly shown the size- so yes that upstairs arrangement does fit. You should just satisfy yourself that you will get planning permission to build that close to the boundary. And I’m not a professional but since you are looking at creative options it may be cost effective to explore these with a designer or a concept planner before returning to your architect. In the meantime I have interpreted your requested changes here: