You say it’s ugly. All the brick is not my style and I would gut the whole thing including the wood fired stove. It doesn’t look to be in use. We had one the previous owner had installed outside and it made a great bbq.

Get a builder in to quote and then see where your budget is. This will, help define how to change things. Your budget may be plaster or paint or full demo. Let us know the we can help with layout

Your kitchen appears to be a really good size. Is that a walk in pantry next to the wood stove, or just a pantry cupboard?
Once you have settled in, you can work out what’s works for you. Example, the door into the dining room from the kitchen, do you use this door or could it be deleted by using other access? At the moment that causes the kitchen to be a thoroughfare from fridge recess to dining room. If this door is needed, then maybe an island allowing straight access to that dining room, instead of “ diagonally through” the kitchen.

Do you prefer the up-stand on the sink bench to hide the mess, or would you prefer a flat peninsula or island. Check whether the brick wall with oven and cooktop can be reduced in size...is it load bearing? My thoughts if it can, that wall can become a huge long pantry with coffee and tea making area. Moving the wood fired stove out of the kitchen and replacing that side of the kitchen with oven and cooktop. And I also think the “added” bench top on the end of peninsula ingenious, but maybe there is an alternative...

All of the above would be decided by you and your budget.

Example of my thought for the oven cooktop wall.

Or alternative, keep oven, cooktop, fridge where they are, and convert the wall with the wood stove into the above picture, and install an island.

Are you planning on doing anything to the rest of the house or just the kitchen? From looking in the background of the photos the rest of the house looks fairly dated too including colours, drapes styles etc and looks like you have fairly traditional furniture.

Just keep in mind that if you do a sleek new kitchen it will look out of place if you are not changing other things, so perhaps consider a more traditional or country style of kitchen.

I had similar thoughts as robandlyn -- how will any alterations work in with the rest of the house .

But unlike most comments , I actually think some of the features are worth keeping -- the yellowish stone has a certain style ; and even if its only kept for decoration , I like the wood stove . As a really cheap first step ( basically , if you don't like it , you have almost convinced yourself to replace , so you'll only lose $200 ) I'd restain those midbrown doors in a Japanese black -- basically a black white and light gold sort of vibe . I think that will emphasis what I consider the positives , but if you hate those features , then a rebuild is called for haha !

If you do like that change though , then see what else you like and don't like -- personally , I'd fit a bit wider and more modern 'bar top' / servery ( the lower bench seems okay , I'd get rid of that whole rounded end upper piece , maybe go charcoal or even a charcoal marble , sticking with the black/white idea ) . And update the microwave etc , and new bar stools is a perfect chance to bring in something modern but also add some colour -- maybe black tubing frame and maybe orange or red padded seats .

I would make do until I had enough money to get rid of the brick over the top of everything. Here is an example I looked at with a similar brick (hood?/ bulkhead? What are they called?) over the hot plates and replaced it with wall cupboards. I have the same and it is such a waste of space. Also render helps so much too as exposed brick is not practical and cooking fats always land on them. If you don’t want to over modernise then just be careful with you laminate, bench colours.
I would also remove the brick upstand behind the sink. Or at least halve it’s length to still fit the couch if needed but then have a breakfast bar along the rest of the bench.

Also, it looks like you have another wood stove in the next room and seems like an odd choice to keep one in the kitchen.

Rip everything out and start again!