Get out of my kitchen!!

I'm an antisocial little thing when it comes to cooking. It's mostly because I'm a rubbish, disorganised, messy cook and have to hide away from people and do things in my own order and my own time. That means I always scorn offers of help when people are here, and generally means I prefer them not to lurk and talk to me. Although that isn't the whole story.
The biggest problems is the kitchen itself. People often walk in and say "ooh what a lovely big kitchen" but it's an odd kitchen design. There's lots of floor space but not enough work top, and there's not enough room to put a table or a breakfast bar or an island or anything useful.
A fairly large kitchen should mean that people can still chat to you whilst you cook but it doesn't.
I've observed two things about people and their nature. One is they need to be grounded.. most people like to have a surface to stand against, to rest on, to put their drink on. The other is they don't like talking to your back. This means they stand in my "cooking zone" rather than at the empty end of the room and I have to "excuse me, no, sorry, Oops, sorry, can I move you the other way" that they get the impression that you don't want them there. That's generally not the case.

We have a dining room that backs on to the kitchen and we have cardboard walls as we live in a new home by a rubbish builder that shall remain nameless... that's for an entirely different blog.
As a result, we could knock through - it would mean building another wall to block off the stairs for fire regs, sorting out floors which would all need replacing, decorating, some electrics moving, cupboards moving and buying, radiators moving, finding a new home for a million pairs of shoes and the hoover.. all that sort of thing. Enough to make it a project that needs serious consideration (and cash)
I change my mind about it regularly.

Reasons for knocking it through -

1. I could get an island or pull the dining table through a bit so it would be extra working space.. 
2. The kids could do their homework on the table whilst I cook and am on hand to help (every mother's fantasy huh?!)
3. It would feel more spacious
4. People could sit (out of my way) and chat to me whilst I pootled about in there
5. I couldn't be accused of hiding in the kitchen all the time

Reasons not to -

1. The obvious ££
2. When we have guests they'd see the BOMBSITE that the kitchen is when I've dished up and it would be staring me out the whole time I ate.
3. Separating the dog and cat when we're out of the house whilst letting the cat get outside if she needed to would get complicated..
4. I wouldn't be able to hide in the kitchen any more.