The hole in the wall

First order of business: Open up the kitchen to the dining room. How? Surgical removal of 1/2 inch Sheetrock covered with an additional 1/2 inch plaster. Ceiling corners are "tapped" with a steel mesh that obviously increases the pleasure of removing the drywall.

Then, the discovery of a load-bearing wall (usually the case when floor joists from 2 separate rooms overlap over a single wall header) and more than expected HVAC ducts. This will require some thinking and some internet browsing...

Before

Overlapped joist over load-bearing wall