Rehab - New Floorplan Advice

[Bryan Montross]

First, thank you to all of you who will take the time to read this post and provide comments. I recently came across a property in need of some TLC that I am looking to rehab and sell. This is my first major rehab and just want some help with the new layout I am proposing (See images below).

The property is very small, ~600 sqft. The first thing I noticed is I can open the wall between the kitchen and living space to make it more open concept and feel bigger. It also has an unfinished basement with a full bath that I will be finishing about 400 sqft of space into a large living space. Note: In this neighborhood it is more advantageous to have a larger living area than a third bedroom in the basement and is much less cost then adding the bedroom and putting in the necessary egress, etc. The bedrooms are small, but I think I am going to basically just leave them as is although removing the linen closet to get more space in the master closet.

A couple items to note that can't be seen from the floorplan. Just inside the side door on the left are the stairs going to the basement. I am going to reconfigure the stairs to go into the basement the other direction coming from just inside the front door. My main concerns are 1) where to put the refrigerator. I put it next to the pantry I created where the entrance to the stairs used to be, but not sure if that is the best spot. 2) Seating area for a dining table. There is no real seating for a dining table so I put in a peninsula cabinet with seating and an owner could make the front room a dining area since the basement will be finished with a large living area, but again not sure if this is the best configuration.

If anyone has a better eye for how to configure this layout I would greatly appreciate it.

P.S. This was my first time using Homestyler for the drawings so they are not completely accurate, especially the furniture layout and size of cabinets, etc. I also forgot to measure for and put in windows, so those have been left off.