They should be able to lay out your options and make the process easy for you.

I have an architect drawing up a layout for 4 townhouses on the property.  

Without seeing the layout I would guess that it is probably prettier and a slightly better layout but not necessary.There are different levels of finish typical to an owner-occupied property, a flip, and a rental.

if it works in the layout why Not?

GR8 detailed lay out of what this should look like!  

At the same time we're horrified by the thought of connecting a water supply (not a simple task due to the kitchen lay out) to a refrigerator with no provision for drain or leak containment.

The layout would also lend itself quite easily to splitting into two 2BR units with the option to rent one or the other or the whole house but that wouldn't be something we'd do up front.  

The original SOW didn't call for electrical upgrades, but we needed to reconfigure the kitchen circuits are they re-did the kitchen layouts and added and island.

Hello I'm a pretty new real estate investor i purchased a multi unit property 2 years ago and recently the property next door to me went up for sale, now this property has a same layout as mines and needs to be completely renovated.

Yes, the layout is unfavorable, but we are not planning to tear out any walls at this point.