Sometimes it takes a few tries to get it right.
More on the Smurf house and the process involved when trying to improve an outdated layout for modern living.
This house is only about 800sq/ft and so every inch counts and we have to make sure we maximize the space because we are not increasing the footprint. Its was a 2 bedroom, 1 bath home with a tiny kitchen and even tinier dining room (9X8 1/2 and 9X8 respectively). My first thought was you don’t need a dining room in an 800sq/ft home but we do need a bigger kitchen, so how can I lay this out to make it work.
This was the original layout:

And, yes, this was drawn on a piece of paper while we were viewing the house.
And please take note of all the doorways in the kitchen and dining room that make it almost impossible to lay out cabinets. After MANY tries which included moving the kitchen to the dining room area so that we could open it to the living room and add a bathroom in the rear, (can’t do that because the windows are too low) I came up with the plan below which meant putting in a header (always fun)

And then I nixed the peninsula because it closed off this still tiny kitchen too much. I also removed the doorway to the hallway in the upper right corner and opened up the doorway to the living room by 2 ft and added an arch.

All on paper over 8 hours and a bottle of wine. It is not for the faint of heart! So the learning here is that it is better to make lots of changes on paper (or better yet a computer) than make the mistake in the real world and end up with something that you don’t like or may not function well. Take the time up front, it may be frustrating but it will be worth it.