Floor plan: how to plan the living room, master bedroom, and kitchen?

Dear community,

we are currently planning the renovation of a single-family house from 1974. In this context, we also want to adjust the layout of the rooms on the ground floor. Currently, the kitchen is located in a side part of the building, resulting in a longer walking distance to the living room / master bedroom.

In the attached floor plan of the existing state, you can see the current "fireplace room" and the living room, separated by a small hallway. The only terrace door on the ground floor is installed in the fireplace room, so it should be easily accessible.

We are still waiting for the structural engineer's assessment to see if the thick partition wall could possibly be removed entirely or to what extent it can be taken out. Regardless of this, we are considering several planning alternatives.

Alt. 1: The partition wall can be removed, and thus a large, more open room can be created (8.10m x 5.87m = 47.5 sqm). Honestly, I find this size for an open living/dining/kitchen area not particularly large and would not know how to arrange the three rooms within it. Do you have any ideas?

Alt. 2: The middle wall cannot be removed. Then we would possibly relocate the passages (i.e., close the wall on the left and create the passage to the living room along the terrace door on the right). The access to the new rooms would then also be set from left to right. The new small room would then be the kitchen – however, we would also not know how to arrange the rooms and furniture to provide enough space for kitchen, dining, and living areas. Do you have any ideas here as well?

In Alt. 2, we would be concerned that the fireplace would have to be removed – we would be very reluctant to do that, but if there’s no other way... (on the "other" side of the chimney shaft is the entrance hall, where I find the fireplace less practical).

I am very much looking forward to the collective intelligence and your creative suggestions.

It might be sensible to also show the complete ground floor layout and integrate the north arrow as well as the garden location.

And then the question .. will the windows also be renovated? It might possibly be an option to convert a current window into a terrace door.

It might be sensible to also show the complete ground floor plan and integrate the north arrow as well as the garden location. And then the question... will the windows also be renovated? It might also be possible to turn a current window into a patio door.

Attached is the complete floor plan. The north arrow points to the "left," so the patio door faces south, where the terrace will be. Yes, the windows will also be renovated, but the house is on a slight slope, meaning that below all the windows to the east in the current living room is the slope, so unfortunately a patio door cannot be made there; only the other window facing south would theoretically be possible.