Any chance the door to the basement could be pivoted to opening into the hall?

Also....what does one square equal? It should be one foot or two feet or six inches. Something we can more easily count to do layout :)

Quick idea....can you add window in back and move door to dining room?

Thanks, that's almost what I have on my current ikea planner model. I have no idea what a square is, whatever Ikea defaults to. I've considered moving the basement door to the hall, will ask my husband if it's feasible.

Edited to add: looks like a square may be 15in. Not ideal but that's what it looks like.

Here's something I threw together quickly, I know I don't have any 3ft
runs of counter but... it's a very tight space. The first shows the
range on the left and fridge on the right. Fridge has landing area in
this image.

The second image has range and fridge reversed. I chose 2 pantries to
frame fridge in this one. I'm trying to keep the fridge and range offset
so theoretically both could be opened at the same time. along that
line, I would probably put the dishwasher on the left so as not to
hinder movement through dining room doorway as well, thought it's on the
right in these images.

For reference, current non-functional layout...

Refrigerator top left, then two 30in cabs (upper and lower). On the
right the range is directly next to dining room pass-through (scares me
with little kids around), double sink and a cabinet to the right, along
with upper cabinets and a range hood.

I would rather have my 'kitchen traffic' between fridge and sink/range. The sink and range should (ideally) not be divided by traffic. So your first plan would be better, IMHO.

Can you move the door to basement stairs....to the hallway/entry?

We had a tiny 60's galley kitchen next to a living/dining room (original layout) with awkward number of doors and large windows . We knocked out the support wall (installed support in the ceiling) and made a large L shape kitchen. The dining table is now a kitchen table in the center of the room and the living room is given a sense of it's own space although it is open to the kitchen/dining room.

So my answer is: get rid of the wall to the dining room or build an extension.