Is the "dining room" a formal space, or is a casual area off the kitchen? If it is the latter...you could change the door to a single glass and move it over to the left, closer to the corner. That would give you more wall space, but I wouldn't do it if removing the French doors makes your dining room look odd. I would say just move the fireplace to the patio...but we have a covered porch with one open side and a fireplace, and we just love having the fireplace there. Our space is a little bigger, but we are actually planning to put a built in grill/cooking area down on the patio and not have cooking on the covered porch at all. Granted, it is a few steps further from the house, but I would rather have the smoke further away. Plus...you are going to have a pool and all that...I think it would be great to have a grill out there for parties!

Yes, the dining room is a formal dining area so we try not to change the french doors if we can. The smoke from the grill is one concern we have too since we are not going to add a vent hood in the porch. May be we should just put the grill on the patio instead like you did. Thanks!

Have you checked to see if code in your area allows you to have a built in grill on a covered porch without a vent hood? Even if it does allow you to do that, it is not a good idea.

Yes dekeoboe, our builder has done quite many houses with built-in grill including his own. The smoke issue is something I am concerned too but it seems like people who have done it in my area didn't have too many issues with it. I would like to hear more opinions on this though!