Pictures?

I have the same situation. Main thing is keep the doorway clear so you can open it up in good weather and when you entertain. In the climate I live in, we only open it up in the late spring and early fall. Otherwise the heat or air conditioning would not allow it, money would be escaping out the doorways with the heat or cool. In the winter, I decorate out there so I have something to view out the sliding glass doors. In summer we just hang out there. I consider the two rooms extensions of each other. I have a sitting area on the porch outside of the dining room.

Also, as far as making the dining room multi functional . . . need to know your main purpose as far as the function. We actually flipped our dining room with the eating area off the family room, so that we eat most of our meals in the dining room and the eating area off the family room has transformed into a work area. Both areas are open to the kitchen, so it was just easier to use the family room area as a work space since it is adjacent to our home office and the back door which accesses storage in the garage too. Frankly I think it is nice to have one area just for dining, and a separate dining room makes meal times peaceful. But we could have easily turned the dining room into a work space, or if we had kids, a playroom. But we have a separate office room with a door on it. If I had kids, I would have made the space that could be closed with a door into the playroom and made the dining room a home library/office with only minimal dining space in there. In that case, since the dining room opens to the outdoors, it would have been a great spot for a little adult bistro table for morning coffee or afternoon tea break, or evening cocktail.

Figure out your most desired functions and where to put them. You don't have to be super traditional, you can think outside the box as long as it flows and suits your lifestyle. Your home should suit your lifestyle, don't try to fit your lifestyle to your home, it should be the other way around.