The shape looks like it can work well, but your arrangement has the heavy duty work in the eating area. I wouldn't put the works, like your knives and boards, on that side of the island. Also, a much better place for the warming drawer is where your utensels/baking sheets stack is. Unless you all are particularly tall you could put the warming drawer under the utensils. That messes up your symmetry, but that cabinet for tall bottles will be a pain to use. Drawers or a pullout would work better. How often do you use the baking sheets, etc.? Because they'd be okay in the outside of the island unless you're using sheets and trays or whatever daily while the family are gathering--possible in some homes, but not usual. Another thing that could go on the outside of the island is the under counter fridge, especially if it's for drinks. If you're worried about the looks, you can get it panelled to look like a cupboard, or drawers. And also the cereal and snacks cupboard. My mother put those in the breakfast room because it kept the bugs that came in the packages back then from spreading to other things. It's handy to have them by the table. The small sofa crowds the patio door and the island, and leaves no passage room. Those boys are going to be walking on it or hurdling it to get into the kitchen, pushing it back when they want to get past someone seated at the counter, and is just plain in the way of people going in and out of the door. Where is the TV? On the wall with the back hall door? I don't see a good way of furnishing enough seats for the comfy part there, it's hard to see from the table, and far from the cook. How about shortening the island a little and putting a TV stand against the required column? The pedestal TVs swivel well, or you could use a turn table. That way it could face the kitchen, eating area or seating, and you could put the seating against the wall wrapping under the window and have a really useful amount. You could even do doubles, which is often done in a large room. That is, one piece of furniture with two screens. They even make them so that the TVs retract into the cabinet. Not cheap, but a possible solution. I'd like to move the main fridge more into the kitchen proper though I'm not sure where it will fit comfortably. Close to the stove and table isn't a bad choice--I wouldn't want to undo that--but pulling more of the works to the inside of the island will define the space better. OTOH, it does help close off the desk area which might be a good thing if you need a more private feeling for your work. I'd get the creeps with my back to the activity, though. What's that door there by the desk? Is mirror symmetry really important to you? If you moved the stove over so that it was protected by the island it would help to compact the kitchen, and be good for the cook. is the door at the back by the brooms the existing pantry? Or is it a people door? If the latter, how busy is it? I'm wondering if the stove and sink couldn't fit nicely on the current sink wall, and have a nice row of pantries on the back wall with the fridge, ovens, and storage. Or if you want a counter on that side, maybe a beverage/snack area. It's too late for me to make this a cohesive message. It's really not bad. Other than the small sofa there are no "errors". But I think there are a lot of things you can do to polish it up and make it that much better.

On one project we went through trying to design a ceiling to deal with HVAC ducts below the ceiling plane (It was a row house with masonry walls and joists that ran opposite the way the ducts had to go--there was no other place for the ducts in a conventional system) Anyway, we came up with trays and such for a couple of the rooms and it got more and more complex because of dealing with windows and such that we decided to go with just one large dropped area through the entire house, the same width and depth throughout so it didn't call any more attention to itself than possible. In my house there is only one area that has a soffit and when I opened it it was completely empty except for one corner. However, I've been in similar houses where they took it out and replaced it with a boxed out area only around the spot that it's needed. They got a higher ceiling over a 3' x 12' area, but now they have this weird box dangling down in one corner that screams "Plumbing". The large soffit is lined up with the stairs and a doorway so it looks at least much more necessary than that box which looks like a mistake. My point is, I would make it look intentional but you have to be careful not to over-design and over-complicate the ceilings in the process. A rectangular spine running down the center without anything else *might* be all you need.

I would try to avoid making the wall of the addition flush with the existing wall. Try moving the new wall back enough for the corner board to continue to the foundation. Then the siding doesn't have to continue onto the old house. There should not be an issue with leaking but if you are concerned with weather resistance, I recommend not using a difficult to detail weather barrier like a loose housewrap but using Huber's zip system sheathing or use a self-adhering weather barrier like Henry's Blueskin VP 100. Of course well detailed flashing should be used where the roof meets the house wall. The base flashing should be self-adhering and flexible (Grace Vycor Plus) and the counter flashing over it should be metal step flashing not continuous. A watertight building requires just a little extra cost which is well worth it. I would not use white siding on this house but if you do, it will look fine with the old siding from a distance. Up close the imitation wood grain of the new PVC siding might look odd next to the more realistic looking smooth aluminum siding.

bania, I'd worry more about the ground in your front yard than the paint on your trim. since 1923 to the mid 1980's every gallon of gas burned emitted 1.1 grams of lead, and most of it settled in your front yard. Old inner city neighborhoods are the most contaminated areas which produced many brain damaged kids who played in that dirt. It just sits there in the top couple of inches waiting to be eaten by kids or kicked up and inhaled. I'd guess all the lead I've eaten or inhaled knocked down my IQ at least 10 points but I'm still smart enough to know lead paint can be removed, just don't eat or inhale it. It's something which can be taken care of and easier than the dirt in your yard. You can't get around lead and is even in the milk you drink, cows consume lead and pass it on. Your world isn't perfect but it's a heck of lot cleaner than the world my generation had to grow up in. Trucks driving down the streets fogging DDT for mosquitos with every kid in the neighborhood running behind them, how sweet it was. So does your old house have the original copper water pipes? 99.99999999% chance the solder used in those pipes contain lead. I shouldn't be like this but you need to know, and to be thankful your world is much safer than mine was, ever eaten mercury contaminated fish or crawled around in an attics full of asbestos? I have but there was no around at the time to warn me.