I think the first layout is fine. You might want to consider moving the door for the storage room of the master bedroom so that it opens into the hall. That way the kids can use it for overflow storage. Also, that hallway is big enough that I think it could hold a large armour, providing more closet space. (There's no need to sleep in the same room as your clothes, so long as they're not too far off.) Also, don't forget that while the drawing shows kids in double beds, this need not be the case, so there will be more room for furniture (dressers or whatever) in their rooms. Finally, that step to bedroom 4 will not be odd at all. I've seen it in other homes. It looks clumsy in the drawing but it isn't. What you'll see when you come up the stairs is a bedroom door on a slight diagonal. It's only an odd jagged step if you walk like a robot, in straight lines along the wall, which is what your eye is doing on the drawing but you won't do in real life.

I've seen it on google, it's a table lamp.. I wonder how tall it is and if you still stock them. I couldn't fine it through the Houzz website.

It would be almost impossible to make it blond it has way too much red in the wood. My suggestion would be to get new chairs like the ghost it will automatically bring into the 21 st. century

You can of course have a furniture repair business add material and refinish. Or you can add a center accent piece of tile, or wood inlay. If you're going from a narrow rectangle to a square, you would need to disassemble the table anyway, might as well do something fun with it.