Your garden looks great, lots of beautiful colour. I only dream of having that much room to garden. Athough the pic is a bit blurry when enlarged, my opinion would be the same as what others have said: plant in drifts groups of 3, 5 or 7 - if you have a specimen plant, put it among multiple groups. When you do this, take into account when things are blooming so you can spread the colour around the whole garden. height at the back - shrubs, tall grasses (which also add winter interest), clematis or other vines. Also plant in groups with a specimen thrown in. Add a climbing vine on an obelisk to the centre or an arbour along a meadering path with two different clematis on either side. I see you have birdhouses, you can plant shrubs that will attract birds. With grasses you can plant three different varieties of tall grasses in a group towards the back and a specimen grass (such a Blue Oat Grass) in the centre. At the corner of the yard where the chain-link fence and wood fence meet, I would put in a birch clump. It would look great and be a real focal point of the garden in every season. Good luck and can't wait to see the completed garden renovation!

If you don't think you'll use it much, I'd go the least expensive route, which would probably be the covered porch. The roof is an asset imo since it's in good shape.

We have to tear up a lot of the slab anyway to run the toilet plumbing and move the shower drain. My contractor was thinking build up the shower at the exterior wall and use a trench drain near the shower door but I'm not sure of that looks wise. I agree Sophie. I can't think of another way except how I described above...of course being inexperienced with this type of project I'm not sure if there's a different solution. John would you mind explaing further how that could affect it?

I totally agree about the safety issue it can cause with children. We were suppose to have a raised bed back there but it’s been a nightmare to get both the pool builder and landscaper back out. The design of the pool is like that due to the easement line on the back of our property. Thank you for your feedback. We’re leaving towards adding additional decking back there.