Thanks everyone for all the suggestions! Lyban, love the idea of using the black napkins with the points coming down! Fun2BeHere: Good idea for the centerpieces. Just love those little suggestions to stick the centerpieces down with tape! kswl: We are like you as far as serving alcohol at family parties. Touch wood, we've never had a problem with under age drinking (too excess or combining with driving) and also allow our own children a glass on special occasions, though understand desertdance's concern as there are many teen parties where parents are oblivious with sometimes tragic consequences. I appreciate her concern. Annkh, we're in CA so the weather is pretty good. That said there was light rain at DS's party which was larger than this one as he was co-celebrating with DH's 50th. We had to put up an easy-up over the buffet tables, some ate inside, but then it cleared. DH had some problems with the patio heaters so he knows he'd better work it out this year! We can all fit inside between family room, formal living/dining and garage with ping-pong table though will be tight squeeze. Love the suggestion of a rootbeer keg too! This time I'm going to make sure to take before pictures!

Thanks all for the responses. Here's a few more pictures with some info in order to provide a clearer picture of the current layout/future layout. The first image is a design my friend came up with. Area 1 is the grassy area and sunken area that I originally posted. As you might be able to see, what would have been the bocce ball court is the long yellow rectangle, with the two green circles trees. The tree in the middle is existing, and we were originally going to put in another ficus at the corner, but decided against it so it doesn't one day inhibit our view from the balcony. Area 2 is pictured in the 2nd image in this post. It's the same elevation as that sunken area from the original pics, but opens up. There's an RV gate at the end. Currently, I'm thinking about laying concrete in that area and then building a shed/detached garage for me to work on cars and use as a woodshop. It's not set in stone yet as far as that being the route I will definitely take. Finally, area 3 is the final picture in this post. It's also the area that's going to have the most work done. It will become an entertainment area, with a firepit and built in seating, as well as some additional small trees and plants to get some greenery. The red area will be pavers. In the corner are four boxes, which will be planters for a small vegetable garden.

Landscaping a backyard for privacy means placing tall, screening shrubs near the offending property lines ... not close up to the house and patio. (There, you'd want to use low plants or overhead trees, or some combination thereof, between you and the view.) For the screening shrubs, you'd need to account for the varying light conditions, which means using a type of plant that can accept sun or shade, or using a variety of plants, each which accepts the conditions in which they are placed. Since you have a length of property to screen, it makes sense that you would place all the shrubs in a bed and keep them separate from the lawn. If you wished to incorporate any small tree forms in the mix, you might want to place groundcover below them instead of only mulch. (It's an opportunity for adding another element of interest. It could include groundcovers that bloom.) Since you want to screen the CL fence, too, it will be an L-shaped bed. If screening both CL fences, it would be U-shaped, following the fence and lot lines. The bed depth, front to back, should be sufficient to accommodate the shrub dimensions, which is going to be quite large ... so probably 8' or 10' depth. Understand that whatever ideas you are given and wish to contemplate, and possibly incorporate, need to be put in the form of a plan before you do any actual work. So prepare a base plan on which you can work out the ideas. You could begin that by tracing over a plot plan of your yard. If you don't have that, measure and draw out on graph paper.

I'm with Yard on the paver size. Large format pavers are hard to work with, even for experienced crews. One 16x24 weighs 72 lbs, according to the Menards link. Keep in mind that you're not just plopping them down and moving on. Odds are, because you'll be learning as you go, that you'll be pulling pavers up and putting them back multiple times to get a smooth, even surface. Plus, I don't know what the quality of the pavers are, but generally box store pavers aren't the greatest. That can mean being slightly out of square or other issues that are magnified when using a bigger paver. I'd do a 4x8 border and a 4x8 in a herringbone or running bond pattern. In terms of your questions: 1. suck it up and make the cuts. Go slow and take off a little material at a time until you get good at it. This is another reason to use smaller pavers if you're not confident about the cuts! It's way easier to piece together a curve with several smaller pavers than to try and cut a clean arc in a slab. 2. Rectangular is fine, but if you feel up to it I like Yard's concept. I wouldn't waste time putting curves against the planting bed. Soften the edge with plants and you'll be fine. The curves in that inspiration photo are a terrific example of what NOT to do. Squiggles aren't good design. If it looks like a roadkill rattlesnake, don't do it. 3. border the whole thing unless you have a compelling design reason not to. I don't see a reason not to. 4. if your house has red brick avoid pavers w/ red in them. The red pigments in clay bricks and the red pigments in concrete pavers will never look right together. Don't skimp on your base, and don't forget to pitch the patio slightly to shed water. The biggest thing is don't rush. Stand up and step back frequently, because your surface can start to get "wavy" and you'll never see it from 2-3 feet away. When I built my first paver walkway in 1995 I tore it out and redid it 3 times because I was impatient (and, at 20, kinda stupid).