Wow, thanks to each of you for sharing your thoughts - I feel like a kid on Christmas seeing so many responses! Before I start addressing all comments, I want to note the "secret garden" I forgot to mention in my original post. Right now it's just a heavily shaded area in the back corner (SE) of the yard enclosed by major overgrowth accessed by a gate from inside the dog pen. I'm not sure how shaded it would be if we were to seriously get after the privet/junk hedge jungle, but I thought I would mention it in case any of you have brilliant ideas for it as I think it could be a really special little area. No grass, some purple flowering ground cover, a scraggly old tree with a thick L shaped branch (would be a great climber). Now on to business. I'll start by topic, & try to answer any questions. The privet hedge: Frankly, it scares me. I've been pretending it doesn't exist for the past 2.5 years but it's time to start facing it. Ideally, I would love to replace it but it's just not in the budget so I suppose we will try to cut it back and clean it up (per Yardvaark & Whitecap2's instructions - lower cuts, full-on weed war). As unsightly as it is, it does provide invaluable privacy and effectively blocks out the houses behind us. Yes, our nice neighbor to the east just had the stretch between us heavily cut back but the weed eradication remains our problem to tackle - yikes... Possible future addition: This is really just a dream at this point but I want to avoid extensive or large planting in the area in case my dream does one day come true. The new wing would ideally extend south & a bit east as shown in blue in the pic below. I've probably made it a little over sized but that should give you an idea. Afternoon shade: The carport wing of the house does cast shade starting at about 2:00 or so in the summer. It takes a while to extend much further than the bed but eventually about 1/3 of the lawn becomes shaded. Yardvaark, I like the a/c screen & tree placement suggestions. And thank your for explaining the major down to minor (tall to short) planning method. Such a basic concept but one I'd never thought about before, with this being my first from-scratch landscaping project. I will definitely return with a plan for you all to review before starting any work. This forum is such an incredible resource & I am so grateful to each of you for sharing your knowledge! Whitecap2, the small covered porch (8'x18') is up against the house & steps down to the exposed patio. I have marked it in green in the pic below. I had no idea hedges were passe ("so 60's"); I think they can be quite lovely when not grotesquely overgrown like ours! Catkim, I adore the idea of a courtyard - so very charming. Beds along the hedge also sound very nice. And that link to the children's garden - how adorable! This would be a great time to start something like that as my little girl is now 16 months. Mad_gallica, the dog run does eat up almost all of the existing shade but I'm afraid most of that shade is created by the junk growing in the privet hedge. If we were to clean up the hedge, I don't know how much shade would remain in that area. Regardless, the pen & dog house have to go. Bahia, I'm ordering my own copy of the Southern Living Garden Book today. Thank you so much for the suggestion. I'm shocked my green thumbed mother & grandmother had not mentioned this book to me! Unfortunately, the sewer line is the original clay pipe. Depending on the type of design we settle on, it may be something we need to address before any landscaping begins. Whitecap2, yes; lots of high maintenance, sun-drenched, thirsty grass. We purchased the house from the elderly widow of the original owner/builder who we have discovered made many odd decisions. But that's another story entirely. Bahia, the carport does provide late afternoon shade, perhaps to about 1/3 of the back yard. As mentioned above, the turf is high maintenance. We have recently been working on the weeds more aggressively but the past 2 summers it required mowing every 5-7 days & lots of supplemental watering. I love the idea of adding another shaded terrace further out in the yard. I will definitely give this more thought. Catkim, thank you so much for your comments on pergola placement. I have toyed with the idea of a pretty vine covered pergola in the past but never would have thought to place it further out to cast the properly desired shade. Thank you for keeping me from making a big mistake! Whitecap2, visually I would prefer a patio over a deck in our situation. But I agree, anything would be more usable & less maintenance than our wide open grass field! You totally nailed my sentiment toward our current backyard: "It just seems to me regrettable that so large a space should be usable for such a short duration." We want to get outside & play! Bahia, I wish we did have sufficient summer rainfall but Memphis tends to get hot & dry, irrigation systems being a must have for any well landscaped yard. Regarding our outdoor habits, they are definitely evolving as our child grows. A year ago I probably would not have sought a space for midday/afternoon play but now it is a real priority. As this is our first child, I'm not sure what to expect in terms of future needs but everything you mentioned ("play equipment set, lawn area for ball games or running around, a secret garden or play house? Sited to be easily viewable/supervised by parents from indoors, etc.") sound like great ideas. Any additional advice for planing with a child in mind would be wonderful! Whitecap2, you are again right on. The lawn has not been overly happy even with all the attention we give it. I think the spots in the pictures are probably a result of the professional monthly spraying we started at the end of 2011. Yardvaark, I'm not sure how much more patio space we would want. I think it would definitely be a budgetary decision. The current patio is yucky pebble concrete & I wouldn't even know how to go about expanding it. I certainly wouldn't want any more of the pebble stuff. Would the whole thing have to be ripped up or could some kind of stone be laid on top and extended further out? I hope I touched on everything. Again, thank you so much for all your help. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it! Possible future addition (blue) & current covered patio (green):

Yaardvark - that is an interesting shape for the yard instead of a rectangle and I rather like the retaining wall like it as well as the pool shape. Would be nice if we could do the attached roof, but it would have to be a later addition due to the cost and headache of completely re-framing that part of the house. Although it could use a re-work as I don't like the complexity of that part with the current connections as it seems like a potential for leaks. It is a tough one though as the chimney height may or may not be to code depending on what we do either. The ? mark one would need to lead around the house to the driveway as people usually park in front of our garage when visiting and then come to the back instead of walking through the house. I like the arbor idea, would it be too much to do one on the driveway side? thinking it would provide some screening from the neighbors on that side. Emmarene - the majority mentioned to put the pad below the retaining wall in the back. Only one drew it in. What do you mean with this statement? "The pool in general and especially with the tanning shelf appear to be an attractive nuisance. " Are you saying you don't think we should build a pool (we'd use it daily in the summer), or are you saying to not add a tanning shelf? That is the area I tend to hang out in my neighbors pool while watching the kids play. Ok here are sketches of the various layouts I've received. I'm mainly caring about placement of things and shapes right now ie hard scaping. In all the fence would be on top of the retaining wall. We are not required to have a fence around the whole pool, but placement would be nice if that is possible although we won't install one. We only need a fence to keep others out. I'm traveling now so this is from memory and sketched in. Covered patio size is close to correct size. Pathways and pool were freehand sketched and I'm not that great at it and didn't have measurements handy. Actually what we've received didn't really have measurements on them. I care a lot about what I will see when I look out the windows. I'd like minimal view blocking, or at least stuff you can look through or over. I'd like to at least be able to glimpse the outer yard as well. What I like about this one. A bit of privacy from the road with hard stuff. Although landscaping could do the same in other options. Not blocking all of the view, but some Took equipment into account Don't like so much that the pool is the focus and right in the middle of things and a long walk from the kitchen inside the house to bring stuff out to the eating area. Also not drawn as a diving pool, but I guess it could be made into it. Other thing is having the sitting area right outside the bedroom on the kids side seems less than ideal to me. I like that it has diving and a shallower area and a tanning shelf, but may be too costly. Not sold on the angle of the covered area. It will likely do good covering the sun though, except in the late afternoon and evening which we would be using it then too. Couldn't do the open gables that my DH likes on the Southwest side. This one I like the gazebo - I think it would keep the shaded areas better, but probably wastes some space. DH likes the open gable stuff though. I don't like the amount of hard surface and the pool doesn't seem right. I like the shape style, but can't really put my finger on what I don't like about it. This one has a freestanding pavilion right next to the house with the gable next to the house closed. I like the location of it as it is nice and convenient and will guarantee we always have good shade under it. Not sold on where to put the sink though. The grill could go where we currently keep it right behind the chimney as it is out of sight from inside that way. Also not sure about the freestanding part right next to the house. Did not like the pool. I think I've drawn it a bit wrong here, but it had this odd pinch point on the outside and I tried to do it here, but it is not exact. After seeing Yaardvarks sketch I'm thinking I may need to see if somebody will drive out from the cities and do a design for us as I wasn't that impressed with what I got within a 60 mile radius. Here is another pic that shows what range of the yard you see from each room. The green is from the master, The blue from dining, the purple from the other bedroom, and the red from great room French doors when sitting inside.

Agree with paraveina if you're in an area that gets snow. In our last home with had a NW exposure and loved that we could be inside relaxing while the sun took care of our drive and walkways...our neighbors hated us when they were out there chipping at ice and brushing away drifted snow! We had decent sun in the back of our house, but that was without a covered patio, which I think would have made it dark. We're building a house with due north to the back, and southern exposure on the front b/c we found it so beneficial. It's all a matter of personal preference, influenced by where you live, I suppose.

Maybe this series of pics is more clear