Here's a sketch: (I can't embed the links - it's changed since my
last post here - so I'm just putting the links here. Suggestions
welcome.)

http://i.imgur.com/wEk4nM4.jpg

And here are some pics. Never mind the mess, we're just starting our clean up.

http://i.imgur.com/uYNln7U.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/eTjHqYK.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/5CWsXrE.jpg

If you don't need space for socializing on the deck, I think you would be better served by a simple, 6' wide runway deck/walk that hugs the house and then devote the leftover space to planting. Split the steps with half at the deck and half at the entrance to the walk (from the drive.) It would seem a lot more luxurious to you if you made the step-treads 16" (front-to-back depth.) Use a conventional railing instead of seating.

(You can't post photos by embedding code, but you can upload them directly from your computer by using the "Photo" button at the bottom of the window where you create the post.)

@Yardvaark (can you tag here?), thanks! I like it. Where is the fence/gate in your pic?

I would put the gate within the red line (above.)

Alas, that won't work. Our dog (and all future dogs) is a greyhound, which can never be off-leash or out of an enclosure. If the backdoor isn't within the gate, we would have to leash him, walk to the gate, open it, then take the leash off.

Can I ask another question? Is the 6' landing above meant to add to the luxurious feeling?

Thanks for your help!

6' is a comfortable width. Sometimes people are carrying things or passing someone walking in opposite direction. 4' is too narrow.

Looks like you have to keep gate next to drive on account of dog or figure out a way to operate it by remote mechanism.

I don't know a lot about greyhounds - how high does the gate need to be? (How high can/will the dog jump? The gate in the photos doesn't look very tall...). If the gate doesn't need to be too tall, could you put a post at the end of the steps such that it could act both as a newel post for the end of the stairs and as a support post for a gate? Then put a matching post by the garage and build a gate between them. Even if the gate needs to be fairly tall, you should be able to make it work I think.

Woodyoak, most greyhounds could but don't jump fences. The one we have now is fine with just 3'.

Yardvaark, I'm sorry, I mean to ask why it extends as a landing, not why it has that width. So what's the design argument for having a landing there instead of steps that just go straight down.