Thanks for adding your suggestions, Renee! And gypsy, I think your garden is lovely, don't sell yourself short! And thank you Renee for your kind comments. It is such a pretty, pretty area of our yard, and my husband is on board for it to stay formal. And yes, these rose trees are breathtaking. Every year the perform better and better. They are nearly 8 feet in diameter right now . We're going to have to re-stake them. Again. With something really massive, lol! House is sort of a beige with medium brown trim. Sounds ugly, but it is sort ofTuscan in its style, and it's a nice neutral color. Here's an old photo of the house (much more landscaping and fruit trees, now). My formal garden area is on the left side of the house: Colors for the flowering plants. Thinking purple (have some variegated lavender colored iris that will stay, just need to be dug up and repositioned), pink and white. And some silver foliage and green foliage. The lavender I was thinking of using is Lavandula angustifolia 'Thumbelina Leigh'. Very nice, well behaved, very rich green foliage and deep blue purple flower heads. Plus, it is very fragrant. I have found this to be one of the very best lavenders for small spaces, just has so many great qualities. I was also thinking of maybe using some Dianthus? I found these 'Super Trouper' in a fuschia pink, which I think would be a nice color accent. Foliage is silvery: White Meidiland roses would be great. Or some white rose. I have a lone 'Glamis Castle' that looks gorgeous below the 'Red Fairy' tree rose. So, yes, white roses would be very pretty. I'd love to have any DA rose, so I might try to mix and match pink, purple and white DA's in the middle of the triangles. For the shady areas, I could go with a white Kalanchoe, or a white begonia with the Hellebores. The shady area is much more difficult to plant. Patty S. This post was edited by hoosierquilt on Mon, May 20, 13 at 18:44

IMO, without major structural changes the architecture is not a good fit for creating a first-floor-level deck that's large enough to do the things you want, which suggests that a ground level patio (or equal to the bottom landing) will work better. (I think that's where you're leaning already.) There's a certain period charm about the porch and its roof. I wouldn't disturb that by extending the roof over the lower entrance. Is there even a NEED for that? It wouldn't make sense to me to spend the $ if there was not a clear cut need. Except for the post and roof, the porch looks like it's masonry. What's "rotting"? I think I would fix the porch in it's present configuration, but make improvements where possible ... beefier and better looking wood posts ... the railing should not wrap around the posts but be connected to them. Maybe it needs a concrete floor if it's wood now. To be sure, the steps need to be widened. If they're stable, I'd evaluate the possibility of building new and better steps over them. (I'm sure there are pros who will hate that idea, but if this is not a big budget project, it could save a lot of money and no one would know the difference in the end. If I owned the property I'm almost certain I'd do it this way.) Since there is an outbuilding nearby, you'd want to link access to it with the patio somehow. Who's going to do the design work and who's going to do the construction work? The advice you get would depend on if you are DIY-ing either of these. You ought to also include an outward looking photo spread of slightly OVERLAPPING pictures that are taken while you stand on the porch, near the back door. Pan the camera from far left to far right as you snap pictures, bur remain at that same location for all pictures. A piece of the house should show in the first and last picture.

In theory that sounds good, but in practice, I think you'll run into problems, not the least of which will be a frequently or perpetually clogged drain pipe. If you would need to run the pipe back uphill in order to get it to the surface, it's not going to work for long. And there would be the problem of running into the footing or base of the wall, which wouldn't be easy to penetrate. Are these pavers on sand? If they are, I think a better solution is to pull up the whole corner and regrade it to drain, such that water spills out of the corner prior to the wall. (Be sure to number any cut pavers at the edge according to a key plan, otherwise it'll be next to impossible to figure out how to put the puzzle back together without needing to cut some fresh pavers.) A second and somewhat more involved alternative would be to cut out a strip along the edge of the entire corner and install a slot drain, which is a channel similar to a roof gutter but covered with a strip grate. Placement would depend on actual patio grade but it would likely be similar to what is shown below. You'd need to configure a path for the water to escape at one end of the drain,but it would be closer to the surface so easier than a pipe going under the wall.

All you need to do it make sure that there is decent topsoil in the planting space. The stone and sand will be unnecessary, since where would the water go after the air spaces between stone and sand is filled up? Don't create those air spaces to begin with. When you bring the level up to the concrete slab and plant it, drainage will not be a problem.