You could have someone come out and point out to you, as some of us have already done, what your choices are and the advantages and disadvantages of each, but what is the point of repeating what has been done here? If you are unclear about the choices, you can still ask questions, trying to get the issue clarified. In the end, you must evaluate what solution will work best for your lifestyle. Once you decide, it would be good to hire a designer to work out and fit together the pieces of the puzzle. You wouldn't want to solicit multiple design ideas from unpaid designers. The best you would get are vague, general ideas ... because designing is the process of working out and refining ideas and no one is going to invest in your project unless you are paying them. You just need one good, workable plan and one good designer. You could interview a few designers to find one whose personality and work you like. If the designer is good, you might not even care if they have a bad personality :-) Or ... if you or hubby have the ability to do the design, you can work through all the issues and commit the project to paper. I'm sure people here would give feedback on your efforts as you go along, trying to help you stay on course. But doing it yourselves means that you will be making the final call on all decisions. Or maybe you'd just want to do preliminary design work of getting the basic layout thought through and then turn it over to a pro to fine tune and make it buildable. You ask "if we redo the wall, why not a patio?" What's going to be the most useful to you ... a large expanse of floor connected to house floor level? ...Or having that expanse split in two levels? Given the overall lack of depth for building either, I'd think the single level deck would be the most enjoyable. If you need more room later, it's likely that your best option for expanding is to go from deck level up one step to an upper patio.

Thank you Dig Doug, this is a great design. The only thing we need to think about is how the stairs will come out into the patio below, given the location and slope with the rise of the new deck. All of that may be feasible though. We are definitely going to consider this design. thank you so much.

If you don't have any specific need or use for the space, I would remove the rock and plant as many trees along that space and the adjacent mulch bed as can fit at their mature size. While trees do need an initial investment of water for the first year to help grow deep roots, once established they shouldn't need anywhere near as much water as lawn. They would give you privacy and shade. The shade should help your lawn in the hot summer sun as well. I think mulched garden beds are a lot easier to weed than rock garden beds. I have several mulched garden beds and the weeds are infrequent and easy to manage. I have a small rock strip along my driveway that is a nightmare to weed (but regularly gets run over by truck tires so mulch and planting aren't ideal).

What an awesome yard! Your house and pool area look to be more traditional--is that right? I would first remove all the Western elements, replace the bar stools, and see how you like it. It looks to be well built, and the color of the wood looks nice in your yard. Plus you have nice landscaping. Maybe paint the inside white. If you want to do more, I'd paint the whole thing a creamy white like your house and replace the metal awning with something striped, like your pool umbrellas. Do you have a fire pit down there? Or you could go dark and pull a dark gray from your stone.