Hi, If you check Craigslist and other classifieds, and tell everyone you know that you're looking for bricks (or anything else) they may start showing up on your porch. I put out the word that I need bricks and in one month, there are over 1500 of them in my yard, all for my favorite price, FREE!! A friend of mine says that there are a few bricks everywhere. It appears to be true. If you get bricks from lots of sources and mix them up, they just all go together. Sand is cheap to lay them on. If you dig down in the soil to make the bricks level with it, you won't need rebarb around the edge to hold them in place. Some people on the Garden Junk and Trash to Treasure forums have made paved areas out of wood and other materials. You may want to post this question on those forums. There's a lot of wood being thrown away everywhere in the form of pallets and old redwood or cedar fence boards. You can build a frame from 2x4's or pallet 'stringers' and nail the fence boards on top of them to make a wood floor. If the termites move in, just throw it away and make a new one. (Treated 2x4's are inexpensive and shouldn't be attacked by termites.) Total cost-the price of nails or screws. If splinters are an issue, the boards can be sanded and finished with any exterior stain, sealer or paint. Anyone with 7th grade carpenter skills could help build this thing. You may be able to find a sale on new fence boards and be within your landlord's budget. The wood is far less work than bricks and will possibly be cooler to walk on. This answer has nothing to do with landscape design, just a few ideas about getting a cheap patio. Hope that helps, Linda

I know it's hard for you to believe now, but the yard is very crowded since most of those trees are going to get huge. I would not want either blue spruce that close in the foreground because you're not going to like removing their bottom branches when they get large, but you'll be forced to because they will totally dominate the space, leaving you no yard in which to walk. Then, there is the oak tree right near that's going to grow up and shade the spruce out, making them ugly. I'd move those two spruce back in line with the one nearest the fence just to get them farther away, and they would serve as decent screening for a good while. Fill in the remainder of the fence line with two or three other tall shrubs that can be made into trees ... like lilac or something along those lines. Move the trees from the center of the yard more toward the yard sides. Keep the center of the yard open, just grass. It's all going to be shady someday, but needs more organization now.

Are the rectangles in the back right of the lawn stepping stones? I've never had much luck trying to set stepping stones into the lawn. I'd suggest a normal path along the edge of the bed back there that will then serve as a divider between the bed and lawn. Which back exit is near the kitchen? Is that the one closest to the BBQ area? What is the distance between the BBQ and the seating? Looks like it may be a bit far but I'm not sure I'm reading the drawing correctly. Is the firepit going in on the left of the patio? Is that seating around that area? I'd recommend a permanent firepit as most of the portable ones are too small to hold a real fire. You'll also want to consider somewhere to store a small amount of wood to supply the fire.

@greenfish1234 Thank you again for your input. I'm attaching a better picture of the back door area. Our door is currently a slider door - not sure if that will be switched in the future to a french door. How far past the door should the steps/landing go? The further we go, the further we cut into that dead space next to our family room wall (to the right of the door). Also, the deeper the total of depth of the steps/landing combined, the deeper the bed gets to the left of the steps/landing, unless we don't make that bed as deep as the steps/landing, but not sure if that will look right. I'm also attaching a pic of landing/steps I found on line. Not that I want curved steps or that material, but was wondering if I could turn that dead space into a raised planter on the landing. That way I can soften that area. If I did this though, not sure how far to bring out the planter - just to the last step, or to the edge of the back of the family room wall. In this pic, their dead space is probably 1/2 that of mine.