One thing I see on a fairly regular basis in this forum is someone showing up with a preconceived desire to proceed with a faulty scheme, or one that is only partially "baked." I can't tell yet if this is what is coming. Elbow, why do you want to lower the grade around the back door and create more of a step? (Usually, people desire less steps rather than more so it would be good to explain the reasoning behind the desire.) In lowering the grade, it will become important to know how the grade outside of the project area interfaces with that which is within. Of course, we can't see ANY of that and it has not been explained to us. This is not a question about water which gets into the joints between pieces of stone. It's about the much greater volume of water that doesn't get in and must run off. In the last picture, what you are showing is what most of us would call some sort of "flagstone" ... relatively flat, broad pieces of irregular shape. My own thoughts about this is that thin flagstone does not really make good paving when installed on a sand base (regardless of whether there is concrete under it, or not.) If you walk on packed beach sand, you'll notice that your feet leave an imprint because the pressure of your foot is enough to cause a shift of unprotected sand. While flagstone protects the sand layer SOME, it is THIN and CAN shift in small degrees (usually in a rocking motion) when pressure is applied and depending on the state of moisture content in the sand base. It can shift due to the action of freezing and thawing. Over time, these small shifts can add up to a cattywampus and not very pretty surface ... not the kind of thing you'd want, really, for a rock solid 100-year old barn and nice house. Thin flagstone makes a much better -- durable even -- paving surface if it is mortared directly on top of a concrete slab ... without any sand embedment layer at all. But this kind of installation, while not impossible as a DIY project, requires some learning and skill so is usually left to someone already with experience. Using this size project to "learn" on might be asking a bit much of one's self. It would be MUCH easier -- much, much easier -- to install a normal thickness (2 3/8" or greater) regular paving unit on an aggregate base: bricks, concrete pavers, uniformly cut stones, etc., if that's the type of base one wishes and if their experience is limited. One would still need to learn something, but it is much easier to develop skill for that than it is to develop skills at mortaring in flat work. You could use steel mesh in a concrete slab, but it would be pointless in paving laid on sand. I'm going to guess that the appeal of the flagstone is that you have access to it at a reasonable price ... but the other end of the equation is that its installation will be expensive (even if only in your labor the amount of time you must put in to learn, and the risk-factor of a potential botch.) As far as water that penetrates into the soil or below the paving ... consider that the soil is basically an ALWAYS DAMP medium. That's why the grade outside of a building cannot be raised to too high an elevation. If the grade is too high, the only solution is reducing it. Also, the grade around a building must be graded such that water runs away from the building (it is usually said for 10', but it depends to some degree on surrounding conditions.) If the grade elevation around the building is acceptable, then there is no reason to worry about the soil having some dampness. It's the way it is. What one should worry about is moving the excess rain water the heck away from the house ASAP. In the case of this paving, if you get the surface to drain properly, there is nothing to be concerned about with a little water entering between paving stones. The idea that you can put down a slightly subsurface waterproofing membrane to take care of water penetrating the soil is more likely to cause problems than solve them. It's not needed. And you wouldn't want to create a layer of water that has no real route of escape.

Oh my. What is a passionate rose lover like you doing in that glacial hell hole? Reading about your endeavors has exhausted me and I haven't even lifted a shovel. I admire your grit and determination, but would love to see you rewarded with thousands of blooms on your rose bushes for all your hard work. I bet they could use engineers in zones 7 to 10!

Until we redo flowerbeds, would it be possible to place them on the grass, right in front of the beds and left/right of path - not ON the beds? Definitely nothing would fit on the actual steps. Initially I thought about placing regular urns (not squatty) on the edge of the platform, which is wider than the steps. But in this case the urns cannot have a larger than 15 max diameter- which led some posters to say that those would look off-scale relative to the house (too small). So that's what got us on the grass, in front of the stairs, left and right. Not on the platform, not on steps and not even on the flower bed now - but on the grass IN FRONT of flower bed. Squatty but wide in diameter. I am trying to decide whether that would look fine because this seems the only place available for a larger diameter. I will definitely try stacking up some smaller pots there. Otherwise, I need to content myself with taller but smaller-diameter urns, up on the edge of the platform - whether on-scale or not.

I'm with Yard on the paver size. Large format pavers are hard to work with, even for experienced crews. One 16x24 weighs 72 lbs, according to the Menards link. Keep in mind that you're not just plopping them down and moving on. Odds are, because you'll be learning as you go, that you'll be pulling pavers up and putting them back multiple times to get a smooth, even surface. Plus, I don't know what the quality of the pavers are, but generally box store pavers aren't the greatest. That can mean being slightly out of square or other issues that are magnified when using a bigger paver. I'd do a 4x8 border and a 4x8 in a herringbone or running bond pattern. In terms of your questions: 1. suck it up and make the cuts. Go slow and take off a little material at a time until you get good at it. This is another reason to use smaller pavers if you're not confident about the cuts! It's way easier to piece together a curve with several smaller pavers than to try and cut a clean arc in a slab. 2. Rectangular is fine, but if you feel up to it I like Yard's concept. I wouldn't waste time putting curves against the planting bed. Soften the edge with plants and you'll be fine. The curves in that inspiration photo are a terrific example of what NOT to do. Squiggles aren't good design. If it looks like a roadkill rattlesnake, don't do it. 3. border the whole thing unless you have a compelling design reason not to. I don't see a reason not to. 4. if your house has red brick avoid pavers w/ red in them. The red pigments in clay bricks and the red pigments in concrete pavers will never look right together. Don't skimp on your base, and don't forget to pitch the patio slightly to shed water. The biggest thing is don't rush. Stand up and step back frequently, because your surface can start to get "wavy" and you'll never see it from 2-3 feet away. When I built my first paver walkway in 1995 I tore it out and redid it 3 times because I was impatient (and, at 20, kinda stupid).