I've been going up and down and up and down just taking in all your lovely flowers. The garden shots are great, since there is so much green in addition to the flower colors. Those of us in the no-rain zones are pretty tired of burned out brown. I do love all of them but I'll just mention Dancing With Sandra, Late Round, and Pinhill Claret Symphony. Hope there are still more late bloomers to come. I'll be watching. Avedon

Thank you for the compliment. The porch also provides a place to mount external speakers and the railing serves as somewhere to rest items while opening the door. Noone ever has condern about footing on the large steps which are illuminated after dark. Don't know if you saw the informational comments following several of the photos, but we designed and built the patio ourselves. It took DH and our son most of a summer working primarily weekends. Prior to building the patio, footings for the egress porch and pergola were set ready for construction in later seasons. We engaged a local landscaper to design the flanking gardens plus specify plants suited for the exposure and native soil. This was a worthwhile investment. Very few plant failures have happened. I mention this as our home was also new and it took several years before everything in the photos was constructed. Small plants experience less transplant shock allowing them to mature more quickly so in a few seasons are actually fuller than beginning with larger ones. DH signs on here too and will be able to answer more technical questions about the build should you have any.

On a good day I would go out sit down in the middle of the yard and determine exactly where the water should go. Note the high spots and the low spots. Based on this survey of your back yard you can then come up with a plan to get rid of the water. I can not tell exactly from the picture but it looks like you have two trees in your yard. Picture I and III look like one tree and Picture II looks like the second tree. The second tree appears to be on the high side of your yard, It looks like there is a high spot that creates a dam that causes water to back up on your paitio. If you remove the dam, that may correct your problem. This could be done by remove the sod through the area, taking out the dirt until you are sure that the water will drain from the patio, and replaceing the sod. You must consider the thickness of the sod when you are removing the dirt. As I start the message I would sit on the ground and understand the highs and lows in your yard before I did any thing. As a last resort, you could take your problem to the town board, ask they help. My brother in law's neighbor is currently under orders from the town to fix a drainage mess he created.

Are the triangular, mauve colored gravel mulch areas what you're calling "planters"? I would eliminate them. They seem much more like an impediment than an element of interest. Regarding your paved area edge, I'd simplify. A clean, simple shape would be better looking and easier to use than one with busy flairs (waves and meeting other surfaces at oblique angles.) We're not in a good position to determine if you can keep or get rid of the step. The latter would be preferable if you can do it, but since the patio and pool already exist at their respective elevations, you have to accommodate what you have. Determine the actual difference in elevation in order to know what's possible. If you need to keep two levels, I'd recommend exploring the layout geometry again. But you'd need an accurate plan to work from. The one above shows the pool nearly touching the patio cover. In the picture it looks like you have at least 5' or so there.