Designoline6, That was so kind of you! I really like version 2. You're so right - a curved brick path, as opposed to wide brick landing/patio is much more attractive. One more question, if you wouldn't mind -- how do people step off the porch onto a curved walkway in the middle of the patio? I've attached two more photos. The door near the end of the patio closest to the original walkway is the dog door into the unfinished storage room. The door in the middle is the main entrance to the back yard because that room is our den - fireplace, hardwood floors, big screen tv, pool table. That's where we all go when we have company.

rosiew Amazing - this post began more than a year ago and has life again. Thanks for your suggestion. The pergola is under construction now. We did give consideration to using greenhouse shade cloth but opted to install lattice atop. Should the shade be insufficient we'll make a change. Are afraid that the adjacent trees will cause leaves, etc. to be constantly on shade cloth and can blow away. Have had to downsize the shade area because the city said 12 x 16 is too large (now 8 x 12) - even though they previously approved the footings. The most incompetent, arrogant and disgusting lot of bureaucrats anywhere. No discussion, was told a variance would not be approved, just that everyone must follow the rules. If you ever have a week I'll expound on my true feelings!

I am looking for some kind of material to cover my two story deck, so I can use the first story as the three season room, what I can find online is that there are lots of different product, two of them looks more promise than its peer, dry space and under deck, both of them can be found in local distributor. Could you please kindly share your experience of either one, or other brand of solution, I am sure there are some pro tips you can share to me. Thanks in advance.

Appreciate the info on the Deckstone, I like how the tiles look and the materials sound so much better than composite deck materials. Never understand the logic of putting material that would rot or go bad into a product for exterior use, like putting wood in the composite wood, and those masonite sidings that had paper in it? It is like waiting for disaster to happen. Tried to figure out if 'regular' exterior tiles weight less than Deckstone, and found this site:http://www2.daltile.com/exteriors.cfm. It lists a lot of choices just not able to get the info of the weight per sq.ft. like Deckstone has listed. John made some excellent points, I would need steel frame for a concrete deck. That would be costly. I am leaning on tiling the deck. So far after talking with two contractors, I basically had to redo the decking to hold the extra weight of the tiles. I am waiting for my handyman to come and confirm the cost and whether he is comfortable to do it or not. I think he is pretty honest to let me know his comfort level. I will let you know how that goes. If you find anything else please let me know.