There was fake turf on the playground at a school where my kids attended at one point, and there is maintenance involved with it (replenishing/leveling the infill material). I'm sure it's more frequent at a school where it gets heavy use vs. at a residence. I have a neighbor who has it in the backyard and they have dogs. She said she uses Simple Green to clean up dog messes :-/ Athletes who play and practice on artificial turf have brought up health concerns, so there's controversy around that (without a lot of research), so that's also something to consider for those with young kids and/or pets. I tend toward the other extreme (shying away from chemical fertilizers and pesticides) even it if means not having grass look perfect and green all the time and sharing my landscape with creatures who leave unsightly holes in leaves, etc. I think artificial turf has its place and looks (and functions) great in the right application, but it would really bum me out to go out in my own yard and be walking on plastic.

First and foremost, you would never want to eliminate a downspout. Not giving water an awesome way to escape from your roof edge wouldn't be helpful. If anything, it would be better to have a downspout that was not needed, or was being underused, as this causes no harm. Water spilling over the edge of an overused gutter (because it cannot escape through downspouts quickly enough) could potentially cause some "major" problems. "... the lot wasn't adequately graded to keep the water away from the sides of the house ..." In that case, the solution is to fix the inadequate grading. I doubt it was horribly inadequate so I doubt we are talking about that much. Given that your side yard is only a few feet in width, probably not more than a couple of inches difference in elevation would be necessary from the foundation to the lot line. (This is for the side yard only.) The other issue is getting water that falls at the back of the house to run from it and around to the sides, where it is carried forward by the proper side yard grading. Whether this is happening is very difficult for you to convey to me through pictures and words, especially when there are plants and things in the way in any photograph. You must just understand the concept and then be able to ascertain whether or not the proper thing is happening in real life, when you inspect the grounds first hand. Conceptually, the grade must fall away from the house in ALL DIRECTIONS, without exception. This may be nearly imperceptible to the eye, but it can be measured with a level placed perpendicular to the foundation walls. Water that runs away from the house must have a clear way to escape without being forced (by wrong grade) to return to the house. Likely, creating a path for water to escape from the house is going to be no problem at the front or both sides, since it requires little change or already exists with the natural grade. Where it could be a problem is at the back of the house, since there is a hill in the back yard running toward the house. There is an obvious potential conflict. In effect, you must create a "valley" (I'm using words that exaggerate what this would look like) between the house and the back yard hill. Water in that "valley" would run necessarily neither left nor right unless it were given some pitch in those directions. Typically, the "valley" would be highest near the center of the back of the house and lowest near the back corners of the house. This leads the water to run toward the corners. Once it arrives at the corners it is carried toward the front yard by the "valley" that exists between your yard and the neighbor's (his grade is pitched away from his house the same as your grade is from your house), and which corresponds with the side lot line. How much your yard's drainage correlates with this typical scheme is not possible for me to tell. But if you understand it, you can inspect parts of your yard and say "If rain falls at this spot, where will it run? Where is downhill from here?" The aggregate of how water would flow in all the individual spots will add up to if your yard has adequate drainage. If the concrete "trough" has an outlet -- a pipe at the bottom -- it is being used as a catch basin (drain). If it has no pipe, but just dirt in the bottom, it is being used as a retention pond (allows water to seep into the ground.) The latter would not be desirable in that location. If it is the former, the drawback is the structure itself ... its being in the way of beauty and use of the yard. If it is the latter, the drawback is that a lot of water is being slowly pumped into the soil next to your foundation. Either way, I would not want this thing in my yard. I'd want to figure out good surface drainage and then comply with it ... since doing that is not a big, bad, ugly, hugely expensive thing. (I'm speculating here, but it's based on what you've said so far.) If it's the case that your downspouts ARE emptying through underground pipe all the way to the city sidewalk, the drawback is that that's a lot of underground pipe, subject to potentially being blocked and failing right in the middle of any future storm. Yikes! What drain outlets you're seeing near the sidewalk at the face of everyone's retaining wall might just be drainage for the wall itself. All of the possibilities is not something I can ever know from afar. Someone must do sleuthing on site and make determinations about what is actually happening.

You've got a lot of brick colors and sizes and patterns going on. It's tricky complimenting existing brick with concrete pavers, but can be done. I had a similar patio at my last place, went with gray pavers and it was OK, but if I could do it again, I would have installed a low wood deck (one that didn't need a railing) or done poured cement or large cement blocks with bricks lining them. Less busy. Also, I recommend planting some pretty shrubs against the fence, gives you something to look at and enjoy when you are out on the deck. There are inexpensive options that will stay small and narrow. Not sure your zone but it looks like it is temperate, so I can tell you that I had good luck with globe arborvitae, Ms. Kim lilac and magic carpet spirea under similar circumstances. I also had some junipers but they were not as easily available and I did have to prune them some. I also had a blueberry bush, dwarf Japanese maple, climbing knockout rose and dwarf clethra that also did well in the confined space. I had a hedge of raspberries on trellises against the garage ad they were a huge pain, but I could never bring myself to tear them out when they bloomed and set fruit. Ninebark is also an easy peasy and inexpensive shrub to get but it has to be hard pruned every year to keep it confined. A similar substitute is wine and roses weigela which I see now has been bred to dwarf size. I also had some dwarf conifers, but they are more expensive, harder to find and harder to take care of. But sky pencil holly, sky rocket juniper and Alberta spruce are plant suggestions that you can get all the time in most places and could work. Also some of the dwarf azaleas if they grow in your zone.

I am having stone installed in areas of my front yard. Seems like I’ve been waiting forever! I’m on the landscaper’s schedule for September! The rock we chose they call ”brown 1” river rock “. Not a very exciting name haha! It’s what I’ve used elsewhere on our property and it looks so natural. We will have 4 yards of rock installed along with 400’ of heavy duty weed barrier and whatever else is necessary to complete the job. I can not wait to have this project done. White is nice but I feel is too glaring. Especially here in sunny Florida. Here is what mine looks like. And here is a pot of rain Lily’s that just bloomed today. So glad I rescued them from the front bed that will soon be rocked. I wasn’t sure if I saved rain lilies or daylillys. Ignore the leftover cherry tomatoes on the ground. I just pulled the plant out to compost. Tomatoes are done here until fall/winter. @Jilly count me in as a rock lover! When friends visit from up north they always bring me a big rock or two! I have them all over along with seashells. Rocks are hard to come by here except for coquina and I do have some of those!