Ordinarily I would find myself in agreement with almost anything Gardengal would recommend, but not in this case. Setting concrete stones at or slightly below the level of existing grass is going to result in constant dirt washing onto the soil with a sandy soil mix, and in a high desert with the constant need for irrigation for a lawn, it will also tend to wash the dirt onto pavers. I personally wouldn't want all that lawn in a climate where it will increase your water bills so tremendously, but recommended mowing heights for a Tall Fescue/Blue Grass lawn mix will be 3 inches, so having it slightly raised about 1/2 to 3/4 inches isn't going to create problems for the lawn mower. Don't forget that when rain does tend to come, as infrequent as it is, it can be the season total all at once, again likely to wash soil onto surfaces that are set too low. As to a pathway set right up against the house, it is a more common design detail in contemporary as well as spanish influenced designs, and can be a classic Spanish/Californian design detail. A desert garden doesn't lend itself to the PNW garden style with tons of foundation plantings; more widely spaced plantings and more sculptural plants placed in a more architectural or natural to the desert way seems more sympathetic to the surroundings to me. I can understand the desire to have a large green lawn in the high desert, especially if you are used to British Columbia conditions, but it is not practical in the long run, and lawn substitutes make more sense. I guess you will have to suffer through ever increasing water bills and constant battles to keep the lawn alive and looking good to understand the potential wisdom of working with your climate instead of against it. A Kentucky Blue Grass lawn doesn't even make much sense here in the San Francisco Bay Area, where they tend to want to go dormant in the summer heat and take much more water and care to keep looking decent than other lawn grasses. I'd suggest that you look into real water miser grasses such as Buffalo Grass for the high desert. Admittedly it will go winter dormant in your area, but it fills in quite quickly with desert heat, and needs hardly any water in comparison to cool season turf grasses such as Tall Fescue or KBG. If your area has a good low water demonstration garden to visit, I'd recommend a visit. Most California Water Districts do have such a display garden to show the merits of plantings that take less water and care. There is a very nice Display garden in Las Vegas, which isn't exactly close, but is similar in climate to your conditions, and illustrates the wealth of plants that actually make sense in your climate.

All I can sat TIna is that is a very cool front entrance you have ALREADY! I will be watching this thread with interest because I am working on redoing my folks house back entrance, which is very much like yours, except instead of the porch area where your chairs are, theirs is screened. And there are two steps down to the ground, which adds to the complexity of my situation. And I want to add a fountain just about where yours is! And redesign the walkway. I am still in the hemming and hawing stage.

You could easily create a handsome finished product with those pavers. Rather than the contrasting color, edge stripe being set in a distance from the edge, you could just make it the edge and it could be a full 8" width stripe. With the charcoal grey, I also like the plain concrete color, which is much lighter, as the contrast stripe. It is a sharper contrast and looks dressy. Whatever colors you consider, get samples, enough to mock up a simulation which you can appraise from a distance with the house in the background, and base your selection on seeing it, rather than just guessing that it will be right. I've seen steps made of mortared pavers that I didn't care for, especially if the tread is a brick laid flat. This is too thin and makes the steps look cheap. The exception, as I mentioned above, is if the paver has a bullnose end (which is often used for pool coping) and the riser is the same material/color. The the riser and tread reads as a solid unit with a decorative edge (the bullnose) like a molding applied to trim work. Notice in your picture of pavers how thin the step treads are -- like tile. This makes the steps look cheap.

The way of living where you have a driveway smack up against your house - on both sides. I sure hope they don't put bathrooms on the sides of these houses. For a walkway to the steps think about doing large cement pavers, say 24" x 36" or poured in place concrete pavers separated by the grass.