Dear Houzzers,

I really appreciate your valuable advices and ideas.
Attached are photographs of my backyard. The house is still under construction, I could not decide what to do with my backyard. It situates north side, there'not much sun coming in. I think I will use flagstone and put a small basin at the corner (with a tap water of course). The problem is, connected kitchen door is about 1 m above the ground, there is no way that I could get smooth connection from my kitchen. My husband suggested to have a large, elevated wooden deck connected to the kitchen. However, as I mentioned, it is not a location for wood.

My plan is to make a small (about 1 M wide) deck connected to my kitchen with stairs. Yet, I am still hoping that there are better ideas. Therefore, dear Houzzers, what will you do with that backyard?

By the way, it is connected to a small, pine forest, I would like to use most of it.

Thank you very much!