Hello -- I am paralyzed with indecision! Here is the dilemma with our 4-level split. We are going to connect our dining room to the backyard by opening up the brick wall and installing 8-foot long sliding glass doors (white chalk outline in photo).

We plan to put in a flagstone patio over the concrete patio, extending it along the house and pulling it out to a depth of 12 feet (the current concrete patio is 10 feet deep.)

The question is, how to connect the doors to the patio?

The house is a 4 level split. The dining room is about 45 inches above the ground in the backyard. The building code requires a 3-foot deep landing for any drop over 15 inches.

The options seem to be:

1) DECK Build a deck for the area in front of the dining room with steps down to patio. The deck would be just large enough for a table for our family of 4. When entertaining guests and their kids, additional tables would be on the patio. The deck could be at level of dining room, or 15 inches below (one step two risers) to keep it from 'looming' over the yard. (CONS: More fuss than building patio. The taller the deck, the less privacy we'll have and will be 'on display' to neighbors while eating. Also will see more of ugly alleyway behind our backyard. Will chop of the space of the backyard. While entertaining, some people may have to be split up. PROS: Easy transition to outdoor eating area from dining room/kitchen. But bbq will have to be on the lower patio because we don't want the deck to extend too much into the patio because we want room down there for extra tables and seating. We can't extend the deck past the side of the house if the deck is more than 2 feet off the ground due to 8-foot from side lot line requirement in our county.

2. STAIRS W LANDING Landing styled as a "balcony" and wide stairs, perhaps clad in brick and decorated with a fancy wrought iron railing. (CONS: Eats up space on the patio. Would have to go down steps to get to seating and bbq-ing area. PR