I agree with Dytecture. I like your idea of the outdoor sink/counter against the house. Do that on the upper level. Then you could bring down two sets of steps from that, but it would be better to cascade the steps all the way across to avoid ugly railing blocking everything in.

I would deck over your entire patio.

I agree with Dylecture, about the landing space.Have the steps coming from the sliders land on the patio, and the steps from the single back door run along the side of the house, so they take you off the patio. That way either door will give you easy access to either area.

I would add a wood deck from the left corner of your house ( by the downspout) across the 2 doors to the end of the patio. It would give you a tiered patio area with some interest.

Thanks everyone. @Dytecture, and NewJerseyAccents, do you mean a narrow landing space in between the steps, or one long landing area and then steps from there?

I like your original idea of a narrow deck between the two doors. Then the steps from the narrow door go in line from the deck to the right. The steps from the slider would look nice in the corner where your house juts out. Alternatively, put in a wide set of steps directly in front of the sliders and another from the narrow door to the right.

I put this together for you. I don't have the right software to build a deck, but this will give you an idea of what I was talking about and at least play with your options. Looks like you will probably have about 3 steps down from the landing space to the patio, just a guess. You can still do a counter and sink next to the steps or swap the single door steps to land the same way as the other ones. I know there is a dead corner on the left, I have one on my patio also, though it looks unsightly, it's a good, out of the way place for garbage etc. when you are having a party.

At NewJerseyAccents , thank you so much. This really helps me picture it since Im such a visual person. We also thought about the dead space and thought the same as you, we'll use it as a storage space in the winter for the grill and in the summer, we can keep the garbage can in there and out of the way. Thanks again!

I agree with New Jersey accents about the deck but I would extend the deck all the way to where the house juts out. that little space to the right of the sliding door will just be dead space if you don't extend the deck. If you do extend it you will have a nice shady spot for a chair.

I would go corner to corner and steps corner to corner.

Is that an access door for the cawl space under the sliding door? Is that vinyl siding on the house. If it is both I like the deck between the two doors. It would solve the cawl space access. Make sure the siding is removed where it connects to the house.

@www.etsy.com/shop/NewJerseyAccents Do you mind if I ask what software you used to create the image of the deck on the house? Thanks.

Here's a 3D deck connecting your doors:

Putting a deck up doesn't solve the issue. What you need is a proper design. This is something that should have been addressed before the patio was built all the way to the house. If you add a deck you end up with waisted space. You will have an area up top that will not be enough space for anything. If you design and build a landing with maybe a grill or bar area you now end up with usable space. The best way is to connect those two doors or separate them with a raised planter bed or water feature. It would be nice to see the whole area.

Here is an example of situation similar to yours... their solution was two sets of stairs that were joined together....

@VizX Thanks . The patio is done and I have to work with what I have. I just want to incorporate an idea that works well with the patio but doesn't take up too much space from the patio. My budget is limited, but I don't want the project to look like it's limited.

Maria, I use Serifs Draw Plus 5x. It's relatively inexpensive but the majority of garden/ outdoor planning tools are mostly overhead planning, I kinda like looking at elevations. It does offer some perspective views if you have time to play with it. For my purposes, I find the programs worth it.

not sure why this popped up in the discussion section since it's so old, but for anyone reading this now, I agree with VizX that it's rather backwards planning. Money could have been saved on the patio brickwork had it been done after the stair situation was resolved and installed. Any set of stairs needs posts buried into the ground which means ripping up brickwork you just paid to have installed and then fixing the bricks up to the newel posts to make it look nice again. Additionally, you're installing stairs and/or decking over bricks you paid to have installed. If your budget is limited, planning ahead is your friend.

A photo of the finished work would be great to see.