"Any other suggestions would be welcomed."

As you're fairly far along in your efforts, you probably don't want to hear criticism of the concept, but I have to ask you about it and make a couple of comments. One thing that always seems wrong to me are elevation changes that go down only to go back up as one travels along the path (or the reverse of this.) From the house one immediately descends. As they continue to the lounge area they must return to a higher elevation. It would be better to bring the lounge level all the way to the stoop. (Fewer steps is better.)

It is fine to separate the patios from the house with plantings, but it begs a spacious connection, and in the plan it seems to narrow to me. Also, the plan is devoting some of that space to a very shallow bed alongside the family room. I would eliminate that bed in favor of a more spacious pedestrian connection. Why didn't you want to use a deck for the dining portion of the outdoor space. It seems like it would be a better solution on account of allowing the dining to happen at a more convenient level. There are so many ways to develop garden/plant interest, I don't think it is worth the sacrifice of of separating the dining from the house with a planting area, or necessarily having a patio instead of deck. It makes more sense to me to have the lounge area be patio, at a lower level, and separated from the house with plantings. I'm thinking that a simpler, more straightforward arrangement would be better for using the space, along the lines of this example:

(Of course, adjusting space and levels according to what is necessary.)

Thank you. I really appreciate your time and the feed back.

The lower patio actually is a step down (not a step up, which is what I think you thought it was?). Also, I agree about the bed behind the family room. It was shown incorrectly in Sketch #1, it's actually supposed to be a 5' deep bed (including the fireplace bump-out) - do you think that is adequate?

I had the separation of patios with the one bed because I really wanted 2 separate, areas. I've been on many patios where it's almost one giant patio, and I don't prefer it. At my previous house, we also had a separation of areas with a bed, and I really liked it. I wanted the sitting/lounge area to be a cozy/separate area.

Thank you again, for you time and comments - I really appreciate other people's perspective and advice. :)

Where is the mosquito repellent dispenser? Or the shade that is going to allow people to sit out during daylight?

Right now it looks like you are working on a project that is going to look really, really cool in photographs, and be relatively unusable in real life.

I am not talking about the landscape strip at the wall with the bump-out. But around the corner, the wall adjacent to the entrance ... you have a bed that looks only 2 1`/2' or 3' deep. It'd be better to get rid of that entirely as there's no way to expand the depth without cramping the pedestrian space which is far more important.

And I wasn't suggesting necessarily that the dining and lounge areas be together though that's how they came out in my example plan. It was about having decent, uncontrived pedestrian access and the elevations (which you say we are already in sync on.) Per the pedestrian access, it looks to me like your plan has restrictive areas.

@Mad - good observation :) We will be putting in shade trees. But honestly, I don't want a lot of shade - I love the sun, and my goal is to have a place I can sit in the sun. At the same time, will have a shade tree at the point where the sun is at it's hottest during the day as well as a few other trees, so that at least a portion of the patio has shade.

We don't have a major mosquito issue (thank God). But I will look into that, I never new there was such a thing. I wonder if there are non-toxic versions.

Thank You!

You also don't want dead space between the patio and house-nothing will grow there and the exposed fountain will look bad, yet another hardscape materal. And I agree with yardvaark that the walkways need to be opened up. Expanding the surface back to the house will help.

some thoughts:

@Dig Doug's Designs - Oh Wow! I wish I could do a mock up like that - I'm not tech savvy. Thank you so much for helping me visualize.

@greenfish1234 - I agree about limiting the # of materials being used. The front brick walkway was supposed to tie into the brick on our home. Maybe I can have the contractor that is doing the back yard, put a brick facing over the front porch stucco?

I'm going to check again with the contractor to see about raising the back yard patio, so that we can incorporate a retaining wall, but I'm pretty sure we can't.

Hm I don't see the stucco you are talking about but I really like your house and stucco breaks up brick facades really nicely. And it seems wasteful to replace your perfectly nice front walk. just use care limiting the materials in the back, and maybe bring some up front (like a stacked stone garden retainers in the same stone you use for your walls and risers) to tie it all in.

Not exactly like this but it seems worth bringing in some fill to have the patio at door level like in this pic.

I see your door is at least one step up from your exposed foundation. Sometimes there are a few runs of clapboard laid over foundation so you might be able to go higher, but if not, one step is way better than several. And i like long, Broad, short steps outside for really easy flow so in this pic the patio comes up to the clapboard and the steps are less than 6" high, maybe 18" deep and much wider than the door.

@greenfish1234 If we can't raise the foundation all the way up to the back door, then are you saying to do away with the landing, and just do steps? We will be going in & out with food, etc. so that's why we wanted a landing - to steady ourselves.

No, I like a big landing for exactly that reason, but if you can get it almost there, to just below the clapboard, which it seems you can, really wide steps with very short risers can act as a landing and would look much better than a small, door-width landing with steeper steps. Plus you won't need a railing which would really mess up your look.

Some ideas:

^^ something like this but with as few steps as possible, and even deeper treads. But look how they have 4 different hardscape materials in their ONE small area. Not good.

^^great example of wide treads, low risers. I love it. But I would want more of this at the doors so you dont step down from inside.

^^ love this-makes me think of your idea to have a garden surrounding a separate "room"

More thoughts if your doors open out, I would want the first step/landing to be as wide and deep as the full door swing. That is wasted space anyway and it will be more aesthetically pleasing

@greenfish1234 Thank you again for your input.

I'm attaching a better picture of the back door area. Our door is currently a slider door - not sure if that will be switched in the future to a french door. How far past the door should the steps/landing go? The further we go, the further we cut into that dead space next to our family room wall (to the right of the door). Also, the deeper the total of depth of the steps/landing combined, the deeper the bed gets to the left of the steps/landing, unless we don't make that bed as deep as the steps/landing, but not sure if that will look right.

I'm also attaching a pic of landing/steps I found on line. Not that I want curved steps or that material, but was wondering if I could turn that dead space into a raised planter on the landing. That way I can soften that area. If I did this though, not sure how far to bring out the planter - just to the last step, or to the edge of the back of the family room wall. In this pic, their dead space is probably 1/2 that of mine.

That pic is exactly what I am hoping to help you avoid. When they make your patio they should have to bring in sand and gravel and such so hopefully that soon will raise the grade some but in the scope of the project some additional fill to raise it as high as possible will be so worth it. Other than being too tall visually it is also physically cumbersome to navigate SO MANY steps!

Look how much better it is with fewer steps:

On top of that, I would insist on no step down from the door, ideally the landing would be at door level. Finally, I would eliminate the planter. It is busy and messes up what should be an uncomplicated, serene space. I would bring the landing all the way to that wall and an equal distance to the left, and decorate it with brightly colored pots of flowers.