I would do deck and tie it into the space around the pool so it would be one step down to the poolpatio and I would not do covered but I would do the deck the whole width of the back of the house that would give you nice entertaining space , an outdoor kitchen and out door dining space .

You can add a white pergola or retractable awning with the porch.

Here is one idea to do something like this

Happy New Year!

Thank you all so much!

"As you can see we have 6 doors that open to nothing"

I see one door and one set of steps, where are others?

Appears to be sliders, millworkman.

4' off the ground?

That's what the OP meant by "doors that go nowhere!"

As one who has deep porches and a dark living/dining room, IT WILL darken your house.

If you want a covered porch for weather protection, you can either design it with a high ceiling (3’ taller than doors/windows) or put a skylight in it. If an open area, the pergola or retractable awning suggested by Beverly would be beautiful and allow more light.

This is the plan we received- I don’t love it but not sure it’s easy to fix? The master bedroom Is behind the black French doors. I wish that area of the deck was much smaller as I don’t really want people hanging out in front of our room. But it would look odd to cut the stairs at a sharper angle. I would separate the decks completely but there is a slider to the left of our bedroom in the bump out so we’d continue to have a door to no where.

Any thoughts suggestions appreciated :)

Could you install an open style fence around your door to create your own little enclave? Kind of like a courtyard.

How often do you expect to have people milling about outside? I would want to make a clear delineation between the public sliders and bedroom sliders to discourage people from trying to enter through the bedroom.

It’s a pretty tiny house so we are hoping it provides more hangout space for our teen kids when they have friends over. It’s a ideal space for a screened porch but then I’m really committing to minimizing our privacy

You have a pretty little house, but I think the scale of that deck with the stairs all the way around throws it all off.