Hello! First time poster here in the porch & deck forum.

We are looking to build a deck off the back of our house, which we'd access through existing sliding glass doors. There's a 'temporary' set of steps now which we use to access the outside.

The current footprint is 9' x 27', with a descending slope of 25". We have fieldstone down now,

Looking up at the space, on the left is a concrete retaining wall, covered in ivy, with a 9" or so edge of rocky soil.

The backyard is higher up, and sloped (lots of ledge so that's not changing) and we access it via steps at the end of the fieldstone.

Our initial thinking is to leverage the height of the deck to make getting into the back yard easier; so continue it to where the steps are in order to ascend the back yard area (from a higher point) and descend to the side yard area.

Back yard looking at house:

I recognize that we will have to thoroughly destroy any existing plant growth next to the retaining wall.

Any/all thoughts/recommendations/feedback appreciated.