Second thoughts on courtyard design!

Hi there
We have an L-shaped couryard, SW facing, about 3m wide and each 'arm' of the L-shape is 12m.
I planned a design for a revamp of it, but now I'm having second thoughts. My original design was the 'if time and money were no option, what would I do?" design. The one we have started on is the "cosmetic improvement on the layout that currently exists." – to not spend too much.
The day after we've just bought pavers to cover the entire space, I want to revert to my original plan of building a deck.
Why?
1. There's a one meter drop from house to courtyard. It would be so awesome and nice with a deck just to step out one or two steps, whereas with pavers it's still requiring some sort of landing and 5 steps (or 4 if we made each step 25cm apart) down to ground level, and a deck would be down just one step or perhaps two. Also, it unifies the space – it’s one surface area whereas steps/landing then a corner on the ground is small.
2. Better 'floor plan'. The real gripe of current layout is:
- wasted space by a poor design . Currently, the access door is halfway along the West wall with a small awkward landing with 5 steps down. This landing cuts the north pergola off and poky to get past, and it gets all the cold wind right thru winter.
Whereas with the deck plan, we'd move the access point from existing West door, to the current South window (Both are same size, so can do a direct swap) to better use the space and make access close to kitchen. Bi-fold /sliding doors, with the deck right there next to the breakfast bar.
We want it 'easy' - I want an easy place outside to get to with my morning coffee for example. If we swapped the door/window, then it would be five steps from counter to seat outside and coffee still hot!!!
The nutshell of any design is: Need for privacy and protection from cold winds on the south side and hot summer sun on west. The best place to sit is in the crux of the L. Currently the layout means you sit at the north west side, and get hit with all the cold south winds in winter. If we had a high pergola wall (with vines/lattice etc) hard against the south / west walls, then it would be nice to sit all year round.
The problem is we now have a truckload of sand, a truckload or two of pavers to do the whole courtyard – and now I want a deck. D’oh!. But a deck means more delays, more expense. We’ve already reached our budget we agreed on.
We were planning to get the paving done next week, but now....
ISSUES
1. Move access to south or leave it at west
2. Build a big deck (well, big for the space, 6x3m) OR build a 1.2m wide x 2.5m long ‘grandstand’ so it doubles as bench and storage space. OR leave existing deck as it is, and just get on and finish what projects we’ve already got started: pergola (needs painting, finishing the upper structure), building a cubby, making bench seats, garden, pavers/fake grass. Otherwise it’ll go forever!!
Ok. The options are:
1. OPTION 1:
Build a deck, 6x3m so it’s from wall to fence, and the whole half of one “L”. and the whole other “L” is just open (no garden, no structures) with fake grass and kids’ stuff. On walls are the ‘garden’ – nice vines.
Then sell off the pavers my man labouriosly obtained from somewhere else!!! That’ll make him happy NOT.
UPSIDE: somewhere nice to sit. A sense of focus/home, an entertaining area that’s really nice.
DOWNSIDE: Cost – it’s expensive, maintenance- if we rent it out, a deck is more maintenance than pavers; kids can’t run around from one end to another except up/down stairs; it’s 50cm off the ground, ...does it really change things?
Wasted all that effort to get the pavers, the sand, and it’ll be neverending. Alreadyit’s been two months of a virtually unusable courtyard. HELP!!! The perfectionist!!!
OPTION 2
Stick with the original plan, see it as ‘phase 1’ , do the paving, do the plantings as planned and the low benches, and do the pergola (lattice) – and then see how it is. Just maybe it’ll be fine. That’s already a lot of work to do for us. We doing it ourselves.
Then, if I still think it’s better to have the entrance on the south not the west, then make like wide grandstand style steps so it’s only 1.2m wide but every second step run the full length of 2.5m long wide steps so you can sit on them.
Downside: have to redo paving around that area, and waste d paving under the new area. Kind of doing things backwards.
Upside: get the job moving. Our driveway is now unparkable bec of sand and pavers. How long will mess sit there???
OPTION 3
Build a halfway option, which is before we do the paving, we do that ‘halfway’ deck – ie move access point to south wall. But that could still take ages to get council approval, then quotes from builders, then get the building materials etc. I’m so sick of the house being totally in disorder already.
OTHER
It’s not intended to be our long-term home. The original plan was something usable and tidy, a ‘cosmetic’ improvement. I’ll try and upload some sketches of: current, deck idea, wide benches idea, and leave landing where it is.
 

Attachments

  • CURRENT COURTYARD.pdf
    273.2 KB · Views: 105
  • 1. with deck.pdf
    599.5 KB · Views: 84
  • with South steps.pdf
    286.6 KB · Views: 73
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