Backyard Blues

The husband and I are currently in crazy backyard improvement mode. We've neglected our backyard basically since we bought the house (aside from mowing the grass and taking care of the pool) because neither myself, nor the husband, has the patience or time to deal with the crazy amounts of plants/trees/ivy/etc. The previous owners would surely be disappointed if they saw what we did (or didn't do) to all of their hard work. We'll have to do some plant planning to get this backyard to a manageable place that we can maintain. If only I liked rock gardens...

Anyway,  I blame the first picture below for our current endeavor. This all started because we wanted a designated area for our chaise loungers instead of taking up the only main patio space and we had an annoying tree with berries that was wrecking havoc on our poor pool. Solution: Get rid of tree and extend the patio in its' place. Much easier said than done.

Current Inspirations:

I am absolutely in love with grass pool decks. Not all that practical because you would constantly be cleaning grass from the pool but isn't it pretty?!  We are thinking about using large  concrete pavers like the pic below. Probably a little smaller though.

Can I transport this backyard to my backyard?

  

Or this one?

We'll be back in the yard tomorrow so hopefully we'll have some progress to post. And Sunday will involve heavy machinery!!! :)