What does your yard and house look like? It's better to make suggestions when there is a perspective on your house.

I like picture number two, with the kid on the steps. Simple and uncluttered. If you wanted you could add flowers in pots to draw the eye to one side or the other.

If you use good materials and have the steps constructed in good proportion, to me plainer is better.

none of those steps have an open riser .

Thanks everyone for your interest.

Chris, I don't have a current pic that would reflect the narrow depth and elevation. With a winter storm hitting, I'll pass on taking any new pics :)

Amanda, I too like things simple.

Deviant-deziner. Since I figured everyone knew what an open riser look was I'd skip that for brevity. I shared the others since I was awkward in my descriptions.

We're realizing now, that definite concessions are going to have to be made. Safety obviously comes first and then for us, function is absolutely key. Out of frustration, we thought of just using the firepit patio steps that are to the West but realistically, we'd HATE it if those continued to be the only steps. The past 3 summers we endured that and grumbled every time we've had to do walk out of our way. It's not so much the distance as the perception, if steps were in the location we're trying to put them, it would be so much easier to use the lower level. So bottom line, the steps are going in.

We're evaluating how we can make these new steps as aesthetically pleasing as we can within the confines of what we have to work with. This is a sadly a patch job and I'm just looking to have it blend as well as possible. It will be a decision of the lesser of the other evils.

Didn't you say in an earlier thread that you were hiring a designer? What was his/her input?

Yes, I was open to getting a designer BUT when we'd go to home shows (we're going next week), I'd look through portfolios carefully not quite finding what I was looking for - yes I'm VERY picky. I find lots of landscaping I like on Houzz (I should have paid attention to the local companies that were doing the landscaping - light bulb moment). Ultimately we finished most of the hardscaping design ourselves.

I LOVE the patios that we designed and had poured late summer. Extremely functional and aesthetically wonderful. We can start having people over once these steps are done to show it all off.

Though we have a lot of square footage hardscaped, it doesn't look like it. My FIL noticed when he walked throughout the different patios that there was a lot more space then it seemed when he initially looked at it. That's EXACTLY what I wanted to accomplish...lots of room for entertaining but still have a "yard. Even w/o all the plantings that will be going in this spring, it looks great. The plantings will just be icing on the cake.

We're going to bite the bullet and embed the steps if at all possible. If indeed we can embed them, we'll go 8' wide with a 4-6' wide landing breaking the step run. We should have enough extra stone from taking out 8' of the existing stone wall along with about 9 other large stones/boulders that were left in the yard from the initial installations. This will open up the 1800 square feet of lower level to the upper level. It will be tighter on top then I'd prefer but being the walkway to the West will be 10-12' (narrows) wide, I think we'll still have enough.

This is going to cost quite a bit more then we'd like but it shouldn't be too bad...naivety is my middle name. To top it all off, I have the satisfaction of having completed the full design on my 3rd and LAST yard! EVERYONE loved my last yard, I can't wait to see what they think of this one when all the plants are in the ground.

I would vote for something not too difficult/confusing to go up and down. One simple wrong step last Sat. and have a black and blue ankle to to toes left foot, twisted right knee and hip. Have to wear a boot for a few weeks and can't do anything I want to do.

OUCH! That is exactly why I said safety was the number 1 concern over anything else. I wish you a speedy recovery.

When browsing through designers portfolios one should be looking at the depth of the designers creativity and skill level.
It is a representational tool .
Because a designer might not have an open set of steps in their portfolio does not mean that they cannot design a set.

Deviant, I couldn't agree more. When I can't say, WOW for at least A design (I do a lot on here and Houzz), I don't pursue it any further. I don't look for specifics but I do look for things that are unique and something I wouldn't have come up with. As I indicated, I wish the light bulb had gone off in my head to pay attention to the designers of properties with pics on Houzz that were done in my local area. It's water under the bridge now.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can embed the steps. We'll have to likely give up some space on the transition landing but as I said, we were starting to see the writing on the wall. The extra cost to do this will be removing 8' of stone wall and building the side walls of the steps. We have all the materials, so it should be labor (a LOT of labor).

Since I have no clue what your areas look like or how things flow it is hard to pick one over the other. I'll just comment in the order of your pictures

I would look at in terms of how do you want to be able to walk from these stairs. What kind of flow do you want?

the first pic I'm assuming is just stairs going straight down. This sort of directs you into walking a straight line and not spread out.

The second pic means you can walk anywhere and the stairs are not steering anybody in any direction. Might need to check code on this one too. Not sure all areas allow this type of design.

The third is sort of a combination between the first and second. It narrows the traffic flow some, but still allows multiple directions.