What are you doing here, Bob?
Jim,
We're laying a retaining wall, to be tied into the new, much larger patio. It's hard to see in the photo, but the land slopes down almost 2' there. The idea is to turn the area around the tree into shrubs and flowers, rather than grass.
The old concrete patio was in full sun most of the day. We decided to go back to grass on the west half of the old patio, and extend the new patio eastward under the trees so that we could choose between sun and shade at any time. We're using the same pavers and steps that we used in the new front walkway.

When my labourers showed up, and I outlined the extent of the patio, they said, "Man, that is gonna be one large patio".
My wife is trying to restrain me from building a matching patio for my car-nut friends who drop by, on the raised area in front of the double-entry glass doors on the garage, but you know it's gonna happen.

And, we will have one unified sound system controlled
FROM THE GARAGE. We definitely have our priorities set.
As I mentioned earlier, the overhead doors arrive on Tuesday......finally. The 1" x 12" pine (rough one side) is waiting at the lumber yard. Once the doors are up, I'll go get it and start staining all sides.