Analysis first, then plan, as Tookoo recommends. Use native plants, as neotoma recommends. Get specific plant recommendations locally, as Terri & sgelade recommend. Here is my two cents worth, for the shortterm. a. Remove and stockpile the lawn edging and most of the mulch back against the fences. b. Take a can of spray paint, or a bundle of surveyor's flag, and mark the largest circular or curved form that will fit within the fenced areas, no matter where the trees stand (inside or outside of the line) to form the temporary edge of your lawn area. See if the entire family agrees on the alignment or just do what looks best to you as the Senior Gardener. c. Add the wood edging to the new edge, or, it will look a lot better if the edge is not visible, using a steel edge whose top edge is down just above the grass roots and no longer visible, and not an impediment to the lawn mower. (when you form the plant beds, you will dig down a couple inches at the edge, where it meets the steel, and then slope the bed up from there, and the mulch will be contained at the level of the lawn, beyond) My recommendation, after you call in your landscape advisor, is to fill the beds totally with ground cover, beneath the shrubs, so no mulch will be seen after the two years of plant growth, using only a finer textured mulch which will become part of the soil bed. (Maybe the bark mulch will smell good in your new fire pit, along with the wood edging.) d. Plant the entire area with grass seed or sod and enjoy the beauty. The curved edge will make the space appear and feel larger and will decrease the maintenance of the smaller bed areas. On the subject of tree placement: analyse first, then plan. Look at all the views beyond your fenceline from all windows of the house, the living/ dining areas, all the bedrooms, to enhance the good views and to block the big, the bad, and the ugly. The large trees on your list will block views from the upper windows, The small horizontally branched trees will be a piece of sculpture in your downstairs view throughout the year, while their flowering and fragrance yet another reason to be alive. For instance, if you have an attractive small tree that has attractive flowers and foliage, PLUS has attractive bark color and has a sculptural quality in the off-season, you won't have to visit the museum quite as often, with a sculpture garden right out your window.

Consulting a Landscape Architect or designer is going to be time and money well spent. Taking in the location and aspect of the yard. What you and your family want and how you want to use the space for, will help in creating the design. A good landscape designer can be found through you local landscape industry association and will be able to provide a cost estimate to construct the project. Then if you are going to get contractors to quote the work you will be getting quotes based upon the same brief and not random impressions based upon verbal interpretations which can only confuse your decisions. If your going to do this project your self then ask your designer how they would program the works and how to stage construction. Best of luck. Hope to see the finished job !!

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Some comments, I hope they are helpful. Create a gravelled area for your fire pit. Laying a some sand, levelling off, a weed barrier and raking gravel is within the skill set of most handy people. Use treated timber for an edging to keep it neat. Buy a nice ready made steel fire pit. Buy some seating. Your planting lacks a scheme. Without a scheme your yard will not look put together the way professional landscaping does. Every plant has to be chosen for a purpose (texture, height, colour, privacy etc). You also have all your garden beds in a perimeter against the fence. That's fine for a starting point. But to make the place look inviting you need some garden beds in the yard too. Please avoid the common habit of putting shrubs in the middle of the lawn. It doesn't work well and also makes maintaining your lawn difficult. If you want to make say the entertaining area private from the kids play area a full garden bed is usually a better bet than just a shrub or two. By putting multiple shrubs of varying heights and a creeper in a larger section you create outdoor zones and properly define the area. What you really need to do is measure your yard, draw in your house and all paths and then start drawing in the entertaining area, the kids play area, the veggie patch etc. You will probably have to play around with the layout for a while to come up with something you like and works. Trust me, doing this first will save you a lot off $$ on plantings that don't work and you want to remove later. When you create garden beds do it with three heights. So something under 6" tall, something under 2ft tall and then something over 3ft. Not a definite rule but a good rule of thumb. By having multiple levels in your garden beds you create a more impactful and interesting garden. When gardens are meh, its usually because all the plantings are the same height and it looks flat. Take a look at these gardens to see what I mean.... Alright this fire pit is obviously professionally done, but what you need to look at is how the fire pit is clearly separated from the rest of the yard. The seating creates an outdoor room feel. But also if you look behind the seating there is also a large garden bed behind it. Although the scheme isn't finished my bet is that some tall screening plants are likely to be planted there to create a more intimate mood and shade from summer sun. Having garden beds define a feature really works. This is what I mean about having layers in your garden beds. If this yard was just a row of trees along the fence and then say a low hedge in this front bed it would look okay but not great. They have used different colours, textures and heights all in the same bed here to create something much more interesting. The planters in that corner also create height with the strappy plants. This is why you need to plan our your whole garden so you know that all the plants across the yard work together coherently.