Had you considered reconfiguring and adding to the pool fence in order to incorporate the pergola inside pool fence boundary? I can certainly understand there are pros and cons to this, but I thought I would throw it out there. In any case, landscaping, lighting and painting pergola a more harmonious colour seem very good ideas to me. If you sketch out on paper some of the various plans and ideas you like or have in mind, and colour-in the different features, this might help you visualise things better. It's sort of rudimentary, but I have done it several times and it did help me 'see'. Best wishes, and please keep us posted on how you are going.

If you can put doors on the whole back area and deck or pave out to a functional size for entertaining - be sure to have as close to same height as inside and the whole width of the house if possible. You could do the pergola which looks gorgeous and makes a cozy feel. On top of the pergola you may be able to do a weatherproof retractable awning if you do not want a permanent covered area. That would make a whole area for indoor outdoor entertaining in all types of weather. You can still have a step down area to grass and plants at the rear. Travetine is great and easy to hose down. You do not have to concrete them down use pavers on a good road base. You would have to speak to the experts about how to get the right height - also be sure to have a slight fall away from the house.

not the cheapest option but consider a low gabled roof out from the existing central section to complement the shape of the building with a symmetrical arrangement and paving continued on either side to meet the existing verandah paving but the walking path from the carport should follow the path you already walk.. probably a curve of big stepping stones would not break up the lawn so much.. ideally the new gutters would be at the same level as the original but my vintage CAD program won't cooperate but hopefully this image will give you an idea and size is only limited by the lowest angle of the roofing

Yikes, even taking out the alfresco (I think the builder said this wouldn't be included in the calculation) still makes it 227.5sqm! I also just noticed that the zoning might actually require a 3m setback, sorry, it's hard to get actual zone info. The front and back are ok with the retaining and the garage just needs to be 6m from boundary which looks fine. The left side though may be pushing it. And also this plan will likely be out of our price range. I'm wondering if this alternative plan the builder gave us may fit? His price for this works out just inside our budget... we didn't originally like it but have worked out we could change the garage door to the right, fence from the garage up to the north boundary and have a gate for access to front door... it's not as ideal to have the garage taking up some of the good view, but it might even work better for the driveway position. In the second picture, the road ends at the 7.0 text and (A) I think is part of the section to the right... I'm not sure if their designer realised this or if there is an allowance for my driveway to go through there.