[cute fuzzy bunny]

I did just about all of that stuff, including deck construction and building a fence, at my wifes old house. Even moving large quantities of earth aint so bad. I moved 3 yards of earth with a shovel and a wheelbarrow. 3 yards of WET earth.

Its really not rocket science. Its not a lot of fun to do in 100 degree weather, but aside from that it was fairly straightforward.

I would not recommend digging the post holes for the fence by hand. Concrete the posts and use pressure treated lumber for the posts and rails. I used galvanized 2x4 joist hangers as the first thing I've seen go on most fences is the ends of the rails; using the joist hangers gave me an extra inch and a half of rail that will have to rot. I bought aluminum 'caps' for all the posts to keep water from getting in through the top of the posts, thats supposed to also extend the life of the post.

For the decking I used pressure treated lumber for the framing and the 'trex' style decking for the surface and rails. It wasnt trex, it was whatever the stuff is home depot sells. It was cheaper by the foot than redwood, no splitting, no splinters, although you'll need a strong drill to put the special screws in...the stuff is tough. I was however amazed that an entirely man made product produced 12' lengths of the stuff that were not the same length. About 3/4" difference between the shortest and the longest...

Dont get any of the 'landscape designer' software. I think I tried every single package. They're all good at getting you to spend a half a day plugging in dimensions and distance before letting you know they wont do a damn thing of interest after that.

At my old mcmansion, I had a landscape architect come out to give me a design layout for back yard landscaping and a pool. I forget what it cost but it was under $500 for a complete set of plans including blueprints. For the work itself, he offered two 'plans'; one where he brought in a bunch of regular guys and one that was clearly going to employ undocumented illegal aliens to do the work; the latter was half the price. My neighbor did about the same thing only he went to the local "hiring" spot near the mall and hired his own workers and directed the labor himself. I think it cost him a couple of grand instead of 20. I never executed the plan though, deciding to save the $40k and leave the back yard 'natural'.