I like the design. I hate to take out trees, except cedar, n once built a deck around some nice Live n Spanish oaks. Ha. One forgets trees grow and in a wind storm shake a bit...no serious damage but had to repair railing around trees every so often. Good luck. Houston region doesn't need more rain or more floods!!!
Well in my first storm in NC that I experienced I learned a valuable lesson. They have these skinny-ass Virginia Slim looking things here that they call
pine trees and all kinds of different hard woods. I didn't think anything would bother some of these big strong Oaks but they blew over as the ground around them softened from all the rain. The skinny pines just kind of swayed like a hula skirt and came thru pretty much okay. Classic bend but don't break.