Plan carefully, experiment with the best setup location sheltered from neighbouring lights etc and the north east sky as a priority.
The ROR option is the most achievable approach in my opinion and cost effective. Although everthing has its drawbacks...
The pier gives you a permanent solution to setting up your mount with polar alignment done once and you can forget about it for a while which makes it much easier for getting out there and getting straight into observing or photographing.
Just read the posts on this forum, there is plenty of ideas out there but set yourself on what you think works for your backyard.
Good luck
Anth