Evelin has long wanted to do something about the retaining wall in the backyard. It's painted cinder blocks and while I did pressure wash it once a few years ago, getting off a good bit of dirt, grime, and some of the old while paint, I'd agree that it didn't really look great. In my mind, it looked organic and rustic; for Evelin, it just looked shabby. (Picture below cira 2014)
This spring, Evelin pulled the trigger and called the painters. She did agree to go with a dark green color, instead of the black she'd initially been pushing for, but Celeste remained worried that it would be too dark and ugly. For Evelin, the goal was to have the wall basically "disappear" if you were looking at it from down the hill or through the neighbors' yard from the street behind us. It's still too dark for Celeste, but I think it looks good and gets the job done. (Picture below circa yesterday)
One other undocumented here change: Last August, we took out two dead/dying trees in the side yard: A black cherry (Prunus serotina) and a white oak (Quercus alba). Both were big enough to require city approval for removal, but both were clearly dead enough to necessitate it. We still need to plant two trees to replace them, we've talked about doing pawpaws (Asimina triloba), although a sugar maple (Acer saccharum) would be cool (albeit not at all right for the climate), but we haven't yet. The city did plant two new trees in the right-of-way — a pin oak (Quercus palustris) and something else (Not quite sure) — so we haven't felt pressure to replace them just yet.
Inside the house, no major improvements or changes of late, other than replacing the downstairs smoke alarm with a Nest Protect. The old one alerted us at 2 a.m. last Saturday night that it was dying. At some point, I guess I'll replace the basement one with a Nest and then everything will be networked.
Still undecided is if we should ever get around to popping the top and adding a third floor master suite.... Quinlan would love the opportunity for a larger room (her current room would become a critical part of the stairwell), and the roof is going to need to be reshingled in the next year or three, so we probably need to think seriously about it, if we're going to do it.
