It may seem like it’s been awhile since I’ve done a home improvement post. That’s because my home has been seriously unimproved. Here’s what the powder room looked like a year ago:

And here’s what it looks like now:

In fact, I should be happy that it looks that good. We had some more issues with water in the basement. But more on that later. This weekend, I decided to try and tackle the nagging problem of jagger bushes beyond the retaining wall.

We got a bunch of them back there, and a couple of times per summer they threaten to come over the wall and have to be trimmed back. Well, no longer.

The ultimate goal is to have a terrace or two back here, and we have to start somewhere.

We followed it up with one of the least satisfying fires ever.

You may be wondering why my backyard looks like a wasteland. I have a whole post on that for later, stay tuned. Right now though, I’m going to tend to my scratched-up, hairless, sunburned and actually-burned forearms.