In all our copious free time we've had a chance to do a few upgrades to the house.  We built a shed and finished it, replaced the garage door, etc.  Recently, we took the courtyard/patio in the front yard and finally enclosed it in a brick wall with columns and lights.  I say finally because it was kind of an eyesore for about a year...we had the courtyard poured with 3/4” PVC pipe sticking up out of it in three places.  When we had the concrete poured we preanticipated that the wall would be built so I ran the pipe underneath the stairs into the basement and then up and out where the columns were to be.  It feels so much better now to have it completed.  I have a few pictures that show the work in progress and the finished product.  The last remaining task is to run the wire up the wall to the switch to the lights on the posts switch on with the other exterior lights.  Oh, and that reminds me, I also changed out the lights on the house (I hated the stock lights that were included with the house)...these are so much nicer.

In Progress:


And the finished wall: