What I great find, keep digging I bet you get some more great stuff in the section. I hope you find enough bricks to do all that you want to. All I find here is old PVC pipe. Well that's not true, I have found about 7 or 8 old rusty horseshoes I tacked up on my grape arbor fence. Years ago I saw an ad for some free brick in the newspaper in the next town. I knew if I didn't go get them right away, they would be gone. DH had the truck on a job and I went by to ask him about it - he said he needed it. So at the time I was driving an old cadillac - you know the kinds that are just huge - I went by the house with the bricks and decided to load them in my car (the car was just a ratty old thing anyway) I filled the trunk and then I put some on the floor of the backseat. It took me quite a time to load all of them. Then I started driving home - we lived up a winding mountain road - the car was swaying so bad I had to go 40 miles an hour the whole way - most folks drove 60 on that road and I had quite a line of traffic behind he. I got home and started unloading them. When DH got home and saw I had hauled them in the car he almost flipped. He is real safety conscious and he said I could of killed myself - anyway I ended up making a brick walkway with them in what we called our lower 40 at that house. Who can pass up a free item.

Rats are likely in walls, an attic but I'm not familiar with them living underground either. Our neighbors had some that were going unchecked until they sold the house. Our dog caught one or two and we started seeing them at our fence. We put out Rat Zappers -- a battery operated zapper and placed them so they would be least likely to get other critters. I think we got 7-8 rats. One morning I opened the door and smelled skunk. The zapper had been flung a number of feet and was upside down and facing the opposite direction. I actually laughed out loud but felt sorry for the poor fella. It wasn't enough to do more than make him angry -- no skunks were anywhere to be found. (for anyone feeling even sorrier for the skunk -- they get even. they sprayed our dogs four time in the summer after the rats left). Because of the dogs as well as neighbor dogs and cats, the squirrels and such, we didn't want to do poison or traps. The zapper worked for us. I'm not sure what the exterminator used next door. The zappers are available on Amazon. Good luck. Call a pro if you need one.

Edie...Funny story...last summer, Sean had some buddies over for a swim. His friends know where Sean's plant collection is--grouped together near the house by the pool. One of the guys decided to be a smart a--, and grabbed one of the smaller cacti in a pot and yelled to another guy in the pool, "let's play keep away from Sean...". Now mind you, these were all baseball players with pretty good arms... One of the other 'new' guys said "hey..throw it here" (he was in the pool-not knowing what kind of plant it was). Sean just stood there shaking his head and told them I don't think you want to do that...the kid threw the plant to the other kid, and he caught it mid-air about 30 feet away---along with a handful of thorns!!! OUCH!!!! I'll never forget the scream! Sean said "they'll never touch my plants again!!!" Yes, boys will be boys...

1. Glad you don't want grass in your city lot. Agreed, it is a mosquito magnet, and mosquitos are getting worse and worse because of the warm winters we have been having. 2. I really like your bricks and would not pave over them. You just need a good vision that will tie together a new fence, the bricks and your three large sides of beds. 3. Regarding your bilco doors to the basement, it brings up a question about the whole back of your house. There is a lot of mismatched after though happening. You need to think about the new awning and how you will repair the wall that is the base of your porch. Once the back of your house has more of a "look" to it, you can paint your bilco doors to become part of that scheme. Obviously the setting of the houses below are quite different than yours but they both match the doors to the look of the house and they have planting nearby. Perhaps you want to flank the left side of your basement doors with a planter so there is greenery on one side and steps on the other. I'm obsessed with city back yards and find lots of inspiration just doing a google image search for "Brooklyn backyard ideas". Good luck. It is a wonderful space.