You have done a beautiful job of tucking plants into the crevices of your retaining walls. Your house trim color is perfect -- just slightly lighter in hue than the retaining wall blocks. First I would paint the big, flat gray wall slightly lighter than the blocks and slightly darker than the house trim. The concrete walk and stairs I would stain a mottled blend of the blocks and the house trim colors. Next would be to paint the railing black or the house body color. Now, think of the following as creating a light, airy trellise structure from the walk-level face of the (currently gray) wall to about 7' above the top of the wall (using 6x6" posts attached to the wall) with a corresponding line of posts sunk into the terrace level 2' in from the outside edge of the wall-attached posts. The inside posts would be about 6-8" higher than the outside posts. Put 4x4" wood to attach the outside line of posts to each other and do the same with the inside line of posts. Run wood pieces at the top of the two lines of posts from the inside line to the outside line at about a 45 degree angle. They would be cantilevered up at the terrace level. Across the top of the angled pieces create your top trellise boards which run parallel to the two lines of posts. OK. There you have your basic structure. You might want to extend the structure around to follow the street side of the terrace. You could then follow the suggestion of reom10 above about creating a bench-planter on the terrace side. Your spacing of the boards parallel to the gray wall and attached to the outside posts would determine how private you wanted your terrace to be. You might want to soften the terrace "floor" by using something irregular like flagstone with groundcover plantings between the stones. From the latticework on top of your structure you could hang seasonal flower baskets. Plant vines to go up the trellis and spill down the wall. How about planting a row of tall, narrow shrubs along the neighbor's fence above your terrace to help add to your privacy and make your yard feel less 'structured'? Or, how about patio table/s with umbrellas to block your neighbor's view? Anyway, you have a fun project ahead of you.

I would not recommend glossy tiles in a bathroom. We have 24" polished porcelain throughout our house, and... we also have a pool. Although I love our tiles, I have to be super careful coming inside. If I am at all damp, walking on the tiles is tricky. Yes, they are easy to keep clean, but so are most tiles. For my master bath, I went with tiles that had a high COF (Coefficient of Friction). I've had my fill of slippery bathroom floors, and wanted something that I didn't have to slide a towel around on. I love them! I can step out of the shower, and have as much grip on the floor, as if I had stepped onto a mat. :)

We have had a vinyl lined pool for 15+ years - you are making a good choice. They need no maintenance or resurfacing etc. Ours is an Aqualux liner in Caribbean. http://www.aqualuxpool.com.au/colour-range/ This colour is just the right amount of blue/green to sparkle and shimmer, look cool and inviting, but dark enough to gather and retain the sun's heat. I ran a swim school for many of those 15 years, and needed a pool that could take the knocks of hundreds of children each week, and look like something they wanted to dive into. Any lighter and the pool would look too cold, and darker looked scary! I have friends who chose the darker colours for their heat retention properties but the pools don't look as inviting, and algae builds up quicker but is harder to notice until the levels are quite high, so needing more chemicals to control/eliminate.

We just had a pool installed and have lots of space surrounding the pool - and a blank canvas with two retaining walls. The pool is 4m x 7m and one side has a travertine patio (house side). From the coping tile edge to the first wall there is 1.8m for a path of some sort, plantings, etc We are installing the pool fence on top of the retaining walls on the short side of the pool. Looking for something at pool level so there is a bit of circulation space but also something that won’t get into the pool. (And no more concrete!) Tropical ideas welcome as we are in Brisbane.