Front yard overall, part one

Last time, I shared our new front porch,

well here is how it all came to be ....
But first we need to look back to the house in 2011:

Good house but not very interesting from the outside.
The first thing we changed was the front door, it was not closing properly. we had to replace it with a custom door as it is very wide, great for moving furniture!
A couple years later, the two huge windows that are in the stair case,  went from single pane 1960 windows to double pane windows, no more rain inside from condensation!

The house remained this way for a few years, not beautiful but very comfortable. You can see scars just above the front/large window where a porch or something must have been.
Finally last year we had the house repainted, we thought about doing ourselves, but felt overwhelmed.

Tall ladder and roof are not my friends! The crew we hired did a great job, and were able to work uninterrupted, probably the only week of summer without rain!

The color is SW Oyster Bay .
From the pictures, you cannot tell but the retaining wall was rotten, and started to fall over, it was time to do something.
Finally this year, in late February, we started the front yard overall! We hired the same contractor/mason that did  our back patio 6 years ago.

The first part is always a little scary and ugly!

We were the envy of the neighborhood!

Once the dirt was removed, they built some forms

and it started to look less scary...

Once the concrete was poured,

they started building walls and covering all the concrete with blue stones.

Coming home every night after work was a treat,

always looking better....

and until the masons were done:

(the driveway still needed to be redone)

Next up: building of the front porch.

Happy day!