Landscale plan: Porch demolition

With the baby's birth, things have been slow moving but we finally picked a contractor to do the patio work. When I looked at their references, it turned out that a neighbor used them as well. Now we just need a final meeting to pick material and decide if we need a retaining wall or not.

Our landscape architect seemed to think we did not need a retaining wall, but a few weeks ago we took apart the existing porch and the grade is pretty steep. We can try and level it with dirt but will it eventually erode? That's to be determined.

Here are some pictures of the porch demolition -- that we decided to tackle to save some dinero.

 My strong man!

Another shoddy job ... No wonder the thing was falling apart! They used the wrong nails (or screws or whatever), the screen underneath was in strips (I guess that was cheaper than using a solid piece?!), the bottom beams weren't even attached to the house but just laid on top of each other ... Incredible!