Shaping the yard and driveway

We rented a backhoe last weekend to carve out the driveway and use the fill dirt around the house.

The guy just dropped it off without really explaining anything but I figured out the controls pretty easily. We carved out the front of the yard flush with the street up to the driveway.

It still just looks like dirt but it's alot easier to step on and off the porch, and to drive up to the house.

The deck took a little beating when I was pouring dirt in around the sides. I haven't worked on the outside of the house since I built the deck last summer. It's held up pretty good though. The steel railing I made is kind of rusting a little, but it actually looks kind of cool I think. No? Now that we have this big sloping wall in the front yard, we need to figure out a retaining wall. I was thinking either smooth concrete with slats like I did on the back deck, or rocks inside a rebar and mesh wall. We really need to finish painting the house too, and figure out landscaping, and the driveway.