Progress Photos! for some reason, my intro is at the end, and I can't move it. Sorry.

The concrete poured on the front steps, and the new door (hopefully not finished).
Apparently, the stoop and concrete, etc., went way over budget, so to save, they used a piece of plywood to cover our old door. It's not done yet (apparently) but the idea was that the lines in the door match up to the lines of the new brick. I'm hoping they will stain it to the color of the wood hand rails that will be put into the stoop. Or they could paint it, but I just love the wood grain with the lines in the door. Either way, it's going to be very clean and modern. Love that.
Can you see the new bricks? This is where they wrap from the carport to the front of the house. They will extend to the top of the windows across the front of the house. Pretty! John Gidding says that the design is supposed to mimic the wonderful mid-century "corner windows" that you see. I think once the house is painted and everything blends, it's going to be gorgeous. And make our house look a little different from all the ones around us.
More brick detail on the left side of the house. They couldn't do much more because the concrete was still wet on the stoop. These were all taken today. We are supposed to be done on Monday!
These steps lead down to the backyard (on the left side of the house). If you see the funny gap after the second step, it's for a step that will actually be a planter with some pavers in it. I totally didn't know that until today, and just thought that they had laid it out wrong. Oops. But, now that I get it, I think it's going to look amazing.
Detail of the left side of the house.
This new stoop is gorgeous. That front rectangle on the stoop is going to be a large concrete planter. It's so much more scaled to our house. It will help hide that immense mass of cinder block in our foundation.
Detail of the right side of the house (where it meets the driveway). You can see how big the stoop is, and how nice and big the planter is, too. They just poured all this concrete today. The urge to leave hand prints was strong, but I resisted.
Before the concrete was poured, this was the view out the front door.
View from the front door. Cinder block down, but no concrete, and no dirt filled in. But no awful bushes randomly placed around the front yard!
The new placement of the leyland cypresses is so much better. I actually like them now.
Roxanne about two seconds after I turned my back (after telling her she could play in the sand but not stand in it). She was pretty disappointed when the giant sand tower disappeared.
Cinder block invasion of our carport... Soon to be the stoop!
The dirty remains of our "landscaping." Um, we didn't do any of that though. Just to clarify...
No stoop, and the new cypress placement. Much nicer already!
Roxanne wears this dress a lot. But these were taken on day one. The sand ones were from last week. They got all these forms put up, and then left it alone for a few days. Roxanne just kept yelling "more dirt! yay! more dirt!"
Day one, the last time these stupid cypress trees would stand all in a row along the driveway. *sniff* Also, I want that Bobcat.
Filming the bush removal.
That man is standing up straight inside the hollow stoop. It actually had no support, so that giant slab of concrete on the top of our stoop was only supported underneath on three sides and could apparently have toppled at any point. Happily, it's all filled in now.
No more railings!

Finally, I'm posting some photos from the HGTV progress. The house looks like a wreck, but I'm sure it's all for the greater good... And at least it's not a mess we have to worry about cleaning up. It's amazing how little giant piles of dirt, sand, gravel and concrete (and the list goes on) in your front yard and driveway bother you when you know you don't have to deal with them. I mean seriously. It's like vacation. Justin and I are just interested spectators in a way... Very surreal. But everyone is so nice, and working hard, and the plans are a-m-a-z-i-n-g. Here are some photos. They are backwards, with the top photos being the newest, and the bottom ones being the first day of filming. As always, click to make the images bigger if you want.