Question
I live on a hill in a neighborhood. It's a regular neighborhood in North Carolina there's no beautiful view. Just the abruptly cut off end of the road where they couldn't build because of the wet lands in those woods. Any way... I am at a loss for what to do with this hill but I have an idea. I am thinking about doing front yard sort of terracing to make a few flower beds or a front yard garden. The rain erodes the yard and I think if I terrace it then that will preserve the yard better. i think it's called terracing anyway, i don't know. What do you think? Any suggestions?? If you click on this link you can see my house: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&source=hp&q=908+beuer+Dr.+Fayetteville,+NC,+28...
 
Or copy past it in your browser. As you can see I really need your help.

Answer
Personally I would not terrace the yard. Terracing requires walls. Walls done the right way cost lots of money. And even after you build walls you'll still have to plant and deal with the main problem you have which looks like poor soils.
You need to improve your soils and plant trees and shrubs to stailize the slopes. Your builder more than likely scraped all the top soil off the site when they graded the site leaving you with very poor soil. Hence your grass is not thick and thriving. Condsider having mushroom compost or high grade screened top soil delivered and spread on your lawn. Overseed or add new turf afterwards to get more grass to grow.
The only reason to terrace is if you need to use the lawn for some sort of activity.

The best thing you can do is plant shrubs, trees and perennials that tolerate bad soil and "naturalize" a large part of your yard. Maintain a small strip of sod around the edge to keep it looking nice and then mulch a big island with native plants in the middle.

Naturlizing saves money and reduced the need for maintenance.

Good Luck.

Sean J Murphy
www.seanjmurphy.com