Working on the front of the house

I started a project I fear is going to kill me. We have lived in our new build house for a couple of years. We had beautiful sod that quickly died. So we seeded and seeded and seeded. Nothing ever lived. So I dug up the front yard. NO WONDER it was all clay. After digging out 4" of clay I filled in with top soil and then laid sod. I did that all last weekend. This weekend I am building a retaining wall on the one edge of the flower bed. Here are my sod pictures. Sorry they are crappy iPhone pictures.

Digging the grass weeds and dirt clay out.

4" dug out and raked as a loose layer.

Spreading top soil while Rick cleaned the truck out.

Laying the sod.

Sod all done. Now to fix those flower beds.

The farm where the sod came from. They cut it right before you pick it up.