Water puddles around the foundation wall

[Mona V.]

Hi,

In a house I recently bought, gutters were all rotten so water had not been really going away from the house, creating low laying areas (photo below) and water puddles near the foundation wall when it rains. It was also causing water to seep into the crawlspace. I am going to replace the gutters but needed some advise how to fix the low areas of water puddles around the foundation without spending too much. From what I could gather till now, seems like laying down  fill dirt/topsoil/clay or a mix, and grading it would be the best but I couldn't figure how much would that cost. I see people giving away or selling fill dirt on craiglist by the "loads" but not sure how much I would need, and how much should I really expect to pay? Do I really need to hire a professional grader or its an easy task for like a handyman or grass-cutting guy to spread and level it and give it some slope? What mix of the soil should be used? House is 45x28. Please advise, thanks! 

[Matthew Paul]

Get rid of the landscape timbers , get some clay based soil . Grade it so there is 2 inches of fall towards the sidewalk . Lay down sod . Its quick and instant grass