Update - New Stairs
Eurika! I love my new front steps. They are solid and level and easy to walk on. They aren't perfectly flat so there is some texture that provides good friction as you climb. I'm thrilled. And they are stunningly beautiful.
I think it took my husband about a day to tear out the old unsafe steps and clean out all the sand that the gophers had pushed up underneath.
Then it took part of one day for the hardscape people to pour the footing...
and one complete day to build the steps.
All together it didn't take very many hours to go from worn out wobbling rotted out stairs to new stone steps. But it took months.