I've noticed these two spots on the side of my exterior foundation that have chipped away or are starting to come away. There appears to be two spots that have been worked on before as well. Are these two cracks something that should be repaired? If so, how would I go about doing this? I do have an home warranty that should cover it for $75, so it may just be worth a call, but I wanted to see what might be causing this, and how big of an issue it is. Thank you for any advice!

I've got a cement front porch area that I initially just wanted to put a skim coat on but, now that I've cleaned it, it may need more work. [attach]115851[/attach] I already filled in the one big (1" wide) crack with some Quikrete. [attach]115850[/attach] I think I can just put 2x4s around the outside of the step and spread some self-leveling concrete out and smooth it over. But, I haven't done that before and couldn't find any good videos or instructional pages out there for me to use. Any recommendations? Also, you can see that it's pulled away from the main porch. My wife asked if we can "just take it out" and replace it with smaller cap steps and walking pavers. I told her that was MUCH more work...yes? [attach]115852[/attach] Should I try to make the form so it extends to the main porch and fill that entire gap in with the self-leveling concrete? We live in NY so get lots of freezing and thawing throughout the year. Also, one of the blocks that it was built on has broken and crumbled. 1) can I just make a small wood block form with an inch or so gap at the top and fill it with mortar to fill that in? If so, how do I "fill in" the top gap, just wait for the bottom to dry, load the inside with mortar and move the block up? [attach]115854[/attach] I haven't done any cement work yet (besides filling the crack), but generally pretty handy diy'er. Looking for some recommendations and tips. Thanks!!