Is this an ill conceived design modification?

[MikeT]

Once again, for those who may not be familiar with my project:

I am building the Victoria's Cottage design on a steep slope on the
Oregon coast.  It will have a full basement below, but the
kitchen/dining room is currently designed to have a small crawl space
foundation below it.  

As I take another look at the distance from the
main floor height to the road level above, I have a distance of 5 feet
in elevation to design around.  I originally was simply going to have a
parallel parking area with a somewhat steep slope down to the house.  But now I am
thinking I should go back to my structural engineer friend and see what
it would mean to bump up that crawl space foundation to a retaining wall
type foundation and have it go up to the height of the bottom of my
windows.  So essentially, the driving/parking area would come right up
to the house, and the kitchen/dining room areas would have the feel of
being semi-subterranean because the walking/parking area would go up to
just below the windows.  Does this make sense?

Here is a modification of one of John's sections to illustrate what I am thinking about:

[glenn kangiser]

Many of my windows are like that.  It's cool.  

I think the deep gravel you show may give you problems.  You would probably want French drains by the retaining wall but not so wide if you are going to have cars on it.  I would think a normal few inches of gravel until closer to the wall then deep for the French drain as cars will likely get stuck in it.

[MikeT]

From a design aesthetic, you think it works.  That is good.  I am interested in hearing from others as well.

With respect to the gravel fill, I didn't draw it in, but I was planning on french drains at the base of the wall, but I was also thinking of creating a crown (looking at the same section view but from a perpendicular cut to this one) that whether I covered the area with tar chip, asphalt, concrete or simply put a heavy mil poly sheet  over some road grade fill then covered it with more gravel, would channel water away from the house area.

[glenn kangiser]

Sounds good.  I think it would work.

The big deep loose gravel pits - long ones to the side of steep grades - are what they use to stop runaway trucks because when they get into it they don't get out until the wrecker drags them out.

[PEG688]

My bet is he'll want some dead men / ballist back up the slope to tie that retaining wall in . But it should work , and we know you have one leg shorter that the other after putting in that foundation  

Like  a Vermont cow , they have addapted to steep slopes  

[MountainDon]

Thread drift... I once read someplace that the reason older folk find so much to talk about is that everything reminds them of something else...

Runaway truck escapes... We once rescued an idiot motorist couple from one along I-70 in UT. She had to go answer nature's call real bad apparently, so He decided the "gravel road" would be a good spot to stop. (I guess he couldn't read all the warning signs about not stopping, etc.)

The car made it a surprisingly long distance up the chute. It was buried deep. The gravel chewed heck out of the tires as well. I went alongside the gravel in the Jeep and winched them back to where they could back out under their own power. It's a very busy road and listening to the trucker comments on the CB was entertaining.    

[MikeT]

It will be interesting to see what design he recommends, given that two of you think/imply this seems reasonable.  I didn't draw it in, but the original crawl space stem wall bumpout was meant to be tied into the back basement (retaining wall).  I can imagine that I will need to build a continuous stem wall foundation that is tied into the main wall but then on the uphill side goes up to the desired height.  I wonder if he will have me put in a dead man of some sort.  I will check in with him tomorrow and will report back next week when I return from the beach where I will do some more precise measuring.

The slope was/is steep, but now that my septic tank is in and the area around the side walls has been backfilled and 25 cu. yds of gravel fill was placed into my basement floor area which we leveled last weekend, moving around is much easier.  Here is a pic that I took where I am standing at road level on top of the septic tank (that is another story!).

[glenn kangiser]

That's what I was talking about.  If a little is good -- a lot is not always better - except above the French drain.

Would you believe I once had some truckers trying to get out of range of me on the CB?   --- I was trucking at the time also -- probably in New Mexico too as I remember.  I just couldn't  

[glenn kangiser]

Seems the floor could be made into a horizontal beam also - tied into the base of the wall.

It will be interesting to see what he comes up with.

[MountainDon]

...stop runaway trucks...

Hope you never had to use one Glenn. Had failed brakes once myself and that was enough for one lifetime. I used small diameter tress planted in the center divider to slow/down stop the truck. Ran them over  :'(  until I stopped

[glenn kangiser]

No - seen a few in there, but I always took good care of my Jake Brake and adjusted my brakes before dropping off the top if I thought it was at all necessary.

In the West, if a driver drives without a good working Jake Brake, he's asking for trouble.

My buddy, Al came from a trucking family and taught me to go down 'em the way you go up 'em.  Slow -- it can be sped up with a good Jake brake but if it isn't working or is not there then the only thing to do is always keep it under control and do it slow.  Get up to a speed you can't stop at and you may be dead meat.

[John Raabe]

Looks like you're headed in the right direction here. Drainage will be important to keep the hydronic pressure down. The retaining basement wall can be aligned to pick up the point loads from the beams at the roof and loft.