One of my current house related projects is to improve the entryway into the basement. Currently the basement is lower than the ground outside, so there was only about a 4 foot high doorway comming in with about a 2 foot dropoff right after entering. Inside that door is actually the foundation to the back porch which must have been added on after the house was built. There is a second door that leads into the main basement that is about 6 foot high. There is another drop off when entering the main basement to get down to the floor of the full basement.
I already have about half of the digging done.
My plan is to dig the ground down outside of the exterior door so that it is level with the floor of the porch basement. Then I will knock out the two rows of cynder blocks so that there is a full six foot tall entrance straight into the basement. It still won't be a full size door going in, and there will still be a small drop off upon entering the main basement but this should work just fine for me. I basically just need a door way that I don't have to duck to go into so that it is more convenient for getting supplies into my basement workshop from outside.
Since I will be lowering the ground next to the house, I will need to add some way to drain the water that will accumulate in the hole next to the basement entry. I am planning on digging a trench 6 inches or so deeper than the hole out of the hole to lower ground to the south. I will then bury a run of pipe in there and put a drain in the entry by the door so that water doesn't accumulate there.
Once I get some more dirt removed, I can start figuring out how to put in the forms since I am going to put in a concrete slab flush with the current back porch basement floor.