Advice for framing rear stoop/landing

Hoping to solicit some suggestions regarding how to approach building a new stoop/landing to connect our back door and newly installed patio.

This is what it looked like previously. The stoop is about 77" wide and 36" deep. It's framed with 2x8's which are pretty much at grade near the foundation, and 5/4 decking.


I just finished installing about 550 square feet of pavers to make a patio and walkway connecting back to the driveway. As part of that, I planned to extend the stoop another 36" off the house. We use that door so much that we wanted some extra space to get in and out with dogs and babies and groceries. I sort of built the patio accordingly, since I was going to be cutting it close on square footage for the pavers.





The big "oopsie" I made was failing to consider how keeping the current stoop elevation would affect step height as you move out farther from the house. Because of changing grades in both directions, If I extend back at the current height, I'd be about 13" off patio grade on the left corner, and about 10.5" off patio grade on the right corner. That's obviously too high.

I was thinking of doing something like this and framing them like box steps. New stoop with two steps is shown in green. The old stoop is shown as well. Problem is that even framing everthing with 2x6's, the bottom "box ends up below grade a few inches.


Would I be better off just building the step with stringers?