The lumber touching the cement is PT for ground contact. The others are just standard PT. To determine what dimension of lumber to use, it just takes a little math. The most important thing is that the steps all have equal risers. That will prevent tripping. The math: if you want a single step, then it needs to be 8" above the patio level. If you're covering the box frame with decking or lumber that is 3/4" thick, then the box should be 7 1/4". (If you used a 2x8 without ripping it down, your step would be 8 1/4" and 7 3/4", which is too big a difference for code.) If you want 2 steps, then the top of the higher one will be at 10 3/4" and the lower one at 5 3/8". You can achieve this by a 4 5/8" box on the bottom and a 5 3/8 box on the top. 4 5/8" + 3/4" = 5 3/8"; 4 5/8" + 5 3/8" + 3/4" = 10 3/4". You (hopefully) get the picture. Also, make the tread depth at least 10" on each step.

Our situation was a bit different but hopefully I can offer suggestions based on our situation. Local building code required steps onto the lawn from the house for an occupancy permit. They're concrete and we built over them with what you see in the link. Our specific concerns were safety while transporting items in/out of the house. And we had an elderly relative for whom stairs were dangerous. So, we built an Egress Porch (really a small deck) over the existing steps, level with the threshold. This provides secure footing while opening the door. Then we choose landing style steps for easily providing assistance to someone in need. If you were to consider a small deck it would provide the security at your door like I mentioned, leave the weep holes open and could still become the 1st step. Other steps could be pavers on concrete to match the patio. Hopefully your patio could be enlarged a few square feet to recover the space necessary for the steps. Hope this helps. Here is a link that might be useful: Our Egress Porch

Pete, I can understand while you might initially find that distasteful. Protect from price competition? Kind of. Not nearly the full story though. Let's say that you made a widget, and your widget was better than others on the market. You spent a lot more money researching and developing your widget, and spend more on materials and labor to produce the widget. This widget needs to be installed by qualified individuals to work properly. Now let's say you are in an industry where any Joe blow can become a professional widget installer with no certification or training and there is a very small initial investment needed to start a business widget installing. Basically any drunk with a hammer and a tool belt can do it. With all of the time and money that you have spent building the brand and quality of your widget, wouldn't you want only highly qualified, vetted, reputable, and financially stable widget installers putting in your product? Of course you would. You would not want people to think poorly of your widget because of a jabroni installer right? This is what you will find with nearly all high end window products, and for that reason. Does that limit price competition? To some extent yes. It limits it to companies that have a good reputation and volume, and have to charge a minimum price to be able to sustain that. The neighbor guy that works for beer money cannot get it. Whether you believe it or not, that offers some protection to you as a consumer in addition to helping the dealer of the product as well as the manufacturer protect their brand. Why can Pella and Andersen sell to anyone then? Because they have built their brands into household names many years ago when there were far more cratfsmen, and fewer rip off artists. You can certainly find a ton of bad reviews about each of them today, however their reputations were cemented long ago for the most part, whether deserved today or not. This is also why most of the other manufacturers that are available anywhere for anyone to buy, are not very good. They are made to meet a low price point, and they know that there will always be a steady supply of people that buy on price alone. That is their niche. Okna and Sunrise and other high end products operate differently. Frankly if you don't like the way that is done, you are severely limiting yourself when it comes to quality choices. Lastly, are there companies that take advantage of exclusivity? Sure. Sometimes they do that without the manufacturer protection if they are shady enough. I know of a company that sold the same window that was $189 from a national chain for over $1200ea by just making up their own brand name and brochures. Pretty shameful. A patio door equivalent would be $5k for a mediocre door. Again, $2500 for a very good door is reasonable.

Personally I’d go with the second option - lower half of your picture. I like the warmer tones with contrast to the light color house . ETA: It’s the lower left of your picture that I’d choose