After spending oodles of time with our architect working on a design, we had to start thinking about the structural requirements to support the floor plans were envisioning.  The largest piece of the puzzle when it came to structural engineering was the foundation, most especially since we lived on a cut and fill lot in the hills.  In our city, there are two zones of classification - A and B.  If you were in the A zone you were pretty much in the flat lands of our city.  If you were in the B zone you were on a hillside subject to all the great caveats for hillside living including: landslide, seismic concerns, drainage and or flooding.

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