When building a wooden 'something' they say measure twice, cut once. You need to slow down on the work, & plan plan plan. Sounds like you are going in circles right now, with no plan of what will actually help.
A 4" drain pipe is worthless. You needed 6" pipe to handle the eave drains, 8" if you are trying to handle the drains & the runoff from the hill as well. You were way, way undersized there.
You don't want terracing from the sounds of it, as you say you ripped out the one that was there & helping. So I won't suggest that. Well, not much, but you _NEED_ a little - see below.
Only leaves you wilth the drain pipe, really.
Can you change the eave drainage on your house at all? Can the upper side be piped over to the lower side of the house? Avoid putting any water to ground level on that side of the house if possible. If not, run a dedicated 6" pipe just as your current 4" pipe. The 6" will be able to keep up - the 4" never will.
Then a little farther away from the house, run a 6" perferated pipe in about the same manor. You can fill in the top of the trench, over the pipe, with gravel, crushed rock, or some such. You just simply need the dirt to be lower grade over this pipe than what it is closer to the house. You _must_ stop the water from rushing down the hill & smacking into the house. Either lower the ground over the drain pipe, or build a small berm (ridge) between the pipe & the house. Whatever it looks like, you just need to do this. Because the house was not planned & located well, "something has to give" and you are stuck with _needing_ this arrangement. No matter how much you are opposed to terracing, you either live with a wet house or put up with the looks of this. No getting away from it at this point.
Fill the trench over the perferated drain pipe with gravel, crushed rock, or the like. This will prevent water from moving through the dirt and into your basement - it will drain down & away before getting to your house. (This is a huge problem in houses situated where yours is - water can seep along soil layers from the top of the hill down to your house for weeks after a rain - will be a dry spell & you still have a wet basement! This drainage tile really should be as deep as the lowest floor or foundation bottom. You should be able to sue your general contractor for not installing such in the beginning - major error of design. Your house was built at the exact best location for a natural spring - should have been good drainage designed into the original plan, surprised you got a permit with no drainage provisions.) It will also allow your surface water to quickly perk down to the drain tile & soak into the pipe. But the gravel/rock would be mostly for draining sub-surface water seeping down the hill.
If you have a low spot, put a surface drain in. Run a 4" or 6" pipe up to the surface from your perferated pipe so the water can quickly drain away from your back yard.
For gosh sakes, get some vegetation on that hill! Seed something now, some type of grass. It will slow the water, use some water, help you as much as the drain tile will! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
1. So, you need to adjust the berm/ swale a little bit. (I'm not really sure where your berm/swale deal is right now, since you said you took one out, moved a lot of dirt, & don't like the looks of these... Pictures are dark & old, so I'm just assuming you need to design such back in.)
2. You need to greatly expand the scope of your drain tile - (2) 6" or (1) 8" perferated tile at a minumum. One really should be burried at the bottom level of your basement foundation to protect the house from hydraulic pressures...
3. You need to have surface inlets, and/or gravel fill over the perferated tile to allow the water to soak into the tile.
4. You need vegetation (grass) covering the bare dirt.
Now, there can be local issues that make this entire plan have problems, but in general you need to do all this to keep your house dry.
--->Paul