I hope this is the right place to discuss my quandary. DH and I really need to address an old macadam driveway and adjacent front walkway. The driveway is cracked and lumpy in places, and is beyond sealing. It needs to come out and be replaced ( and maybe widened). Our brick front walkway leads from the driveway to a brick "stoop" and a concrete step into the house. This also needs to be replaced. What we're wondering is should we just get another macadam driveway? Or concrete? Or aggregate? We'd love to do pavers, but that's just not feasible financially. For the front walkway and step, we could do concrete, natural stone or pavers (there may be other options and I'd love to hear your ideas). What do you like? What do you consider basic vs. "nice" and upgraded? What would you "splurge" on if anything? Or, are the most basic and less expensive materials/methods just fine because they will be new? Do you put a lot of thought/investment into these materials for your house, or when you look at other homes?

We always park our vehicles in the garage unless we run home really quick to grab something before leaving again so I never thought much about delivery drivers whacking into our cars. I guess that's a good point to consider. Do you have the option of doing a curved sidewalk to the front door instead of just a straight runway? I was thinking something like having it start where you've drawn it, then at some point midway it curves to the left (creating a rounded flowerbed area between the sidewalk and driveway) and then have it curve back toward your front porch (and leave it connecting to the driveway near the garage doors like you've drawn it). I don't know if you have enough property in the left of the photo to make a curve look good or if it would look too squished, but it's an option to consider. I do think if you want a straight-shot sidewalk like that, you should leave a minimum of 3-4' in between the sidewalk and driveway for landscaping. Anything closer than that comes across as looking like an afterthought/diy job.

Eighteen inches is certainly minimal for a planting bed... if you could figure out a way to do 24", that would open up more planting possibilities. It seems like you'd otherwise have a large expanse of concrete from the driveway and just extending that all the way up the side of the house to the front door seems unappealing and also HOT! I'm wondering whether, instead of a solid concrete pathway, something like poured in place pavers might be a good solution. They would help define the walkway to your front door much better than an extension of the driveway concrete would. For your application, you might want to just do a series of same-size rectangles instead of pavers of different sizes, but this photo gives an idea. The grasses shown (looks like blue fescue to me) would fit in your 18" planting bed and don't require a lot of water - there are quite a few small grasses that would work in the Yakima area. You could even go with artificial (!) if you're worried about putting any water near your foundation. You could also do planting between the pavers rather than river rock in order to get some green into the area, but that can be more difficult to maintain in an area that gets a lot of foot traffic.

Just put your walkway in, if it's concrete set expansion joints on each side of the pavers and you don't have to worry about it, if the pipe needs to be repaired, etc down the road you take that section out and replace it when done, it would be much easier and less expensive in comparison having a low-level deck there.