Thank you all for the help and suggestions. The road is not a temporary road or easement. It's a road in site plans when we purchased our house. I went to the sales office today, they said they want to change the design of the house for the lots on the other side of the road, because it does not sell well. By the original design, those lots has a garage on the back of the house, now, they want to have the garage in the front of the house. so they removed the road that's share between our side of the house and the other side. Also on each side of the road, there are about 10-15 lots. only three on the side of our house are built, the rest are still empty lots.

There's a couple big plants in full shade on Isola Madre - summers about 80/62, sunny compared to the UK but also quite rainy (about 6 inches a month) so, somewhat cool nights. Maybe a quicker mix-down at night...I remember a cool breeze sweeping down from the mountains that didn't feel like something we'd typically experience in the eastern Piedmont. All that probably keeps the soil quite a bit cooler than a typical US garden in non-maritime climates. I've also heard of them being grown in cooler summer parts of New England, with massive winter protection. I've tried about 3 over the years, they seem to die around here once mid-summer's sustained temps hit the mid 80s and nights the mid 60s or sometimes above. I understand they are mostly grown in partial shade in the PNW (76/55 or so, when you average in warmer Portland, etc...and a prolonged dry, sunny spell in summer.) OTOH in places like Scotland (avg. 68/54, cloudy damp summers) you can see them growing in almost full sun by pond edges and damp spots...though they will also grow in shadier spots too. "Cool and misty, San Francisco is the place!" It's all relative. San Francisco is actually very sunny compared to some of the world's other Csb/Cfb climates. (and, really, the fact it isn't considered a Cfb climate should tell us something...) Even in California itself, there are places like Eureka that are cooler at least, if you mean cool in summer.

Aw, thank you, Jay. Now, if you like words and are in the mood for reading, can I recommend the most excellent Ken Thompson. Prolific, erudite, witty, a bit iconoclastic with some interesting views on ecology, biodiversity, adaptation. 'Do We Need Pandas' and 'Where Do Camels Belong' , the terrific 'The Sceptical Gardener' and, in his academic role, an ebook, 'Ecology of Seeds'- all very accessible., He has written many papers (a whole series of articles in The Telegraph (Torygraph, smirk), does sporadic newspaper columns, has some involvement in stuff like Future Ecologists- I think you will enjoy his work.

Technically, it would work to lay down the base now and finish it with pavers later. However, it's going to get dirty with leaves and grass clippings. You'd need to keep landscape litter out of the path the best you can in the meanwhile. It wouldn't need to be kept perfectly clean, but reasonably clean. Also, over time, the unprotected base surface is going to be damaged from use or possibly eroded, so you'd need to get it all in good shape prior to laying pavers. That said, I don't think your plan, spatially or geometrically, is very well laid out and organized. Maybe you are surrounded by woods so that the view beyond doesn't matter, but there are several areas where you'd be unable to screen your property from the surroundings. Some areas of the walk seem awkward. I would suggest that you get a landscape designer, one who is good with hardscape, to help you with it.