I think the gravel bed on the sides of the driveway is for drainage and would not do anything to it----and I say that from experience! The driveway may be slightly sloped to prevent standing water and that gravel is what dissipates the water evenly into the ground.....leave it! The problem with the front garage is that the gable is too high over the garage opening but not high enough to look like there is a second story above the garage. Is there a bonus room above, or just low ceilinged storage? IMO instead of just changing out the door you need to address all that blank area between the sides of the gable roof (where the pitch stops and the eaves are) and the top of the garage opening. I think i would put some windows in above the garage that match your other windows in style and proportion, if not size. Adding a pergola or any other type of overhang on the garage just makes the problem worse. The house in its original state looks better than the mock ups, as emphasizing that area is akin to taking a person with an already large forehead and giving him a low, prominent supraorbital ridge / unibrow. OOPS, for some reason the picture in the post above did not show up when I looked at the thread earlier! Sorry! This post was edited by kswl on Fri, Sep 5, 14 at 11:56

Thanks Patricia, flyingflower and fnm ! I guess I wasn't too clear about what I was after but the answer was there anyway. Need to not have too much shade as there is already plenty and need to be able to get up there which isn't a problem as I can climb a ladder. We will have 4 pergolas of different sizes. 3 are already started and the 4th will be attached to the front of the carport. I Googled Images and found the perfect idea. It will come off of the carport and not need more posts in the ground. I will divide the length of the different structures and come up with a number. THANK YOU...pics to follow. We will be in NYC for 8 days so works has stopped . Will get done in early July. Lots in the works. I hate starting a vacation already tired...but ...can't stay away from the City. Thanks again...c

:) I’m glad it was helpful. I was thinking the tree could also be in a planter, but maybe just a rectangle one would be good. THe tree might help screen some of the empty wall space though. The gate with vines would look nice too, just dont block that beautiful view. I used the sketches ap on my ipad...I screen shot your pic, uploaded it to the ap, and then drew everything in. It’s very easy.

I like the cedar because it’s organic ... something important in mid-century aesthetics. Something like this would look great, I think, or no windows as shown above. Yes, this is very MCM: And if you like that look, it would work, but I personally would go with something more mid-century traditional than literal MCM, due to where the garage is oriented with your split-level house. It’s really just personal preference. I like your mock-ups with the painted ones, too, which would be the least unobtrusive look and fit your house fine. Your era and style of house had a wide variety of garage door styles, no one universal type.