Yardvark, thank you so much for evaluating my proposed plan. I appreciate your comments and will try to address your questions as I understand them. I too had a problem with the sharp angled lines of the walkway. I think it was drawn that way to avoid the water/sewer access points that are imbedded in the flower bed. I had planned to change the sharp angles to curves, but I have to admit that I was having a hard time making a decent curve as our front yard is not too deep and the walkway would connect to the patio over a shorter distance than desired. The front flowerbed was already executed a few years ago and is actually not as narrow as it appears on the plan. The yellow highlighted path was existing to the property (our home was built in the 1950s), and as you note, it is somewhat narrow (probably about 2’ wide). However, it has been very convenient to walk around the property. Do you propose that we make that path wider? Other elements on the plan we did not plan to execute include the black squares on the driveway’s edge that represented large flower filled urns on black rock (and a small awning at the beginning of the front porch from the patio). The narrow flower bed that runs along the front porch would be eliminated. My main concern is that I feared that without distinguishing the walkway/patio/front porch in some manner differently than the driveway, it would look like a massive driveway. But since the front of my house is only bedroom windows, I needed to find a way to make a more welcoming presence and an obvious path to the front door instead of weaving between cars in the driveway. In your proposed revision, do you think the 90 degree angles of the patio/seating wall would be appropriate because the house has the same lines? I think it would look good. What material would you propose for the walkway/patio/front porch that would run alongside the driveway? My hope was that I could do some kind of stamped concrete there that would be complimentary to the driveway but subtly different that would distinguish it as the walkway. I am really taking your observations to heart and so appreciate that you took the time to give me your professional opinion. Your comments and suggestions are really making me rethink this. Thank you very very much! Kathy

We would like to use the garage for at least one car. At this time, we can as there is space in the garage, but don’t often use it. The driveway is really not functional unless both cars are parked in the garage. There just isn’t enough space in the driveway to back out of the garage if another car is parked in the driveway. I’d like to be able to park two cars in the driveway and easily access at least one garage bay, two would be great, not sure there is enough space. We’ve lived in the house for about 6 years and about 3 years ago we had to redo the driveway. The contractor did a terrible job and basically had to redo part of the driveway and that’s why you see two different colors. I was thinking pavers because I didn’t know if we could easily add asphalt to a new section. If we did, can we seal the entire drive to make one color? That area of the yard is in desperate need of landscaping and a new shed. But, I’d like to have a plan with the idea of a more functional driveway before making any changes. And, I don’t want to pull up all the existing asphalt for a new design. Any insight or suggestions would be helpful. I should mention that wising the drive to the left of the black car is not really possible. During a big rain, that area has moving water that runs to a sewer. So, we definitely don’t want to extend into that area and deal with possible flooding. Thanks so much.

The pavers would be integrated to help keep the gravel from moving into the lawn and provide a more formal edge for the driveway. Right now its ragged looking and I thought the paver would clean it up but also help secure the gravel. The metal edging is also used to keep gravel in place in the walkway, one side of the metal is gravel between granite stepping stones, the other is mulch (metal edging is separating a mulched bed from a granite walkway). My apprehension is using pavers around the entire driveway. The driveway area in front of the garage is a square shape. If you think of a square, the garage is at the top, the walkway on the left side. Right side being open to the rest of the driveway. I was thinking of extending the metal edging from the walkway down the left corner of the square and all the way across the bottom of the square until the square part of the driveway starts to curve. The top of the square would have pavers on both sides of the garage where the gravel meets lawn. I hope this helps a little, does this description make more ense, its hard to describe, so I included the attached drawing.

With the amount of land you appear to have and the style of your house, a circular drive makes sense. The only question is, will it get enough use to be worth the effort? I do not like the builder's 'keyhole' circular drive. Keep it simple. Branch off before you get to the garage's asphalt pad, go across the front of the house, return to the main drive via what already looks like a cut in the trees. A long slow scenic sweep through the grounds. The long drive in appears to be dirt/gravel so unless you plan on paving that long expanse (a huge expense), a gravel circular drive will be perfectly fine. You can edge the gravel drive with stone or pavers to give it a cleaner more formal look across the front. Keep the circular drive 25' at least away from the house, maybe a bit wider in front for a couple parking spots and put a walkway to the front door from there.