Do you need a gate? What does zoning allow? Do other houses on the block have them?

The garage is in the back around the corner. And we need a way to keep the dog in the yard with a doggy door. We are in Maine so probably no zoning laws 😉. This is the only tudor house on the block, the only one with this issue. The house is very prominent so I don’t want to mess it up.

The gate would be set way back by the corner of the house? I’d opt for black metal, suits the house & it would not be an immediately noticeable feature - epecially if it’s set back. I’m assuming the set back to provide off street guest parking without having to open gate & the gate needs a wall or fence on both sides of it to keep doggie in.

Yes, exactly. Will set it as far back as possible. I think you are right, the black metal would probably be the least noticeable.

I would start with taking design direction from the existing wooden fence.

Here is a beauty with both wood and metal.

Exterior of tudor-style home · More Info

And another. Very fancy!

English: Deloache · More Info

Do you not park in the garage? Because the logistics of keeping the driveway clear enough of snow to routinely open the gate to let the car through Is not something I'd care to deal with. My SIL has a similar setup, with a gate in the drive lining up with the back of the house. However, they have never put cars in the garage, and park in the part of the driveway between the gate and the street.

I'd just plan on fencing in part/all of the backyard.

@mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY) raises a good point - but we don’t know what the garage or the back of the property layout looks like so we just responded to the question presented. I had not even considered the issue of snow!

We have a dog. And needed a fence. But we chose to fence in the yard, not the drive. BUT…we do have large trees in our yard that require pruning and we do have a lawn service that mows our lawn. So, we measured the width of both a wide truck and the big mower and installed a super wide gate that can swing open for access to the yard when required. We went with black aluminum. And the bars do keep our dog contained in the yard.

Can you replace the asphalt drive during this project?

Wow!!! Thank you! This is fantastic.

I really like of replacing the asphalt too. Stamped concrete?

Looks like a long driveway? If so, concrere would be very expensive ( where I live ). Maybe just resurface what you have …. I forget the technical term for it , re-coating, slurry coat???

So the gate will be way back alongside the house, probably extending from the front corner of the house, right? That would allow people to pull into the driveway, without the dog greeting them with a hug. The dog will have the run of the backyard, not the front? So you won’t be putting a fence atop the stone wall (that wall is gorgeous, by the way).

Just a word about the gate, especially if the dog is a jumper. One evening as I drove down my parents’ lane, I saw a deer stuck atop an iron fence. I worried that it was impaled on it and called emergency. While I tried to discern the street number without further freaking out the deer, the dispatcher told me that happened more often than people knew, with deer getting either wedged between the pikes or impaled on them. This deer, fortunately, had only gotten wedged and eventually worked its way free and on over the fence.

You can get aluminum fences that have a top rail. Animals, including persistent dogs, can get stuck between the vertical bars, however. Something to think about.