I don't think the situation is as stark as you think it is. The large trees you have planted to either side of the driveway will eventually form a canopy over the drive that will compete with the driveway. Another quick fix might be to build a trellis for vines that extends over the garage doors, for something like Wisteria vines of Evergreen Clematis. It doesn't appear that there is enough room between the sets of garage doors to squeeze in a planter for something vertical between the doors, but this is a common trick used in monster California homes with a wall of garage doors. If cost is not an issue, (which in this economy, I doubt is the case), you could always reduce the visual impact of the concrete driveway by redoing a portion of it as bands with more decorative contrasting hardscape materials, or even use turfblock driveable paving suitable for growing grass to bridge the two sides of the driveway. This could also be done closer to the house to form a "lawn" within the "L" shape of your house, but wouldn't make much sense to do this if you typically leave parked cars on the driveway during the day.

Permits are the homeowners' responsibility. End of story. Budge is "dead on". Requiring permits allows the town to control what is done and how it will impact the abuttors. It also allows the town to recoup some of the cost of enforcing inspections. I would immediately notify the charming abuttor that she is in serious violation of your property rights! she may well be entitled to a portion of YOUR property if you allow it to go unchallenged. We have a similarly charming neighbor. She cut down trees and filled wetlands and planted her choice of trees ON OUR LOT years before we built our home. My late FIL notified her legally that she was in violation of the lot lines. She was totally freaked out (rightly so!) but we don't really care... . The salient point is that she understands that much of "her" landscaping IS ON OUR PROPERTY and it now belongs to US. Deal with infringements quickly, efficiently and without emotion. Fail to do so at your peril... when you decide to sell your home and the survey is "contested". Trust me on this, Budge. Please. I'm right in line with Budge. on this one. The rules are their for YOUR protection and the protection of the environment (esp. with respect to driveways and contaminated runoff). In my community the necessity is relative to price of the home renovation, but is MANDATORY when one wants to undertake any sort of "improvement" that may impact the sensitive nature of the surrounding natural environment relative to the designated zone. I'm surprised ANY homeowner would not understand that any large project would not require a permit (and a fee!). Welcome to the world of home ownership!

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?

When trimming, keep in mind that this is a matched set of “bookends,” so they should be exact, mirror image duplicates of each other as much as possible. I would think of the trimming project as a challenge … as if you were involved in a manufacturing process making a machine project on a lathe or something along those lines. It would not be at all detrimental to use a tape measure to double check dimensions for matching throughout the process. I would rough out the shapes of both before fine tuning either. The place to begin is standing back well away from them trying to envision what they are to become. If the shrub needs to be moved a little left, right or forward, this is the time to notice it and account for the adjustments you’ll need to make in the cutting. It really barely matters where the plant roots are located. If you the shrub to be 4” to the right, “move” it there with the cutting process. It’s important to envision the finished product before cutting because there is a substantial part of them that won’t get any cutting at all. If you just charged up on them and started hacking away, there’s a good chance you’d cut some wrong parts off. Since the pair of shrubs are matched, the first cuts to make should determine the height. (To match the pair, follow a line on the siding of the house as a guide. Don’t measure from the ground.) Keep in mind that you do NOT want to cut at the place where you envision the limits of the finished product to be (the red line in picture.) There are three reasons for this. As soon as you finish cutting the plant it’s going to grow and if you cut it at the finished height, in a short time it will grow too large. The second reason is because, even though you tried hard to make it a perfect shape, it’s not going to end up as perfect as you’d hoped for. Later, when you need to trim and try to perfect it again, you will want to be cutting only in the newer, softer, easier-to-cut foliage, rather than in the hard, sticky, woody portion. If you don’t cut a little smaller in the first place, you’ll probably end up where the next cutting has to dip somewhere into the woody portion of the plant again. This is a royal pain. If you make the plant a little smaller to begin with, it gives you a “cushion” against having this happen. In general, I find that people have a strong resistance to cutting the plant smaller (the blue line in the picture.) But do yourself a favor and get over this. If you mistakenly cut this plant to a stub, in two years you’d barely remember your error because it would be pretty large again. In cutting it just 6” less than you want it to be, in two months you’ll barely remember or notice that you did that. The third reason you want to cut the plant a little smaller than the “finished product size” is because the more foliage you remove from the top portion of the plant, the greater it is that you expose the bottom portion (the part that is undercut and desperately needs to grow) to more light and an improved chance of quicker growth. Between the yellow line (which represents the ground plane) in the picture and the shrub, there is nothing at all to cut … until you get higher up to the blue line. At this cavity at the lower portion of the shrubs, all the foliage will be left untouched so it can continue to grow as quickly as possible. The goal is to keep the upper portions of the shrub trimmed so that it shades the lower portions the least as possible. Even if you want the shrubs to be larger than what I'm showing, for now you should trim them as I'm showing because you're in a corrective phase trying to regain the lost lower foliage. In your second-to-last picture, it shows how a subordinate, adjacent shrub has encroached on the Yew, which is clearly the more important shrub. The lesser shrub should be trimmed such that this doesn't happen.