I have drive size envy. As someone who lives in a little terraced house with no drive and no side access I am positively envious! What surface will you go for? My sister has just had a resin gravel drive laid and it lovely, although pricey. It is water permeable and it has a bit of a bounce when you walk on it.

Driveway envy lol. It's all very good and nice having a large driveway ........ until it comes to having it done. 160sqmt apparently according to the quote.

We've looked into so many surfaces as you can imagine - tarmac, gravel, block paving, resin bound etc, but actually decided on a granite cobble 'cuff', then double granite cobbles around the edge, and grey granite gravel. The same style as the picture below

The house up the road has just had their drive done by the same company, so I got speaking to the homeowner and got the contractor details. Turns out that I know the fella from many years ago, and he also knows my wifes family really well (they're stonemasons, builders) so I think that helped us secure a decent price.

I took this picture of his drive when I was out walking the dog, and sent it to the wife, which actually secured the deal as she said that it looks lovely. So I just said to the contractors I want my drive the same as Jeremys up the road you've just done. So I'm expecting it to look pretty much exactly the same as this:

We're having the paving slabs removed on our front door step to be replaced with the cobbles, and also we're having a path of cobbles running right across in front of the house that leads down the side of the house. Also, as the fence has been put in it's actually higher than the new level of the driveway, we're putting a row of a couple of sleepers a foot (ish) away from the fence baseboards, then back-filling it and we'll plant it up next spring.

Sounds lovely. Can’t wait to see it done!

Sounds very good, rumble strip looks quite deep normally they're around 5 deep

The guys made decent progress yesterday. It doesn’t look all that much, but I’m just going on the pile of earth that’s in the drive. He said there will be another 2 loads that size when it’s all dug out.

not much of an update, but we should have all of the old tarmac up today, but the bit that they've already removed and flattened, they've done the 'raised bed' between the fence and new drive level.

Just looked at the security camera, drive looks proper big now, didn’t actually realise.

Only a couple more days to go until it's finished - according to builder this morning. He says that he needs 2 more full days to complete, but he's only booked in for one more. So he's getting as much done as he can today, then he's got to go to another job for the remainder of the week, but he's back on Saturday to finish ours. Bit of a pain, but it-is-what-it-is - these things happen.

The little font bit / path looks better than I thought it would. To be honest I'd not actuallly thought all that much about it, but I'm happy.

that 'path' along with the front step tie in nicely

Cobbles look lovely.

Not much of an update as they've disappeared to another job for this week as there was some delay in the gravel, but it arrived this morning, so they'll be back on Saturday to finish grouting the cobbles, and to get the gravel down.

Yes, I know that the cobbles are a bit higgledy-piggledy (as pointed out by a colleague lol) but that's the natural look that we've gone for as they're not all even in size, but once the gravel is laid then you can't really notice it).

Yes cobbles have a naturalised look and I think they are shaped by hand? I’m sure if you wanted perfect straight lines you would have chosen block paving which isn’t quite as nice!

It’s beginning to look very smart, but from my experience I would have had at least another 3rows of cobbles (6 in all) under the window path to line up with the far end.

I think your design is a good one. Especially for such a large space. I really like the raised beds as planting those thoughtfully will soften the overall look and provide summer and autumn colour. I do have one question - are you concern about weeds in the gravel? I live in the Cotswolds and weed management of the drive edges is a more common conversation than the weather! :-)

Weeds in gravel, oh yes! As most weed seeds are airborne like dandelions they can be an issue. They do pull out quite easily though, I found.

Well it's all done - and I'm over the moon with the finished result. I managed to get some photo's when they left on Saturday afternoon, which was the last time I saw it before it was covered by a deep layer of snow.

He did lay some hessian sheets over the collar at the front, so that the temperate would stay above freezing to speed up the setting of the grouting.

The front grass now needs a lot of work - but that can definitely wait until the spring now.

I need to lay a couple of slabs by the wall to put the bins - where we'll also get some bin storage thingies so that you don't see them.

I'm not fussed in the slightest about 'weeds' - ask me again in the spring/summer then I may have changed my mind, but filling a watering can with some industrial strength weed killer and going over the drive a couple of times a year is no biggie. Besides I'm planning on raking it over every now-and-then so I'll just couple those together. I understand that there will be some upkeep to it, but isn't that the case with just about everything these days.

Not sure what the next job will be, but I'm sure that the Mrs has something on the horizon. We're getting a new boiler fitted tomorrow, so I'm guessing that 'The Utility Room' will be having a re-design at some point in the new year.

But that's all from me for the time being.

Looks good. I like the cobbles. We have a gravel drive, but as it’s on a slope, we lose gravel easily when we drive off. It’s what came with the house and we’re wondering what to do when we get round to the drive. The gravel seems to cover a multitude of sins and I think it was just plonked down without any of the preparation yours has had. But yours looks lovely, enjoy!

It looks fantastic. It totally modernises the frontage to your house. Can’t wait to see it when you have your plantings done & the greenery will soften the fence.
Well done.

Looks great! did a great job