In my opinion, driving your vintage motorcar into your own driveway should feel like a grand entrance. Based on this theory, I decided to spruce up my own 100 yards of scenic drive.

The first step was to clear all obstructing branches that could damage my vehicles. I don’t have a picture but this was literally a jungle when I bought it. I also cleared about 5-6 feet into the woods on each side and left certain maples and oaks that I liked.

I had the driveway built up around 4-6 inches with gravel. It hadn’t been maintained in over 10 years so that was a major undertaking as I did most of the leveling by hand.

Last fall I planted Tulips and Daffodils to surprise my wife this spring. Being in the woods, they came up 3 to 4 weeks later than those out in the open sunny areas. It’s nice having them around later into the spring.

Alongside my drive there were area’s where it dropped off up to 2 feet. Being in the Midwest, the old craft is to use fieldstone for retaining so that’s what I did.

I’ve always thought there was something official about a nice gate at the end of a driveway. When I bought our property, the driveway had a post on each side, signs that there was some type of gate at one point in time. The only good thing about these posts was that they were sturdy. They were so out of plum it was  pathetic! Fortunately, I was able to work with them and build out a nice, sturdy pillar on each side.

I built the gate frame out of new 1×6 cedar and inlay panels15 year old (darker) cedar panels from an old privacy fence we tore down. I liked the idea of the two-tone look. I just went off the top of my head for framing them up. Luckily, I got my post’s on each side perfectly plum and level across the tops before anything else. This made fitting the panels pretty simple. The hinges are a heavy steel hinge from the local hardware store. I decided to use longer screw’s then what was provided with them for more strength.

Overall I’m happy with the progress so far and there are some really nice spots for taking pictures too! Now I just need to save up to have it paved!