Put Your Driveway into Overdrive

This blacktop leading to the house looked the same as the side roads in this rural area. The owners wanted something that would define the entrance to their driveway. Working from a design by landscape architect Elliott Brundage, This Old House landscaping contractor Roger Cook and his crew spent two weeks laying roughly 15 tons of granite to create a 16-by-33-foot decorative apron. "We installed a piece of hardscape that announces the driveway," Rogers says.

Roger's techniques for laying out, setting, and cutting stone can apply to smaller decorative insets and paving projects of any kind, from patios to walkways.