Mahogany is a very common deck material here. I don't do wood work, but I believe that it is easy to work with.
The driveways are done in what we locally call "native gravel". It is gravel that was deposited by glaciers that dumped it and everything else here in the last ice age. They dig it out, screen it for size, and wash it. There are several gravel pits on Cape Cod that produce it. They don't crush stone to make it because the water rushing off of the melting glaciers separated different sized particles depending on the speed of the water. They call these deposits "well sorted" when they are fairly consistent sized material. It is usually 1/2" and 3/4" that is used.
This type of driveway is very common on high end waterfront homes for two reasons. First, they fit the context of the area and people with multi-million dollar summer homes want to feel like they are not at home in the suburbs. The second reason is that water front homes are almost always under the jurisdiction of state and local wetlands protection regulation. There are a lot of coastal wetland resources that are not easily recognized the same way you would a freshwater resource. There are dunes, flood zones, and something called a Coastal Bank. I'm side tracking, but the result is that pervious driveways are often required in order to build or renovate.
Because these are so common, they have gotten pretty good at making these driveways. The prefered base these days is something that is called "T-base" locally. It is named after a large local paving company that started using it. It is made from reclaimed asphalt pavement and other road material. It is gray-brown looking and does not look like tar. It is not hot, but it compacts very well. Sometimes crushed granite road base (3/4"-) is used. Whatever it is, it has to be very well compacted.
Then the real trick of it comes in. The "native stone" is spread over the base as thinly as possible in order to keep tires and feet on top of it rather than plowing through it.
Many people tend to put gravel down way to thick and not over a solidly compacted base. The result is that cars plow it around and people kind of swim through it. Then they add more gravel because they think they don't have enough. After screwing a few of these up, they draw the conclusion that gravel sucks and it is wrong to use it. However, it is a very good driveway material.
Keep in mind that most of these places are summer homes and don't often need to have a snow plow run over them.
We also use clam shells or scallop shells for driveway surfaces here as well.
3/4" Native
1/2" Native
Clam Shell
