Beginner Gardening: Need to Kill Ivy, 1 by gardenwife

gardenwife wrote:
We have a BUNCH of hardy English (?) ivy and spurge out front which we want to remove. We're going to leave some of the ivy right by the house since we like how it softens the lines of the house where it climbs up on the right front side, but the majority of it we want G-O-N-E.

Someone told me the only way we'll ever get rid of it is to dig it all out by the roots, by hand. Is that the only thing which will do the job? *sigh*

Here's what we're dealing with, on the right side of the driveway.

By the way...The garage door is going to be framed in and will have two windows and a door. That's where my MIL's apartment will be. We think we'll have stone up about 3', topped of with a stone ledge, and then have white siding the rest of the way up (just within that garage door area, I mean).