Hi! I read your post and it sounds somewhat like our situation (though no accusations about affairs or anything--just unsupervised children!) Anyway, since we moved to our home with a 2 year old, and another on the way, I insisted that if we did nothing else to our landscaping, we needed to install a fence! Since our neighborhood was somewhat established, and none of our bordering neighbors had fences, we opted for a split rail fence with a green mesh exterior--which is nearly invisible against the grass and landscaping. This design allowed us to "pen" our child(ren) in, keep the neighbors kids and dogs out, and it was subtle enough so as not to look like a "spite" fence. Once the fence was up, we then planted a mixed row of Rose of Sharon, smallish arborvitaes, along with roses, and barberries (the thorns are also helpful in the fight against would-be entruders!!! LOL!) The other nice thing about this kind of fence is that is CAN be temporary and removed after other plantings fill in, and it is one of the least expensive fencing designs, and both the mesh and individual timbers can easily be replaced if needed. We were able to fence in a relatively large 1/2 acre back yard for about $4000--it may sound a bit expensive, but it was WORTH EVERY PENNY!!! Just something to consider! Good luck!

Thanks to everyone for posting a reply! :) I've been really busy with work all week. ideasshare, thanks for taking time to edit and post the photo. I've included another photo showing a pile of rocks that I have salvaged from my property when I moved here. I'm intending on using them somewhere...some in the frontyard and some in the backyard. It'd be neat if I can have some moss too like you suggested. gardendoll, i too realized that I have to consider that the areas around the sidewalk would have to withstand winter salt and doggy waste. I don't want to rely much on perennials as they won't be around all year long. I wouldn't mind few but I'm mainly aiming for evergreens. Do you have a thread going for your new garden plan? woodyoak, I really thought hard about your suggestion and you really made me realize that my squiggly paths are pretty silly! I tried again and posted an updated plan below. It hasn't snowed here yet but I did some walking around and found out that you were correct about only curving when going around corners. Yes, your assumption is correct in that there will be gates on each side of the house...as shown on the updated plan. berndnyz5, you are correct. Before removing the Mulberry tree, I knew there'd be a trade-off with loosing shade but the trade-off was easy considering that the tree was a female and the mess that the fruit made was unbearable. The tree was also an eyesore in my eyes as it was stumpy and hacked by previous owners. It also had a split in one of its trunks which was an accident waiting to happen. Since the house faces west though, when I walk out the front door at about 6 PM in the summertime, I get practically blinded by the sun :S I am aware of the metal brackets that you are referring to and those are what I intend on using for my wood posts. As far as I thought cedar or pressure treated wood will eventually rot. I have until the spring to decide on which type of wood regardless :) There is an old lady who has lived across the street for the past 50-some years and told me that the hedges that I removed had been there for around 40 years. She also told me other neat things like how the driveway used to be by the south-west corner of the property. Anyway, the hedge did provide some privacy and noise barrier but at the expense of being ugly (especially in winter) and super high maintenance in the summer. It was too linear for me and I just couldn't take it any longer. I was surprised after I took it down that I haven't caught one person cutting across the front but regardless, I agree with you and am planning on having something near the NW corner. I was thinking about possibly a small berm/rock garden near the corner but I am unsure how I could link that to the bed beside the driveway. I'm thinking about having taller matter on the NW side and lower matter on the SW side as technically my house address is for the street on the SW side (i.e. the side that I'm planning on putting the new main walkway). Thanks for pointing out about a mulch walkway would be a never ending cycle of tracking it inside the house. I'm going to have to rethink the material for the secondary walkways. I'm planning for the main one to be 4 feet wide and the secondary ones to be 3 feet wide. I'm okay with spending more money on the main one (i.e. tumbled pavers) but need the secondary walkways to be a complementing less expensive material because the walkway are going to be so long. As for the conifers, I'm planning on choosing ones that are appropriate scale for the property and that are slow growing. Since they will grow slowly, if any pruning is eventually necessary, it don't see it as being nuisance at all.

Need more details before realiable answers could be formed, What cultivar of Cherry tree are you planting? Which root stock is the featured cherry tree grafted onto? What is your USDA temperate zone? I am wondering if your location must be quite mild or even more often cold than moderate if your Sunset zone is only a 2 or 3. Is this an ornamental cherry tree, or a fruiting variety. If not ornamental, you might get more reliable answers if you post your question on the fruit trees forum.

Try to avoid the lawsuit. The amount of money, stress and bad will it creates will damage you and your family far more than you can possibly realize. You really are not losing anything here. You have just gained property that you did not know you owned. The neighbors on the other side of the fence are now losing property they thought they owned. Talk to the county assessors office and find out how much in taxes you have paid over the last 4 years for this 83 ft piece of land. Then talk to the builder and their surveyor about reimbursing you for that amount. Explain to them that this is the least expensive way for them to solve the problem and avoid legal action and that this is the fair thing for them to do. If they have a problem with it, follow up with a written request from a real estate attorney specifying this option as a settlement request before legal action is taken. They should be smart enough to cooperate and avoid spending huge amounts of money on a lawsuit. If they don't cooperate, I still say avoid the lawsuit and move on with your life. It may sound like "losing face" to then not go ahead with a lawsuit, but your objective here is to see if they will do the right thing and compensate you. Moving forward with a lawsuit will not be worth it for your particular situation. I know that the placement of your pool in your yard is now not going to seem ideal to you, and that sucks, but file it under lessons learned so that in the future you always get a land survey done no matter what a builder says. Just think, the problem could have been the other way around and your neighbors could now possibly own your pool. That would be far worse.