You are correct in thinking they should fix it all. They should restore it to the way it was prior to the flood in September. Hope you have photos. I have seen this with builders before. One neighborhood I lived in the builder was very proud that his basements did NOT leak. One of my neighbors had a leak in the basement of her new home. The builder was out there with a back hoe at 10 am that day digging down to the bottom of the basement to correct the problem. A week later her entire garden looked like nothing had happened. I live in a county that is experiencing an oil boom. New pipelines are going in everywhere. When those pipeline guys leave, you'd never know they were there. So yes, it is very customary for the person who caused the damage to completely restore the property to its prior condition. This would include any damage they do to the sprinklers in fixing the other damage. In your case it seems the city is owning up to this. And here's how I would fix it. I would probably start by ripping out the entire sprinkler system (to save the aggravation of breaking it up piece by piece with a tractor later), regrading the land, redoing the landscaping, and replacing the sprinklers.

While you're waiting for some more specific recommendations, here are a few sites that will give you some ideas. http://www.stanleynursery.com/product.cfm http://store.miniforest.com/index.html http://www.mountainmeadowsdwarfconifers.com/plantlist.htm http://www.twogreenthumbs.com/library/library.html

Yes, lakeeffect, a picture would be great. Another thing to think about is cost, which may or may not be an issue. Not sure how bit your area is, but a large U-shaped windblock created by $300 cultivars will add up. While you can buy 1-gallon cultivars for a lot less, my guess is that tiny plants probably won't provide enough windblock quickly enough if you're eyeing a 20' size eventually. Because wind will have a natural dwarfing effect anyway, you could always grow species plants and chop them down once an inner layer of shrubs has grown large enough, or the trees too tall. Or, if that sounds barbaric, you could try something mounding like Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Filifera Aurea'. Some of the Picea pungens cultivars grow bushier and slower than the species, too, and spruce is a great choice for windy sites. Also, consider Picea glauca 'Pendula' or Pinus koreansis 'Silveray'. https://facultystaff.richmond.edu/~jhayden/landscape_plants/late_fall_woody_plants/chamaecyparis_pisifera_%27filifera_aurea%27_TOWER-HILL_01s.JPG http://www.greergardens.com/images/Conifers/Picea%20pungens%20Fat%20Albert%20,%20Wylie%2006-94.jpg http://www.greergardens.com/images/Conifers/Picea%20glauca%20pendula%20Oregon%20Garden%201.JPG http://www.esveld.nl/htmldiaen/p/piksil.htm In general, if you're intent on dwarfs specifically, the balance may be to finesse time to appropriate size & cost, but conifers tend to make great windbreaks. Best of luck and hope this helps, -James

I am going to give a rather long (and surely controversial) answer to costs in construction. Before we start talking about savings in home construction we need to realize that there are different categories of new home construction and different methods that are unique to saving with each. The three types that I hear the most are custom, semi-custom and production(tract). There really isn't a bright line between any of the three categories but for cost they are easy to distinguish. So for now let's assume: Custom - The home is designed from the ground up specifically for the owner. Either through significant modification of an existing style or a whole new design with all options owner specified (e.g. the kitchen design is unlimited as is your cabinet choice). Semi-custom - The design is selected from a list of available plans or designs, but the features and options are owner specified (e.g. the kitchen is limited to an existing footprint, but the cabinet choice is unlimited). Production - The design is selected from a list of available plans or designs as are the "upgrades" and features (e.g. the kitchen is limited to an existing footprint, and the cabinets are selected from a list of approved designs). Custom is kind of simple - You save money in the design phase and spend money in the build phase. The secret to savings is a good designer and a lot of planning. If most of your decisions are made before you break ground and you change little, then you will save money. Semi-custom is a bit more complicated - Essentially you save money by saving design fees. However, you will undoubtedly spend a bit more making a canned plan yours. The key to savings for semi-custom is to make fewer changes and save more money than you would have spent on a good designer. Many people fail at this and end up with semi-custom homes that cost more than custom. Production is a bit of a catch 22 - You won't find a lot of love for production builders on this forum. However, there are serious advantages to being able to play the production builder game well that are not present in the other options. Of the three methods, production done well can make the most financial sense, however, done poorly production homes are terrible investments. Unlike the other construction methods customization in production builds isn't a function of builder cost. Rather, upgrades in production builds are based on profit maximization. So instead of worrying about how much an upgrade costs, they worry about how much they can get you to pay for an upgrade, and they can get people to pay a lot, so upgrades are very expensive. In fact, most production builders don't want you buying a basic house because all of their profit comes from upgrades. The secret to making good financial decisions in production builds is accept structural upgrades and avoid all cosmetic upgrades. You basically want a mid to large sized builder basic house in a neighborhood where lots of people are upgrading. After a few years, those expensive to client and cheap to contractor cosmetic upgrades will wear faster and be no better than the builder basic. Those houses will still be selling and will drag your price up. If you plan to live there for a long time and are interested in a house as a livable space rather than a short term investment while you save and build income for a better home, then don't look at production builders.