"Assuming the map is relevant to 70-100 million years ago, it postulates Metasequoia once grew in variety of climates, Mediterranean, and moist Continental(summer maximum precipitation) and high latitude climates. How can this be?" 70 million years ago is the cretaceous period, and the dinosaurs were still around, (as was Metasequoia), but Wadet, if you're interested, you should read about the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. Pretty Fascinating. Huge forests of Metasequoia, as well as Glyptostrobus and many broad-leaved plants grew up near the Arctic (in fact, it is thought that the 3-4 months of Arctic Winter Darkness, rather than cold temps alone, is what induced the deciduous-ness of both species.) at this time, one of the main fossil sites up there is a place called AXEL HEIBERG ISLAND, it's like the Burgess Shale for plants. During the PETM, the planet's average temps rose 11 degrees F (6 C) over roughly 20,000 years (global warming deniers don't get excited - it was accompanied by rapid sea-level rise and a large marine extinction), thought to most likely have occurred because of volcanism or methane being released from the ocean floor. Anyway, it's nice to imagine what forests must've looked like back then, even if the presence of large critters or weird bugs would've spelled trouble for humans. Long Live the Eocene. Has Metasequoia regenerated after going into cultivation? If so, where? I've heard various stories. I know for sure one came up in the beds at UCBerkeley Botanic Gardens. A grouchy employee told me so, at least. The main elements that Metasequoia requires to reproduce on it's own, it seems, are long growing season 2. adequate moisture 3. BARE SOIL. There's a couple cunninghamias that came up on their own at that Garden. Sequoias and Cyptomerias come up on their own all the time at a garden in oakland. Japanese Maples come up as well. I've got a few seedlings about three inches tall of all three that I dug up. I guess the garden just weeds em and throws em out. Here is a link that might be useful: PALEOCENE-EOCENE WIKI

A couple things to think about... First, the minimum auto insurance coverage in PA for property damage is something like $10K. I would be surprised if this guy has more than that. So his insurance is only going to pay that $10K to your insurance...your insurance is on the hook for over that. And if they end up stiffed, your premiums might go up. Yes it's unfair. But I'd ask up front about that, before you get too far down the road. Second, I'd be surprised if they pay to put the porch back exactly like it was. Unless you have a super spankin' top of the line insurance policy (generally offered for historic homes where the millwork is custom and hard to replace), they're going to fight tooth and nail to just build it to "standard workmanship" - meaning a concrete block foundation, standard off-the-shelf columns and balusters, etc. You can try to get what you want, but I wouldn't be surprised if you get big pushback. We used to live on Swede Rd in a 200 year old former-mill that was about 6 ft off the road. While we lived there, a car hit the stone wall in front of the house and demolished part of it - his auto insurance paid to fix and we had a friend of ours who was a mason do the work. But after we sold it, a landscaping truck skidded out and took out aqbout 100 ft of wall and the corner of the porch. They fought with the insurance for about 3 years before they got the wall rebuilt - the insurance company pushed back hard against paying for the stone wall to be rebuilt using the original stones. And I think they ended up using new columns and new porch floor that wasn't an exact replica of the original. You can go in demanding what you want from the insurance company, but realistically, I doubt you'll get it, and the process of fighting them could take years. And yes, I know that sucks because it totally wasn't your fault that any of this happened (but having been on the victim end in more than a few auto accidents, I've learned that insurance companies pretty much don't care.) Since you're planning to sell the house anyway, maybe this is the time where you pick your battles (definitely hold out for the paint job, but maybe give up on the custom millwork and just do everything new with standard components). Good luck!

I doubt that many architects have had anything to do with the majority of tract builder's subdivisions, Maybe, but I know for a fact that one major designer of the huge custom Mansion antecedent of the McMansion in the general region I grew up in is a licensed architect. And his website is full of examples. I know someone who got into trouble with him because he guaranteed them he could design a historically pure classical house with authentic details. He couldn't: he had no idea what they were, and when the historian client and I showed him the actual details he insisted they were wrong and that's not how he did it. A license does not guarantee taste. The individual who had among the worst esthetic tendencies in my design program was accepted to a good architecture program. Perhaps they got rid of those tendencies in her program, but perhaps not: no one seemed to be able to educate her out of them in design school. I agree that most of this stuff is probably not designed by licensed architects, but a license alone is not enough to guarantee that an architect won't.

Two disclaimers before I start. First, I am not your attorney and this is not legal advice, this time I thought I needed to say that. Next, I tend to be fairly aggressive in stopping this type of BS before it starts taking up too much of my time. ----- If this were one or possibly two neighbors I would advise ignoring it and just moving on. However, at some point it becomes a self-reinforcing problem and I suspect with three neighbors participating you may be at that point. In those situations they don't need your participation in order to have drama, they can participate in the drama with each other and may attempt to escalate in order to get a reaction. In some of these situations their need to prove you are the bad guy will extend to outright criminal behavior in order to get a reaction from you that they can use to prove they were "right about you all along." I am going to focus on one thing specifically and relay what I would have done. Again, this works for my personality but may not for yours. Harassing contractors (yelling, threatening, hovering, spraying with a hose) The above is what I see as your most actionable thing. Especially spraying with a hose as technically that is assault (not saying that you will get a prosecution for it). I would instruct the general contractor that if anyone on the job gets sprayed with a hose that contractor should immediately stop working until they have dried sufficiently to work "safely." Please call the police to report the incident and present me with a separate bill for all the charges related to that delay. I would then present that bill to the neighbor as actual damages caused by their action. I would hand the letter to them as well as mail a copy. When handing it to them I would simply say, "I will give you a chance to settle this but I sincerely hope you don't because I want to escalate it." The whole point of this is to get all the actions out in front of an authority figure. If your side of the story is accurate the judge is likely to do you a solid and issue a warning to them, even in small claims court. This is essentially reporting the bully to the principal. Usually that stops these kinds of problems. Publicly shaming them on the internet is the other option, I just don't love that option as it can get away from you. I guess my only real advice is listen to your attorney but do let him help you stop this now if he thinks he can. Otherwise it is very likely to continue to get worse.