Please help: we live in Winnipeg, Canada:

I wondered if you wouldn't mind giving us a second opinion as we are really in need of someone that is not only a landscape contractor but rather someone that has more technical landscaping experience/education).

If there is anyway you can look over these documents (i can send them directly to you) and let us know what you would suggest doing we would be so very thankful.

Some background on our property:

- moved in Jan 2015 noticed flooding March 2015

- connected with builder and city no further support

- now in 2017 we continue to flood but now have a neighbor where we are really aware of the drainage issues on our property. When our other neighbor builds there house we will no longer have direct access to get water off our property as our property is supposed to drain through our neighbors yard so right now we can still adjust the grades for the vacant lot beside us (developer has approved this if needed).

- May 2017 City came and provided us new survey which shows what our survey certificate was suppose to be as well as what our survey/land actually is. (I've attached this so you can see what we are dealing with; approximately 1 foot lower than we should be and one of our hills slopes is 7 to 1 ratio vs. 3 to 1 ratio it should be.)

- since then working with original civil engineer for developer. He provided a proposed plan (attached) to drain our property w/o retaining walls on our property but rather swales and proposed adjustment of the vacant lot beside us (22 canvasback cove). No one has since quoted on this plan and the city really wants us to go with option 2 which is catch basin on our property and under our neighbors yard and PR walkway behind our house. Note: all expenses to fix drainage on our property is going to be our expense.

- last attached item is quote from landscaper we have been working with on project (3 quotes provided but the amount keeps rising and we want to make sure our goals of below are still met:)

1. property draining properly is met

2. still have a functional yard (and prevent flooding in our home - I have concerns with 'retaining wall city plan' that does retaining wall around our full patio and basement three windows in the back yard - these three window areas are not in cement but rather wood, and b/c our basement door is so low with the patio not having any drainage that water may come into our basement door).

3. best bang for our buck; don't want to spend on things we don't need as we've already landscaped our whole yard once 2 yrs. ago.

Now we have a quote of $27,000 to finish our back yard (which would be lovely) but we don't want to spend more than we need to but want a fixed yard that is low maintenance but usable too as we have a 5 yr old daughter that we would like to still have her playstructure/trampoline or small swimming pool as part of the plan.

Thank you very much in advance if this makes sense and you can provide us some solutions to our goals:

1. is this plan set forward the best to make sure we drain properly?
2. will we still have a yard that functions well for us now and for the future when our daughter no longer uses the playset/trampoline or pool?
3. that we are only paying for what we need to
4. that we are not causing other issues in our yard with a retaining wall around our whole patio w/o a drain and so that we don't have to spend much more money on landscaping again in a few more years after our daughter's interests change.
5. the quote we have is on par with others quoting on the work (we didn't get three quotes as we've only been working with this one landscaper since this all began in April.) * we've had to move the date back of doing the work 2 times already b/c the City/Developer have been talking about other suggestions.

Tanya - if there is a chance we can hear from you early this week we would like to let our Landscaper know what we are going to do. He does not want to do the plan proposed by the Developer and City and understands if we go elsewhere now to do the work. We still would like to do some work with him but as he is a landscape contractor not a landscape designer/environmental design grad/landscape architecture we thought we should get another perspective.
PS We have spent so much time, energy on this already that we are so looking forward to being done with this problem and hope to before the snow falls and we have issues in the spring; last yr my husband spent consecutive days pumping water off our property to the PR behind our neighbors but if they build beside our house, this won't be an option.

Latest quote info:

Price Estimate - my comments are bolded

Supply and install 25 x 3 foot compacted ¼ inch black granite walkway (may not need as can use grass doing down south hill near hot tub to cut costs)

Supply and install 50 lineal feet of low level

Quarry stone retaining walls (not sure need/want around 3 window area in basement but may need b/c that area is wood not concrete and need to raise yard 5-6 inches probably in that spot).

Masonry glue for all stone work 20 yards of ¾ inch down limestone

Supply and install 14 foot diameter Roman paving stone circular patio (fine with 12 ft and could do pea gravel for base to save costs-this is so we have some function in our north/west hill)

Supply and install Quarry stone backing retaining wall to patio

Barkman edging and galvanized spikes

Polymeric sanding of patio upon completion

Supply and grade 40 yards of clean fill

Supply and grade 30 yards of four way mixed soil

Supply and lay 220 yards of peat sod

Supply and install riverstone perimeter of back yard and upper tier (don't need upper tier to cut costs)

Supply and plant 3 x caliper deciduous trees (don't need to cut costs)

Supply and install 5 large riverstone boulders (don't need to cut costs)

Supply and install commercial grade black lawn edging

Supply and lay 25 year landscape fabric

Supply and install retention pit in back corner of yard Labor (don't know if we need this)

Sub Total: $26, 360.00 GST: $1318.00 TOTAL: $27, 678.00