I have some questions about what to do and timing with my front and back yards, given the construction activity next to me.

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Here are my questions (read details below):

1) Should I wait to have my front yard dry stream bed dug up?

2) Should I add more rip rap in the front now, or wait until construction is further along?

3) Should I wait to add DG/mulch in the back?

4) If I put DG mulch in the back now, say -- 2" deep and it gets covered with dust over the next year, can I just add another inch or two on top of it?

5) Should I wait to re-do the planting on the side (dead shrubs due to irrigation problems) until after the next house to me will be built?

Details:

I live in a new tract home on the edge of the desert. Right next to me is the next part of the subdivision which has been cleared, curbed, and utility pipes in, but no home construction yet. I expect at least one more year or two of construction. Right now, there's just acres of loose sand.

We get constant, very strong winds from that direction, blowing fine dust and sand from the cleared acreage into my yard. Your advice on what to do and timing of landscaping would be appreciated:

--Front yard came already landscaped with 2" rip rap (aggregate mulch), a tree, boulders, some random shrubs, and a pebble dry stream bed. This pebble dry stream bed is now covered with a thick layer of fine sand.

--The pictures shows ponding in the center of my front yard where the dry stream bed is meant to channel the run off toward the street. I think I'm going to make a planting basin there, which would involve digging out those big rocks under the sand, putting them around the edges and laying gravel there, but rebuilding the last leg of the stream which terminates in the sidewalk. Comments?

--Everybody and their brother is going to be going past my front yard over the next year, so I don't want it to look crappy. But there's going to be heavy equipment and lots of construction activity, leading to debris.

--back yard is a square of dirt so far. No mulch, so soil can erode. Soil (read: sand) is actually being deposited into my walled lot by the wind. I'm hoping to do some grading and digging in preparation for planting trees in the fall, and laying down some gravel (DG and/or some larger rocks).