Here's Smitty, our great friend who 25 years ago--to his perpetual chagrin--swore that "If there is ever anything I can do to insure your future happiness, never hesitate to ask."  

We always ask: we dragged him up North on Columbus day weekend, 2002, to help stake, string, and trim lot line walkways.  He's a ninja master with that brush cutter.

This young man with the great smile next to Smitty is Troy, our contractor, who met with us mid-April 2003 at the lot.

Here is the access road, in front of our lot, on the 9th and 10th of November, 2002--almost ready for the gravel trucks.

Same view, five months later, April, 2003, with the subgrade layer added; the base layer comes after the heavy machinery is through chewing up the road bed.

Lou puts the finishing touches on the "viewpoint" path on the 9th of November, 2002, so we've got an idea of what we'll see off the future front porch.

Another mature tree to save

Maybe, just maybe, we thought, in November 2003, where she's standing is just in front of a picture window on the lakeside of our little combination kitchen/dining/living area or "great room ."

Lou is standing in the "kitchen" area; land is ready for excavation of the foundation and basement in the beginning of July of 2003

These at first look like mid-winter shots from nearly the above viewpoint; but these are really from 17 April 2003, when the area had an unexpected mini-ice storm: