Six years ago today......

Six years ago today, we moved in, 

no heat, no hot water, Hell....no working toilet!

Missing a large section of the roof & quite a few walls...
it was going to be done in 6 months....
then a year.....then........
well, you know the story.

YES.......We are still very happily married,

and.......

Today we are 

Officially Declaring the House Finished!

"Old Charlie's" House

The "Medaj Manor"

Retaining wall

Tom has been exploring options to protect the shoreline of the piece of property next door we bought a couple of years ago (remember my birthday present???). Since a couple of the neighbors were also getting it done it Tom decided to go ahead and have a retaining wall installed.

They started on August 29th & were going to knock it out in a couple of days, since it was a small job. ( I do believe we've heard that line before. I think it's a standard Upstate NY line)

They found a huge tree stump on the 6th of Sept(maybe that was the hold up?).and before you ask, they did work over most of Labor Day weekend. The work days usually consisted of 2-3 hours of work a day when they came;)

They finally finished the job on the 17th of Sept.
And oh look... we don't have to throw the canoe or row boat in the water any more
& try to jump in!
We have a boat launch!  
Now if we could just find the time to buy another oar we wouldn't have to row in circles:)....
or we could just get longer paddles for the canoe, then taller people could use it ( hint-hint).

Tom had the top soil delivered, graded off and ready for grass seed by the 26th!!!
Obviously he's not an Upstater...he's from Western NY, they apparently have a different time frame.

What happened to Mandy & Eva?

Well we've joked about it for years (literally!), 

that the house would be done by the time Eva went to school. 

Eva started kindergarten on Sept. 6! 

Hard to believe, here's her on her first day of school:)

Eva,  June 2006 she had only been coming here a few months!

Mandy's still working for Tom occasionally,

hopefully for a couple of days soon to finish the entertainment center,

it's just as it was in March!

Her business is flourishing and she's quite busy, you can check out her shop @

http://www.etsy.com/shop/mleefipps.

In Sept. she married her high school sweetheart in a beautiful ceremony.

Eva looked as beautiful as the Bride:)

The photo was taken by one of Mandy's bridesmaids,
who has her own Photography business

she couldn't shoot the wedding for obvious reasons;

but the pics we've seen so far are terrific! 

Check out her studio:

http://www.stonybrookphotography.com