Work Work Work!!!

2015 brought some changes to the Jones home.  In addition to redoing the kitchen in the winter we had lots of projects throughout the year.  One of the things that drove me crazy about our yard was all the overgrowth. One of the first things I did this spring was take down this horrible vine around this arch. It made the patio feel so much more open.

Then I bought a pressure washer and attacked the walkway and patio. I couldn't believe how dirty it was.

 the Ferguson's left this wire table and chair set that we really liked but I wasn't crazy about the green so we tried the spray paint on it and it came out great! 

 They also left this hot tub that was supposed to be in working order but after having a spa company come and look at it they said there was over $4000 worth of repair so we decided to haul it to the dump.  It was too big to put on the trailer all at once so Josh came up with a clever way of disposing of it. 

 Kaleb, Alex, and Jack sure enjoyed watching him.

We also had all these vines and weeds in the back of our yard and we wanted to add a building but didn't want to take away for the play area in the yard so we took all those weeds out. Our neighbor Mark gave us this little metal building and it is great! I love the double doors cause I can just ride the mower right in there and not have to worry about hitting anything. 

While Josh was in Iraq the boys decided to make blue prints for a tree house they wanted. They were some pretty elaborate plans with a kitchen and everything. I thought it was cute but didn't know he actually planned on building the one.  One day while we were at Lowes he started piling wood on the cart and I asked him what it was for and she said "The tree house" So he started making his boys' dream come to life.

While he was working on the tree house I decided to  tackle the paint on the front of the house because I hated that red on the bricks so much! The problem is I'm so indecisive that picking a color took a while. I'm sure my neighbors loved me for these few days LOL So I knew I wanted a soft green but I wasn't sure which one so I got some samples and put them up and left them for a few days.

Then after a few days Steph showed me this house down the street that had just did their doors and shutters in blue and it looked so good. So back to lowes I went. Then I couldn't decide light blue/green or dark blue/green.

In the end I with with the darker shade of green and loved it!

I always loved the look of black interior doors but never had the nerve to try it so while I was in the painting mood I painted the inside of the front doors black.  I was so happy I did.

Another thing Josh came home from deployment to find was standing water in our crawlspace and mold starting to grow. We know we had to fix the problem because when we were buying the house our home inspector found a lot of mold under there and the owners paid over $8,000 to have it removed and new insulation installed. We had a foundation specialist come out and they quoted us $13,000 to fix it. Luckily the guy was nice and saw that Josh was willing to do the work himself and walked him through what to do and we just bought the dehumidifier from him and Josh encapsulated the crawlspace himself. After that though we had to run drainage off the hill which meant digging digging digging! It took us about a week and of course it was when a hurricane was hitting VA beach and we were having hard rains. Fun times! 

 Of course daddy had his little helper out there

 Then he needed a climbing break lol

 

the last update to the house in 2015 was a new refrigerator. Kaleb and been swinging on the door of our old one so it drooped and wouldn't seal anymore so I got a major upgrade! :)