Mr. and Mrs. Kraus Blog

Last Saturday, a week ago from today, I watched a lot of HGTV. This is a rare thing for me, but for whatever reason it was really interesting to me that day. They were showing all kinds of shows about remodeling rooms, or improving houses so they would show well and sell.

One of the shows was called “24 Hour Design” and the episode was called Classic Casual Living Room. One of the things they did with this room was turn a plain white fireplace into a dark, antique-looking fireplace. I really liked the effect so I decided to test it on my pool table.

Here is how my pool table used to look. It was nothing special and had an old, beat-up, wood veneer look to it. The previous owner even used the side of the table to pop bottle caps off of bottled beers, so the wood veneer was all chipped off in places. The bases of the table were chewed on by their family dog and looked horrible, with teeth marks all over them. So while this may have been a risky undertaking for a nicer pool table, there wasn’t much risk of mine looking any worse than it did.

The first thing I did was prime all the wood surfaces of the table. You can see that I used a tinted primer, in hopes that I would be able to get away with just one coat of black. That turned out to be a no, because it would end up taking two coats.

After the primer dried I painted the table jet black. I used Behr interior paint, with a satin finish for a bit of a shine. Like I mentioned before, it ended up taking 2 coats. I must admit, when I got to this point I was tempted to stop right here. It looked infinitely better to me all jet black than it did with the wood veneer. I was concerned that my next step would not come out like I planned it.

What was the next step? Take a brush and dip the end in red paint, also satin interior Behr paint. Then wipe most of the paint off on a paper towel so that the brush is almost dry. Next brush the edges of the table and in random places to add light red streaks. The effect turned out to be really cool. What it did was make it look like the tabled used to be painted red, and was then painted black. It made it look like the red was showing through because the table is old and worn.

The last thing I did was take black shoe polish and polish the entire table. I let it dry and then wiped it off. I had used satin paint so it had a shine to it already, but the polish really added more shine! Wow, it looks so good, and I’m really happy I undertook the project. Here’s the result:

I still have to add the red to the base pieces and polish them, but I wanted to make sure I like the effect before I did that. I think this really made the pool table an eye-catcher, and one of the coolest pieces in the room!

Oh, also– Thanks to Sarah for giving me advice on what kind of paints and primers to use.

Comments from old site:

Written by Mr. Kraus
Posted: Saturday, August 25, 2007 at 4:54 PM

Sorry I’m so late to respond, but if anyone is reading this, I used Red Red Wine Behr paint.

Written by Judy
Posted: Wednesday, August 1, 2007 at 1:50 PM

Weird! I just finishing painting an end table black and was searching the internet trying to find this episode of a makeover show where they did the mantel with shoe polish and red paint. I found your site first I used primer and 2 coats of black Behr paint so I am ready for the next step. What color red did you use? Worried about using something too bright. Thanks in advance! The pool table looks great!!!

Written by Chad
Posted: Monday, July 2, 2007 at 6:20 PM

Well Chris, there might not be a new home. The market is horrible and the house isn’t getting much action. We have placed ads online for… ROOMMATES. We decided we are willing do that for the next 2-3 years so the wife can finish college. So don’t give me any guff about this decision!

http://www.hirewebdevelopers.com

Written by Chris
Posted: Monday, July 2, 2007 at 3:04 PM

WOW, did that ever turn out great! When you called that morning and asked Sarah about what you had seen on HGTV, (and asked if Sarah watches HGTV *laughs*) I really didn’t think you’d be that serious about taking it to your pool table that way. Now I bet its going to be hard to let that go. I can totally see you thinking of some way of weaseling the pool table into your new home somehow.

Chad Kraus Kraus House

I’m going to do something I’ve never done before– write a blog article from work. Usually, I am way too busy to do this and out of principle I wouldn’t do it anyway. But I have nothing but good things to say about my job so here goes.

Yesterday we officially nailed all of our deadlines. We had three projects going at once that all needed to be approved and fees paid by tomorrow. One was finalized on Monday, one Tuesday, and one yesterday. The reason this was important is because some time ago Lee County voted to TRIPLE road impact fees. What are those? They are fees that Lee County charges a new business, or an existing business doing a remodel, in order to help pay for the roads they are on. They claim that these new businesses will have an “impact” on those roads.

They are right, they do. However, the fees are getting huge. And tripling them meant tens and even hundreds of thousands of extra dollars in impact fees for some businesses, depending on their size and impact.

So you can imagine it. The county approved a tripling of impact fees. Anyone on the fence trying to decide when they are going to start a new project says, “Oh man! I gotta get my building approved now before the new fees take effect!” Because the county set a deadline for 1. When new development orders had to be submitted and 2. When they had to be approved. Then for projects that met both those deadlines, they have to pay for their impact fees by tomorrow if they don’t want them tripling.

I think we have had 5-6 projects since the initial decision to triple, and we got them all taken care of in time, with just the final three finishing this week. So I guess my point is that we are good. We know what we are doing. Check out our website at: www.KeeneFL.com

We’d love to help you out with any site engineering needs you may have. You may have missed the deadlines to avoid the additional impact fees, but let us save you money in other places. Let us take care of the brain damage!

Chad Kraus Keene Engineering

I love weddings! Last weekend Mrs. Kraus and I flew to Minnesota for my best friend Chris’s wedding. We had a GREAT time! Not only is it perfect weather up there this time of year, but it was so fun seeing every one. We got there on Thursday at 2:30 and my other best friend Aaron picked us up from the airport. And yes, it is ok to have two best friends. Three amigos kinda thing. Anyway, the first thing we did was drive to Mankato for Chris’s bachelor party. As far as bachelor parties go, everyone was very well-behaved. We just hung out, played video games and ate some good food. I got to see Adam and Lisa’s pad and it was really nice.

After the party, the wife and I crashed at my mom’s new townhouse. It was very nice and I was really impressed with it. She seemed so happy too, and very proud of her new pad. Sounds like she really loves the neighbors and pretty much everything about the place. It was nice to see mom so excited.

Day 2 we drove to Sheldon, Iowa. We decorated the reception hall and had the rehearsal dinner, which was a luau in the park. Everyone had on Hawaiian shirts and we had burgers on the grill. We stayed at a hotel that night, and I had some fun with the buds sitting in the hot tub, watching a Twins game, teasing Chris about his last free night on Earth, and playing a little Clubhouse Games and Bomberman on DS.

Then Saturday was the big day! The wedding was very nice and everything went off without any problems. The bride and groom looked so happy, and everyone had huge smiles on their faces. Be sure to check out all the wedding pictures I have posted. Take a look at the gallery! We stayed in the hotel again that night, and the next morning we had breakfast at the Family Table. The happy couple opened their wedding gifts and we all said our goodbyes.

After that we head back to Aaron’s house, which by the way is very nice. We took a relaxing walk around his neighborhood and enjoyed the brisk air. The following day we flew home to Florida and it was back to work the same day.

The wife and I really enjoyed the trip. Ever since I started dating her I have joked about moving back to Minnesota. Only thing was, I was serious but it was a joke because she never would have gone for it. But after this trip she has changed her tune. I think she’s starting to like Minnesota, and she has made some friends there too. Could there be a change in the winds? You never know, but we’ll pray about it. One thing is for certain– if that turns out to be the case, it’s certainly a slightly colder wind than here!

Comments from old site:

Written by Lisa P
Posted: Friday, June 8, 2007 at 10:08 PM

What great pics from the wedding! FMD forever!! (Adam & Chris should have done the “antlers” too) Amanda, Minnesota really IS a great place to live. The cold winters aren’t so bad when you’ve got someone to snuggle up with. :o)

Chad Kraus Aaron, Chris, Minnesota, Mrs. Kraus, wedding