Mr. and Mrs. Kraus Blog

Dad and Kathy visited during the week of my birthday, and we worked the real estate scene. We spent a good Saturday looking at homes online and then driving by each one. From there we decided which ones we wanted to see. I let my REALTOR know, and he made the appointments for Monday after work. After seeing our top 4, two of them were purchase-worthy. Mrs. Kraus and I decided which one we preferred and we made an offer. After some good negotiating, we got it done by Tuesday evening, and the closing is set for the end of June.

Dad and Kathy were an awesome help during the whole search. They have a lot of experience with real estate. Here are some of the things I learned:

1. Be practical. Make a list of the things you want in a home and be sure the one you buy has the most important features. But don’t overspend. Don’t buy too much house. Staying practical might mean conceding one or two things you’d like to have, but don’t necessarily need.

2. Start looking low in the price scale and work upwards as needed. We started with the lower priced homes to see what it could get us. When we realized that a price range just wouldn’t get us what we needed, we upped the range by $10,000 increments until we found our price range.

3. Keep maintenance in mind. What about the house is already done? Have they recently redone the siding or roof? What is the condition/age of the AC unit and furnace? If these things are new or recently replaced, that’s money you won’t have to spend anytime soon. A house might seem like a great buy, but if there are 10’s of thousands of dollars in maintenance coming up in the near future, you might think again.

4. Don’t fall in love. You should never decide you can’t live without a house until it’s officially yours. In this market you can find a home you’ll love for a great deal. Your first offer might be rejected or you might lose the home to another buyer. Don’t over-pay or fall prey to a bidding war because you fell in love too soon. Be willing to move on to the next house. Chances are, your willingness to walk away might just land you the home you wanted for a lower price.

It was a great week. We learned a lot and had fun looking. A very heartfelt thanks again to my parents for their help and advice, and to my REALTOR Russ for being available when needed and for making things happen (he spent a lot of time with us this week).

Chad Kraus Dad, real estate

Remember that painting of Al’s I mentioned I like? Mrs. Kraus likes it too– so we bought it!

Reminds me of fly fishing last summer

It reminds me of last summer when Mrs. Kraus and I camped at Whitewater State Park. The banks of the trout stream were really wide, so it was easy to cast my fly rod. It was so nice I fished for hours and got blisters. But they were the good kind of blisters!

Chad Kraus camping, fishing, Waggie Art

Happy Easter everyone! Mrs. Kraus and I sure enjoyed seeing the family we saw today, and miss the rest of you all very much.

On Friday evening, we went to Good Friday service. I read the part of Jesus in readers theater. I’ve never done anything very theater-like before so I was a little nervous. Truth be told, I think I… blacked out. I don’t really remember it at all. After all my lines were done, I tried to think back on how it went and I couldn’t. After the message, we took communion and nailed pieces of paper with our sins written on them to one of three full-sized crosses up front. It was very powerful to witness people going up and nailing these to the cross, with the loud banging echoing through the sanctuary.

Saturday I plowed through the rest of book 2 of the Harry Potter series and halfway through book 3. Mrs. Kraus got me reading them. I told her it would never happen, but she showed me I guess. It started out as a deal we made. I said, “I will read a Harry Potter book if you read a Left Behind book.” She agreed and so I started in on book 1. To my surprise, I really enjoyed it and think they are a lot of fun to read. She hasn’t started a Left Behind book yet, and instead decided to re-read some of the Harry Potter books. Unbelievable….

This morning we went to Easter Sunday service, which was very nice, and then went to Grandma J’s for lunch. The food was awesome and it was nice to see everyone there. Soon we’ll be headed to my mom’s for supper. Grandma’s had ham AND turkey, and mother will have pot roast I believe. Mmmm.

We are looking forward to seeing more family next weekend at the shower. See some of you then!

Chad Kraus holidays, Mrs. Kraus

Ouch! Broken Toe

Let’s see, what’s new? Let’s start with the broken toe. One afternoon Mrs. Kraus and I were goofing around at the kitchen table. She was sitting across the table from me, kitty-corner. I was using the chair directly in front of me as a foot stool, and she was attempting to do the same with the chair in front of her. However, she couldn’t quite reach the chair with her foot because it was pulled out a ways from the table.

She said, “Could you please push the chair in so I can use it as a foot rest like you are doing with the chair in front of you?”

“I dunno. I’m kinda busy right now,” I teased with a smirk.

Well, it ended up with her yanking my foot rest out from the table and taking off down the hall shortly after, running and laughing. I decided to chase, and before we knew it she had stubbed her poor toe on the corner of a wall and was on the ground with a very unpleasant look on her face. She broke her poor toe. This was a very unfortunate thing to do the day before her Spring break, when she just got ice skates last month for her birthday, and we were going skiing the following Saturday.

She managed to wrap it up with tape and take good care of it for a week though, and we did make it to the ski hill the next weekend. We had a really fun time. I hadn’t been skiing for many years, probably not since Luther Ski Club (WOW!).  I decided to get daring once and go off a large ski jump.  It was the kind of jump that had a short ramp at the top, and then a flat area that gradually raised up to a larger ramp.  The point I am told is to get enough speed on the short jump to completely clear the top of the second jump and come down on the downward slope of the second jump.  I however, did no such thing.  I hit the first jump at half speed, went straight up, spin sideways in the air, and landed hard on my right shoulder on the flat area at the top of the second jump.  Ouch!

Inspired by a stream in Minnesota

Next we’ll talk about my step-dad, Alan. He has been painting up a storm lately, really enjoying getting oil paint all over the floor. But he’s also doing a nice job of getting it on the canvas. He’s got a really nice style of outdoor paintings he has been doing, and has been selling them to folks around town. I made him a website to display his paintings, AlWaggie.com. I’ve shown an example here as well. This is one of my favorite paintings he’s done.  I just really like the way he painted the stream, with all those colors.  It makes me want to get my fly rod out and try to outsmart those blasted trout again.  They sure got the better of me last year.  Maybe I’ll have a fly fishing victory or two this summer.  But if not fly fishing, I’m really looking forward to other fishing with my dad out at the lake.

Art Show

Al had an art show on March 15th at the house, so we went over to check it out. Him and Mom had hung up all Al’s paintings in the living room, which was pretty cool. Probably about 25 people or so came over, and he sold a couple paintings, so it was a good time. Mom and Emily set out snacks and made some punch. Mrs. Kraus took a lot of pictures for the website. She’s been doing a really good job there, taking the pictures and cropping them for the site.

Minneopa Falls melting

A couple days after the art show, everyone was feeling like it was a good day to be inspired by God and nature, so we all went to Minneopa Falls. It was really cool because the ice was just melting, so some of the falls were frozen and hanging over the edge of the the falls. Large chunks of ice would break off and fall down into the water below. I had my iPod and was in a very contemplative mood that day, thinking about how beautiful creation is, and how lucky I am. My wife and I had just watched “Fireproof” a couple days before, so I was also thinking about how fortunate I am to have her in my life. Our 2 year wedding anniversary was just around the corner. I just couldn’t believe how fast it had gone. They say the first 2 years of marriage are by far the toughest, but for us it was a breeze. Generally, I don’t know if I buy that line anyway. How can being newly married, with no responsibility of children yet, be anything but fantastic? All that freedom you have to just enjoy each other and be together. Yeah, good stuff.

Munny from Kidrobot

So next came our 2 year wedding anniversary on March 24th. Mrs. Kraus got me a copy of “Fireproof” on DVD, and I got her something you’ve probably never heard of before: Munny. Not money. Munny. They are little 4 inch tall white figures that you draw on, paint on, or add clay and accessories to. Take a look on Google sometime for “Munny pictures” and you’ll see some of the things people have done with them. I’ve seen the Joker, Master Chief, Michaelanglo the Ninja Turtle, Davey Jones, and crazy designs by artists that sell on eBay for around $200 - $300. Rosie O’Donnell also loves these things, and sells the ones she does online for charity. This kind of arts and crafts project is right up my wife’s alley! She can’t wait to start on one, but has a few tough exams in Physics and Chemistry to get through first. Physics and Chemistry in the same semester… yikes, that’s brutal!

Mrs. Kraus and I are also in the process of buying a house. Our lease ends at the end of May, and so we have been shopping for homes in town. We found a good REALTOR name Russ, and he’s taken us out a few times. We actually have an offer in now on a home in short sale status. We’ll have more details about that soon I hope, but it’s probably not safe to use the word soon when referring to a short sale. Here’s hoping we are pleasantly surprised.

2009 Twins Opener vs. Seatle

Last but not least, yesterday I was very fortunate to go to the Minnesota Twins 2009 home opener with my cousins Jacob and Andrew. It was so much fun, it didn’t even bother me much that the Twins lost 1-6. It stayed close most of the game, and it was just fun to be at the Dome that evening, eating peanuts, drinking Coca-Cola, and joking about what our entrance songs would be if we were in pro baseball. We even got to see Ken Griffey, Jr. hit a home run.  He still has a pretty swing.  Getting out of there after the game was a bit crazy. A 9 mile stretch of I-35W S was bumper-to-bumper for about 50 minutes. As I sat in the slow-moving traffic, I thought of Aaron and his Garmin GPS. Perhaps it would have something brilliant to share with me, such as a extra secret route home that the other 45,000 Twins fans wouldn’t know about.

All-in-all, we’re off to a fantastic Spring. We’re looking forward to seeing family really soon during Easter weekend and the following week.

Chad Kraus Aaron, holidays, Mrs. Kraus, Twins Baseball, Waggie Art