Mr. and Mrs. Kraus Blog

This weekend I remodeled the master bedroom with new window treatments and a little “feng shui”. We were still sporting white lacy curtains and vinyl roll-down blinds from the previous owners, and they just didn’t jive with our style. We recently had a new Caribbean style ceiling fan installed in the room because our old fan went bang, and my wife had to work, so I thought what fun it would be to take the Caribbean theme further and surprise her when she got home.

I went out shopping and everything in window treatment departments was on sale! 50% off or better, wow! I got bamboo blinds at JC Penny’s, and curtain rods and drapes from ShopKo. I hung them up and moved around some furniture and wall hangings, and here is the result:

It’s difficult to see the detail of the bamboo blinds and curtain rods in these pictures, but they look pretty sweet. Mrs. Kraus is one happy camper.

Chad Kraus Kraus House

Something very exciting happened on Friday. Our house went under contract! There was not much activity on the house for a good month and then all of a sudden there was a surge of interest, and one of them stuck. So we are very excited and the closing date is supposed to be early October. Though, we are aware that “stuff happens”.

Why are we selling our house?

The main reason is because Mrs. Kraus is interested in finishing up her 4 year college degree at some point. We thought that would be immediately after the house sold, but now she loves her full time job so much that I’m not sure exactly when that will be. One thing is certain though. Without Mrs. Kraus working full time it would be very difficult to afford our current house. Before we got married I had 2 roommates to help. And it’s ok that they are gone because my wife helps now. But to lose all help and take on college bills would be trouble. At any rate, we will be better positioned now for when she wants to go back. We’ll either buy something smaller, or rent.

Thanks to all the friends and family that prayed for us regarding the house. Mrs. Kraus and I ultimately desire one thing above everything else. And that is for God’s will to be done in our lives. We want to live where He wants us to live. If that is our current home, great. We enjoy living here. If it’s somewhere else, then we are excited to see where that is!

Comments from old site:

Written by Carol
Posted: Tuesday, August 14, 2007 at 8:21 PM

WOW! Sarah called me last night with the news that you have an offer for your house. I know that you put a lot of landscaping in this year to make it more attractive. I’m excited to see what God has planned for you in the next months—Jeremiah 29:11 Carol

Chad Kraus Florida, Kraus House, Mrs. Kraus

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

This weekend was great! Not only did we have some fun, but it was very productive for me as well. Sunday was Mother’s Day AND my dad’s bithday, so we spent Sunday morning and afternoon hanging out with the fam. My brother’s wife’s sister just moved in with them for a month, so she was at the party too, plus my brother had just had his birthday on Thursday. So there were lots of reasons to get together and have some fun. It was like “Tanner Family Fun Night” on Full House, only better.

One thing about Sunday at breakfast that I thought was very cool was when my dad talked about his two grandmas, my great-grandmas. He told us stories about them since it was Mother’s Day, and they have passed away some time ago. It was great to hear such nice stories about the beloved women in my family.

Saturday was my productive day. I finished the night off by getting a lot of work done with Aaron on a website for one of our clients. Earlier in the day I had a landscaping project! See… we had experienced some nasty hurricanes in the not-so-distant past, and I have had holes in my landscaping ever since. It must have subconsciously bothered me for quite some time, and I finally did something about it. The neighborhood lawn care guy, Frank, came by and saw that I was busy working away planting shrubs, 16 in all. He helped me out. What a great guy Frank is! Below are some pictures of our work. Enjoy!

You probably noticed that the shrubs I planted are very little. Well, they were cheap! And planting them right before rainy season is perfect because they’ll grow up in no time.

Chad Kraus bro, Dad, holidays, Kraus House