WE'RE OUTSIDE THE LINES!!! HAHAHA!

Who needs Flutie Flakes when you can have MariO's?  Seriously, one of the huge advantages to signing with the Buffalo Bills is the possibility of having your own cereal.  

Winding down to the last fire of the year...

Zweigle's red and white hot over an open flame.  

More home improvement.  This is the before picture.

This is the after.  Not too much.  Just painted the wall above the tile white to soften it up a little bit.  The matching yellow wall kind of burned out your retinas.  

And, a "before" of our front door.

I'm not going to call this an "after" picture because this is getting redone.  The red paint isn't sticking.  So, I'll probably have to strip it, prime it, and sand it all over again because the base is non-absorbent (as you can tell by the missing chunks on the left).  But, someday, this is what it will look like.

"Before" front door

Not an "after" front door...

Last, but not least.  Watched Gertie for a night.  I think she was looking for Dick and Marianne  the whole time.  

That's it for me until the Detroit Tiger's faceoff against Oakland A's in the playoffs starting Friday.  Might splurge and make myself some "Famous Prince Fielder Nachos."

Mr. Gorbachev, Paint Over This Beige Wall!

Another room being painted!  Here's Megan painting the master bedroom buttercup (yellow) from beige

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Yeah for new bedroom.  That was a fun couple of weekends.  If you want to see what we did to the living room, you can visit: http://mikekraus.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-battle-against-beige-tyranny.html

How do you celebrate a newly painted bedroom?  A bonfire of course!

Whoops, I guess I made the fire a little too big...  Exciting day yesterday.  A guy driving by my house had a gas leak in his car and it caught fire.  It's not in this picture, but you can imagine what 2,000 lbs of charcoal with a Chevy bowtie looks like...

Ruby Shoes playing in the parking lot of the main street (Commercial Street) in East Rochester.  For some reason, they played all the songs from Grease.  That reason is probably that people love it.

Rachel showing off her swimming ability.

Foot

And, what would my blog be without my baby deers update?  

This is by far the closest the fawn have been to us.  Curious little fellas and they still have their spots.  Pretty soon, they'll be moving in the house and paying rent.

That's about it.  Lots of stuff coming up over the next couple of weeks...

How To Build a Simple Fire Pit

Updated by popular demand.  I've decided to put up a quick post because there has been a lot of interest in how I built this fire pit.  So, here we go.

First, dig a hole the size you'd like for a fire pit.  This is about 40 inches x 40 inches with a depth of about 9 inches.

Once dug out, tamp or pack the soil tight and level (Not really seen in this photo).

Lay out the cinderblocks in a square and level.  Fill in with some of the soil that you dug out.

Next, lay some decorative bricks on top.  Once in place, dump soil or sand on top of the bricks and try to rub it into the seams.

 

TA DA!  You have a simple, cheap fire pit that is easy to maintain, easy to fix, and easy to remove.  

THANKS and please let me know if you need anything or have any questions!

The Battle Against Beige Tyranny!

THE DAYS OF LIVING IN A BEIGE HOME ARE NUMBERED!


Before and after of the northeast side of the living room.  Since our home was built in 1951, we decided to restore the house to a fun 1950s style palette.  


Before and after of the southwest side of the living room


Sorry The Braithwaites Established 2000.  The Bell-Kraus' will finally claim this living room in the shade of Mint Milkshake!



While I'm at home repair, need to clean the gutters (which apparently have not been cleaned since 2005).  Can I do it from climbing out the second floor window?  Nope, need a ladder...


Now that the work is done, time for a fire!


Campfire Premium Quality Giant Roaster Marshmallows!  The mascot is accurate.  The marshmallows are the size of someone's head!  THANKS MARIANNE!



Mmmmmm....  Giant Smore!


Look who came to our cookout.  Megan and I were sitting around a nice fire talking when we heard some footsteps.  We saw one deer walk by and try to keep his distance.  Not this one.  He walked right up to us and the fire and didn't back off until we both shouted at him and banged sticks.  He only backed off about ten feet and we could not scare him off.  I literally have about 100 photos of this deer thinking I could use the flash to startle him.  Nope.  


The more I observe the deer at my house, the less impressed I am with deer hunters.  It isn't a sport if I can walk up to them, put a rope around their necks, and lead them into my garage.
  

Megan and I's anniversary is coming up in the next couple of weeks and we don't have patio furniture yet.  Saw this Gnome/Dwarf set at Topps for only $199.99!  This truly would be the gift we would never, NEVER forget!

That's it for this edition.  Thanks for wasting your time with me!

Digging My Own Grave

Must of done something wrong to be digging my own grave...  With Megan's b-day shovel...

"He knew he had it comin..."

That ain't no grave, it's the early stages of a new fire pit! 


It's getting there...


Oh boy, just in time for Memorial Day Weekend!  (For instructions, please visit: http://mikekraus.blogspot.com/2013/06/how-to-build-simple-fire-pit.html)


Oh happy wife.  A new fire pit and hammock all in the same weekend.  Must of been a good birthday!

Now for some randomness.  And, what could be more random than cuddling chincillas?

Deer hanging out on a driveway on our walk.  The eyes tell me he's a robot


Bobette and Bob chalk drawings at Cobbles Elementary


What does this mean?


The new petunias seem to be holding their own.  


Poppies (which can only be said in the Wicked Witch of the West's voice.  Sorry)


Waiting to vote for Penfield's 4.4% property tax hike, there was a little art show that featured my niece Rachel's awesome rendition of Hokusai's Great Wave.  There's framing.  The color gradient in the sky is well done.  The marker line work is beautiful.  
Looking forward to the long weekend.  A MUCH, MUCH needed weekend and should be a lot of fun.  Hope yours is too!