Ceiling paint I used

Here is info on the ceiling paint I used.

Painting work

I finished my planned work on my mother's house. In the dining room, living room, downstairs hallway, and upstairs hallway and landing I painted the ceiling. For the same rooms I mudded most of the walls, primed then painted them.

The ceiling took more paint than anticipated. While most paints cover about 400 sq feet, this ceiling paint covered from 125 to 250 sq ft. As a consequence I had to buy a third gallon of paint. It didn't help matters that the paint can once fell over as I moved the ladder. I lost a little paint and a lot of time as I had to clean the carpet. No, there was no tarp at that spot as I was doing touch up painting then.

The brand was Dutch Boy and was an acrylic paint that goes on lavender and dries to a bright white. Since I thought I was one gallon short I bought two gallons. Huh? I bought two gallons as I had been delayed in getting my extra paint. There is so much building and remodeling activity in town the Menards store had run out of ceiling paint a few days earlier when my brother first tried to buy the extra gallon of ceiling paint.

The ceiling looks better now. This afternoon, since I had some paint left, I painted the small ceiling above the stairs that go to the lower level.

I had lots of work to do on the walls. As I was doing other stuff for my mother's estate while working on the walls there was a delay in moving between each step - mud, prime, painting. Therefore I had to take off and put back the electrical and light switch covers, curtain rods, curtains, pictures, etc. between each step.

I used more primer on the walls than I expected (a little over two gallons) for my estimated square footage. Therefore I expected I would have to buy another gallon of interior wall paint. To my surprise I used less (only a little over one gallon) than expected.

When my brother and I finally got the extra ceiling paint and primer I decided to buy the interior wall paint at the same time even though I hadn't decided on a color yet. What color to get? I wanted a light bright color, but not plain white. Who knew there were so many variations of white? My head spun as I tried to decide.

Over and over I debated. I looked at the color samples in bright light and normal light. How would these colors look on the walls? Finally I decided on Turtle Dove as a color. Then I discovered that my paint choice - Dutch Boy Dimensions Satin finish - was not available in Turtle Dove. *argh*

It was crazy that day at Menards and especially in the paint department. People, people, people - shopping and buying. It was hard to get a salesperson for advice and help. I needed help in choosing the paint finish: flat, eggshell, semi-gloss, gloss, satin? Help in deciding what brand of paint and which version of that brand.

Then I found that I could get Lambswool White as a color in the Dimensions line. I went with it. By this time I had spent a few hours shopping and I was more than ready to leave.

Wet, the Lambswool color was more pink/orange/tan than I expected - but I liked it. Then it dried to a more white color. Still in certain light it can have a tingle of color to it.

I don't know. My work looks nice and neutral even if it is a little more bland/neutral than what I think I could have as a wall color and still look nice with the carpet and curtains.

But I am done and that is an accomplishment as I had doubts I could get my planned work done before I returned to Montana. My brother was not happy as he was irritated by the sound of me applying mud then scrapping it along with the dust from my sanding. Nor was he happy with the paint smell. I tried to paint on warmer days but even then we couldn't leave the windows open long or overnight as this is October in North Dakota.

Here is the dining room ceiling in various stages. The white smooth part I painted the night before. Now I was painting the rough ceiling.

Here is the dining room wall. Photo 1 shows the original wall and the white is the mud. Photo 2 shows the top part of paint with the lower white part the primer. The paint is not dry so that is why it doesn't look as white as it eventually became.

Last trivia night

Monday night was my last trivia night for this visit. I plan to return to Montana later next week and next Monday the bar has a night planned for the ladies: male strippers. Or is it dancers? Strippers? Dancers? I have a feeling it will be male strippers. At any rate trivia night won't be held that night.

Monday everyone on our team showed up and with so many people our team split in two. Darrel, Marv and Dave made up one team and Mona, Jeff, Donna, Al, Rod and I made up another team.

Our team did well but did not win. In the first contest the winning team had 14 answers correct and we had 13 correct to take second place. If only we had chosen the other answer for the question as to which country first crashed a satellite on the moon. I guessed U.S. and the answer was Russia. In the second contest we had 14 answers correct which gave us third place. The winning team had 17 answers correct. The lawyer/judges team was here this night and they did not win either contest.

We later found that if we had not split into two teams we would have won as Darrel, Marv and Dave had a number of answers correct for questions we got wrong, and vice versa.

Rod and Donna from our team won three of the quarters questions, though one question about when Coca-cola was first sold was right up Rod's alley as he used to work for Coca-cola. For one prize Carla took the Indian candy corn. For Rod's two wins he took the 'typical' candy corn and then an orange hunting hat as only hats were left. Because he has more hats than he needed/wanted he gave the hat to someone at the bar that Ed - the host - said was interested in having. That guy later bought Rod a drink.

Our team loudly and humorously expressed outrage at the "Indian" candy corn in support of Darrel and Mona as they are Native American. The "Indian" candy looked to have chocolate in addition to the typical three sugar colors, but we found the brown color to be "Brown No. 80" sugar, not chocolate. Fortunately Donna and Jeff had brought a bag of peanuts in shells so we didn't get hopped up on sugar by only eating candy corn.

After the trivia contests were over members of our group slowly drifted off until only Darrel, Mona and I remained. The guy from Hawaii, Curt, who was a member of another team joined us in conversation.

Karaoke was played after trivia was over. And played loud. Curt sang a number of songs in a number of styles from Hank Williams to the Monkees to George Strait. He said that prior to moving to North Dakota he didn't know any country songs. He does sing a good George Strait.

Our group got talking about country singers and for some reason Conway Twitty came to my mind. The next I knew Curt got up to sing karaoke to a Conway Twitty song.

One fellow sang Tone Loc's "Funky Cold Medina". He sounded just like Tone Loc and did an excellent job. Afterwards we talked with the singer and discovered his normal voice sounded just as raspy as his singing voice. There was no way he could not sign a Tone Loc song.

Another table had several drunk women and a drunk guy. They danced to some of the songs. They were the only people dancing - if you could call it dancing. Very drunk women are not attractive. Later another woman came over to borrow Curt's copy of the karaoke song list. She also had too much to drink. Was she giving me the eye as she was talking to Curt? As she tried to sing Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" [insert Freudian analysis here ] Darrel, Mona and I called it a night and left. It was getting closer to midnight and she wasn't all that good of a singer.

Rights, cemetery, relatives, school

Last Wednesday my brother and I went for a visit around central North Dakota.

Our first stop was in Washburn to visit the county courthouse and change mineral rights from my mother to my brother and I. The stop took hours longer than I expected as I was able to also look through the county land and mineral records.

The county recorder has been on the job since the mid 1970s and is very knowledgeable and helpful. He explained how the information is kept and organized. I spent some time partially tracing a couple quarters of property. It took some time to do so as the history is spread throughout numerous books and it takes time to read the legal documents. I found that there are numerous ways to explain the transfer of property and mineral rights, each lawyer has a different style.

This county seems not to be the "hot" area for oil activity as the main action appears to be north and west of this county. Therefore the room only had three or four other people there researching properties while I was there.

My next stop was to visit relatives on my father's side: Rose and her daughter Ginger. They live on a farm next to the former farm of my dad's parents. Because my brother and I had taken far longer than expected at the courthouse, we arrived at Rose's farm an hour or two after my estimated arrival time.

Ginger took us to the nearby rural cemetery where her father, our great-grandparents, and my grandparents are buried. This was the first time I had been to this cemetery since my grandmother was buried there in the 1970s. Area wise the cemetery is a good size, but there seemed not to be that many people buried there. Still it seems to be a nice cemetery and even has some trees around it.

I found that there is open space next to my grandparents burial spots. A place to later bury my father's ashes.

Earlier this year Ginger adopted two young brothers from the Ukraine, Maxim and Dmitri, and this was my first opportunity to meet them. Being young boys they had energy to spare.

My brother and I had a nice visit with Rose and Ginger and after we left I found they had given my brother some tomatoes from their garden and a jar of homemade pickles Ginger's sister, Monica, had made. I had eaten several slices of those pickles at the supper Ginger had made and they were very delicious. Too bad I don't live near so I could learn from Monica how to make the pickles next time she makes them.

It was well past dark when my brother and I left. A couple deer crossed the county road in front of us. Otherwise not much traffic was on the roads and highway back to Minot. Two large wind generators are along highway 83. The long tri-blades turned steadily. Each tall tower has a red light and they flashed on and off alternately as a warning to any planes flying at night.

Cemetery and ancestors grave sites.
Family farm. The house is in the trees seen center left. The barn is the building seen in front of the trees. I believe the buildings were not used after my grandmother sold the farm.

The one room school my father attended. The small building in the middle is the outhouse. Imagine having to use the outhouse during a North Dakota winter! I believe the third building may have something to do with livestock as I think some kids rode horses to school.

Trivia win

We won one of the trivia contests Monday night. Our team was Darrel, Mona, Marv, Al and I. Jeff and Donna weren't there.

Last week we came close to winning as we were in the tie breaker for one of the contests, but we lost. We guessed 1990 as the year the Mickey Mouse TV show ended. The actual end date was March 1996.

Last night we won the second game outright. We had 18 answers correct and the next highest score was either 16 or 17 correct. Yes! The other teams applauded our win which felt nice. The winning prize was a $20 certificate for drinks which we will use next week. In our win the team really came together as everyone contributed correct answers the others did not know.

In the first contest of the night we came in second place with 17 answers correct. Another team had all 20 answers correct. This is only the second time a team has gotten all 20 questions correct.

The trivia questions this night did seem a little easier than usual. Also to make competition easier, the lawyers/judge team was not there. No matter, we would have won the second game even if they were there.

This week they had better prizes for the quarters questions. Darrel really wanted the Pabst Blue Ribbon beer t-shirt that said something about "not just for breakfast anymore". He liked the saying, and that the shirt was sized XXL. Darrel ran around with the quarters bucket and only would guess if no one had their hand raised. Earlier he told us he wanted us to make guesses and try to win the t-shirt. People made a number of wrong guesses before I told Mona I thought the answer to "Which President was the first to be photographed" was President James Polk (1845-49). She made the guess and we won the t-shirt for Darrel.

Cattle curiosity

Knowing cattle... this doesn't surprise me. (Besides, I am not that fond of Holsteins.)

By the way, I found this photo originally on the http://failblog.org/ web site.

Snow

While it tried to snow yesterday morning, this morning the snow stuck. It is not a lot of snow - unlike the almost 20 inches in Billings, MT and other eastern Montana places. But we have enough snow to make the grass white with some green. It is late afternoon and the snow is now partially melted. (It took long enough!) It is not quite mid October, and for some places the earliest snow on record. So much for global warming. It is cold, cloudy, damp and depressing here.

I am waiting for warmer weather before working on the walls further. I have all the mud, sanding and smoothing done. I have the priming and painting left and I wonder if I will able to complete it before I return to Montana. Between needing warmer weather and all the other stuff I have left to do I am running out of time.

To get rid of the dust from the sanding of the walls I vacuumed and cleaned all the dust on the house's main floor - dust both from the sanding and from since I cleaned this past Spring.

Before the cooler weather arrived my brother placed plastic on the outside over a number of the house windows.

Other stuff has been going on. Mundane stuff which I won't bore you with.

Tired

I'm tired. Physically and mentally.

Put it on, Sand it down

I've been busy working on the house walls. The weather - until today's rain - was sunny and warm and very summer like and now was the time to work on the house even though the ideal thing would have been to goof off and enjoy the days and gorgeous weather.

I spent a few days putting joint compound (mud) onto a number of walls in the living room, dining room and the hallway to downstairs. The texture on the walls necessitated a thicker application of mud. I went through well over two fifty pound boxes of mud. No wonder my arms were tired the next mornings.

Because of the thicker application of mud, and my lack of experience putting it on, I spent most of Saturday sanding the mudded walls smooth. Dust everywhere!! I wonder if I sanded over half the mud off? My brother and I had all the doors and windows open to provide ventilation. It was very windy outside and while the house had air, dust went all over. I sanded until almost dark and the screens were coated by the end of the day. I am happy the temperature stayed warm after dark as I did some vacuuming and cleaning.

I did not get all the walls sanded so today I decided to try something new. Since I had half a box of mud left I decided to apply a new thin coat over the unsanded wall. That appears to have worked out great as it looks to have made the wall smoother and the future sanding of them to be far less. I continued to place a very thin coat of mud on the sanded walls that seemed uneven or have some imperfections even after sanding.

The walls look better now. I am happy to get rid of the orangeish pink color and all the nail holes. (The walls were formerly covered by dark wood paneling as the look was 1970s prior to my mother buying the house.)

Also today I spent some time washing the dust from the kitchen and counters. More cleaning and vacuuming will be done tomorrow. I also was able to put up most of the curtains on the windows. It was a little odd to not have curtains for a few nights.

My brother was having a fit about my work. He wanted the work done but the scraping sound when putting the mud on, then the scratching sound of my sanding made him very irritable. He also was unhappy with the dust everywhere.

Before and after. (I know, not that exciting of a look.)

One of the issues once I get to painting is what about the closet door? It worked with the dark paneling, but now it is a bit much. I don't have any ideas on what to do about it. I haven't decided on the paint color other than something light: an off white or light 'something'. Maybe I can leave the door as is for now.

Your can kind of see the wall's texture prior to the mud.

Gravestone ideas

My brother and I are trying to figure out what to get as a gravestone for mom's grave. Last Friday we visited the two monument companies in town. This is harder than I imagined as there are lots and lots of choices.

• Have a flower vase?
• Have the vase as part of the gravestone or separate?
• Have the vase totally separate from the stone or in some concrete around/next to the gravestone?
• If vase is part of the stone, go with a hump at the top to include the vase, or place the vase elsewhere in the stone? Top, center, side?
  
• What color stone?
• How large of a stone?
• Concrete border around the stone, or a larger stone?
• Stone wash a border around the stone?
  
• What to put on the stone?
• Include middle name?
• Full birth and death dates, or just the years?
• Any other words?
  
• Add an image?

I am leaning towards:

• Flower vase as part of the stone
• Square stone; no hump
  
• No concrete
• No middle name
• Full dates
• Adding "Beloved Mother"
• Maybe adding an image of a cross or flowers
  

Saturday my brother and I visited mom's grave. My brother earlier had bought and placed two temporary plastic flowers and holders and placed them in the ground at each end of mom's grave. While the cemetery will only keep flowers that are in a vase, they hadn't removed my brother's flowers.

While at the cemetery we wandered around and looked at other gravestones. Concrete borders keep the grass away and from encroaching over the stone, and this seems to help the stone from getting "lost" as the sod rises around the stone over time, but old concrete deteriorates over time and looks bad.

I noticed a number of vases and flowers were tipped over. I stood a number of them up as I walked about. The vases turn slightly to lock in place and it seemed as if the workers hadn't turned the vases to lock them in after mowing the grass. A number of other vases had their locking mechanism broken or the mounting ring came loose from the stone.

Here are some examples of gravestone with "humps" and some without.

Concrete border and without a concrete border.


I am leaning to a stone in style similar to the last photo.

Mudding

I finally got to work on the house Wednesday. I've been working on changing utilities, etc into my brother's name, and researching and preparing some legal documents. I'm getting stuff done but I feel like I could be doing more each day. The weather is perfect, and with weather like this, one thinks they have forever. I even went for a 8 mile bicycle ride yesterday on my brother's bicycle. With weather like this I keep thinking about all the fence work I could have gotten done back at the ranch. Or hiking.

This afternoon I starting mudding more house walls. I finished the box of mud I had and got one wall covered. I won't say 'done' as I may have to put another thin layer on the wall once I sand and smooth the dried mud. I have several walls left to mud.

Before ..and.. After (the mud is still wet)

Guamanian feast

During my conversation with Darrel and Mona after trivia on Monday night we discussed funerals and they described Native American funeral traditions. They mentioned the meals and cooking as part of their experiences. This reminded me of the feast my Uncle Curt, Aunt Cathy, and I attended the day after I returned from my Alaskan cruise.

When Curt was a longshoreman he worked with a fellow originally from Guam. For Curt's retirement party this fellow's relative (Al?) barbecued and cooked the food at Curt's party and this group and Curt have been friends and poker player friends ever since.

One of their friends was having a birthday celebration and feast and they - mainly the women - were also celebrating one of the Catholic saints.

Curt had Mapquest directions to the house as he hadn't been there before. The directions got us all confused as they had us turn right onto a dead end street then do a u-turn back to the road and make another right turn. Instead of going on this side dead end road, all we had to do was go straight a few more blocks. But we found the house.

When we arrived all the women were sitting on folding chairs in the garage engaged in a ceremony for the saint. The men were in the back yard cooking the meat. We joined them. Once the women finished their ceremony they came and joined us and the feast began.

First we had a fantastic dessert. It was a coconut and tapioca pudding mixture wrapped in aluminum foil and baked. Man it was delicious! I had two and I wasn't alone in doing so.

The Guamanians take great pride in the quantity and quality of their food. There was lots of it. And here I just came off a seven day Alaskan cruise with all you can eat food. I was stuffed even before the feast began. Still the food was all delicious and I ate lots. They had pork ribs, several varieties each of chicken, beef, fish. Plus more stuff. I think they had six to eight pies. Rich pies. None of the pies were fruit pies. They were custard, coconut, chocolate, etc.

The Guamanians were great hosts and warm and inviting people. They kept pushing more food on us. Curt mentioned that my mother had passed away recently and the main host (Al?) asked if there was anything he could do to help me. And he was serious about it. I didn't have the feeling that his offer was polite conversation. I'm sure he would have tried to help any way I asked. This was from a guy I knew about an hour. I didn't need any help and I politely and carefully declined any offers of help.

As I said food was an important part of their life. The kids and early teenagers were of normal weight, but all the adults were very big. Al must weigh over 300 lbs and suffers from diabetes and other health problems from being overweight. He joked that he just takes another pill for controlling blood sugar when he overeats sugary food. He said he saw a nutritionist for his diabetes. The nutritionist tried to get him to eat fruit and bagels and other healthier foods. Al said that was boring tasteless food. The nutritionist asked him what his normal breakfast was and he said a dozen eggs and a slab of bacon.

"Oh my! Let me get back to you on a recommended diet."

When Al next talked to her the nutritionist tried to get him to only eat six eggs and a smaller slice of bacon. I don't think Al took her up on it.

It was a great time and I was able to squeeze in another slice of coconut ( I love coconut!) pie before we left which I think pleased our hosts. They plan another big feast in January for another birthday and wanted me to come. The food would be great, but I have no plans to be in Washington state in January.