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The Sequel:

My Dad was nice enough to snag a chair for us that matches one of our existing chairs. Now we have two pairs of (almost) matching chairs in the dining room. It’s definitely a nicer look. As with the others, I painted the chair magnolia white (which, by the way, you can buy right off the shelf - no waiting for service, a definite plus when purchasing paint). I did prime this one first and it made all the difference. I only needed one coat of paint after the primer as opposed to the 2 or 3 coats without the primer.

catbird :: Jul.26.2001 :: house stuff :: Comments Off

Last night we were watching a rerun of a Law and Order episode that dealt with animal rights. Specifically, the show addressed using chimps to test new drugs (in this case, an AIDs vaccine). This episode definitely made me think about my stance on animal testing for valuable medical research but it also made me question the motives and actions of animal activists.

To punctuate last night’s story, I saw an item today regarding animal rights activists in Spain. A film maker filmed a bullfighter training session for his new film. Four bulls died during the training session and their deaths were captured on film. Animal rights group Amnistia Animal has filed a complaint of animal cruelty against the film maker because “local laws prevented animals from suffering in films and that any violent scenes had to be simulated.”

This news item was highly confusing to me…. It seems that it’s okay by the activists if the bullfighters brutally kill the bulls in training sessions as long as no one films it. It’s not like simulating the scenes for the movie would have saved the bulls. Also, showing the actual killings in the film might make more people sympathetic to the cause - except in this case the activists don’t seem all that worried about the violent deaths of bulls during bullfights. If they did, wouldn’t they address what could be considered, to an animal rights activist, the real issue?

catbird :: Jul.26.2001 :: socio-pop :: Comments Off

Well, I am almost done the walls and ceiling. The walls are Restoration Hardware’s Creamware and the ceiling is Martha Stewart’s Ursa Minor.

The Walls:
The walls required two coats of paint (next time I will have Home Depot match the color using Behr or Glidden). That is even with having primed the walls first (see, I am learning from my experiences!) The priming did make a difference for the ease of application.

I am brush painting the entire room since I was unhappy with the roller results in the living room. Although I think I have a permanent hand cramp, I am very happy with the results so far. With painting priming, patching, caulking, and sanding, the walls took about twelve hours spread over four days.

The Ceiling:
For the ceiling I didn’t use the Martha Stewart paint, just the color. If you’ve ever waited at a Kmart to get service at the paint department, you know one reason why. The second reason is that I had no interest in repeating my experience with the walls. My neck definitely couldn’t take two coats on the ceiling! I also brush painted the ceiling. Before you laugh and call me crazy, I have to say that the brush covered much better than any roller I have used, plus I didn’t get any splatters anywhere - not on the hardwood floor, not on the furniture, and not on my face. Unfortunately, though, I ran out of paint with about three square feet left to paint. I only bought a quart and I am now wishing that I had listened to my instincts telling me to buy two quarts. Now I have to go back and get it mixed at a different time which may result is a slightly different color. One more lesson learned!

What I would do different:
- Not use Restoration Hardware paint, instead have the color mixed using a better paint

- Make sure I buy enough paint so that 1) there is no chance of a color mismatch and 2) I don’t have to make yet another trip to Home Depot.

Previous learned lessons that I used here:
- Prime!
- Use good brushes - wow it makes all the difference
- Caulk - again, what a difference
- Brush paint the walls - more a personal taste thing, but I prefer not to have that roller texture, spotty coverage, and little splatters on my face (I did use the roller to prime, although I smoothed over the texture with a brush.)

catbird :: Jul.14.2001 :: house stuff :: 2 Comments »