[Tom C]

Good posting Frank D. Your "on-site" information brings all this discussion home and clarifies many opinions posted here. Your final recommendation is very reasonable.

[graciegirl]

Frank D'angelo is a good and decent man. I have said this many times.

[DangeloInspections]

Thank you for the kind words.

One other hint I tell most all of our customers is that if you are going to repaint any rooms, it pays to do a quick scraping of the walls first with a 6" taping knife. Even a plastic one is fine.

You are doing this to knock off any excess spatter or pieces of roller stuck to the walls, Mind you, you are NOT removing the texture. you are only removing the excess "bumps".....in the trade these are called "paint boogers"

This will result in a better finished job. You do not want the new paint to catch on these "boogers"and cause drips, etc.

This may sound like a hard job, but it is surprisingly quick and easy...one could do this in a typical room in less than 10 minutes.

When it comes to painting, it is all about the prep work. If you hire your painting out, do not assume they will do that. To the tradesmen, time is money and sadly they are used to folks always taking the lowest bid....so they will feel pressure to price the job accordingly.

Also, make sure when the cover plates are removed, the cover plates go back in the same place....all the time we see the red dots in the wrong places after repainting.

Hope that helps!

Frank . (I apologize if my post wandered off topic.)

[thelegges]

I am from a family of builders, from concrete to rough build, to drywall.

I learned to mudd at an early age, not by choice, but my father wanted me to fix things on my own. I also have the honor of learned wet plaster.

Drywall in the north, your builder uses screws, not nails, seams are mudded, a simple process kind of like a crumb coating on a cake. Seams are sanded. By by late teens I could finish a wall as quick as those who taught me.

Then primer is sprayed I use two coats, then paint.

When they we building our second home in TV I happened to be there when we’re doing drywall. What they accomplish in a day would take me two, and your seams do not have to blend perfectly, with popcorn, or orange peel

[pauld315]

They build homes like a production line. For them to bring in a special crew to do the smooth walls would be an exception to their production line and cost them more money to get done.

[EdFNJ]

Originally Posted by DangeloInspections

T
Also, make sure when the cover plates are removed, the cover plates go back in the same place....all the time we see the red dots in the wrong places after repainting.

You mean people actually leave the "red dots" on after the first couple days, weeks or months of living in their home?

When we moved in here (resale home) I had no idea what the red dots were all about, never crossed my mind and they had been there for almost 10 years. By the time we realized (after a day or 2) it didn't matter anyway. But if one does rely on them after weeks, months or years you are correct, make sure they go back in the same place and start taking lots of this https://www.walmart.com/ip/Prevagen-...BoCsEYQAvD_BwE!

[Graspher]

You fine folks are so wonderful - thank all of you for taking the time to ping in. Extremely helpful and most appreciated!

Your balanced insights removed the fog allowing me to land on the side of going with the textured surfaces. Frank D anchored it with his stats (many thanks for that ping Frank D).

Your input saved me $5k -seems reasonable to invite all of you over to my place (once created or obtained) for a party!

Love the wall color shown in your photo graciegirl - well done!

Hehehe....yes Carla B...even though we are solid with our new path we continue to have moments of hesitation. “Living the dream” (a common phrase among boaters) comes with a huge amount of work.

Our boat/home is somewhat like a floating city. We have a watermaker to create fresh water - a complete sewage system - a significant battery bank with dual inverters to convert 12 volts to 120 - two 12 kilowat generators to make the electricity and charge the battery bank (they also drive a hydraulic systems that stabilizes the boat while underway - controls the anchor windless - drives the watermaker - powers all the electrical requirements when not plugged into shore power) - a 64,000 btu chiller system (like air conditioning but more complex) - a main propolsion engine and a small dingy engine - refrigeration....and there’s a ton more.

Those are just some of the onboard systems that require constant maintenance, monitoring, repair and understanding.

On top of all that we (well really my wife) have to have a deeper understanding of weather - how to read charts that one never sees on TV - how to read the sky for a “deck forecast” - knowing what weather programs and applications to monitor.

Our top speed is 12 mph - we usually meader along at 7 mph. The boat is 50’ long - 16’ wide - 30’ high and weighs 99 tons. It’s super solid - capable of crossing oceans - but slow. We can’t outrun bad weather so it’s a part time job for my wife to keep us safe. Plus...she is also responsible for understanding/programming all the navigation equipment...radar, charts, piloting, etc.

I sort of got off my point....which was to say that while there is a huge amount of joy and adventure living/cruising on a boat full time....there is a super huge amount of real work involved. And....one must be a contortionist to fit into some odd shaped spaces to facilitate repairs!

Regardless - we love the life and will be sad when we step off the boat for the very last time.

Life is a book with lots of chapters - we heard about this strange bubble concept that we want to explore in our next chapter!

I’ve dronned on to long about the whole boat thing - but one last tidbit. We can comfortably live for weeks and weeks without touching land and we can travel up to 3,000 miles on one fill up of fuel!

Thanks again everyone for all the insights.

[EviesGP]

Feel free to post a few pics of your yachit. Whatever her name is.

[Carla B]

Originally Posted by Graspher

You fine folks are so wonderful - thank all of you for taking the time to ping in. Extremely helpful and most appreciated!

Your balanced insights removed the fog allowing me to land on the side of going with the textured surfaces. Frank D anchored it with his stats (many thanks for that ping Frank D).

Your input saved me $5k -seems reasonable to invite all of you over to my place (once created or obtained) for a party!

Love the wall color shown in your photo graciegirl - well done!

Hehehe....yes Carla B...even though we are solid with our new path we continue to have moments of hesitation. “Living the dream” (a common phrase among boaters) comes with a huge amount of work.

Our boat/home is somewhat like a floating city. We have a watermaker to create fresh water - a complete sewage system - a significant battery bank with dual inverters to convert 12 volts to 120 - two 12 kilowat generators to make the electricity and charge the battery bank (they also drive a hydraulic systems that stabilizes the boat while underway - controls the anchor windless - drives the watermaker - powers all the electrical requirements when not plugged into shore power) - a 64,000 btu chiller system (like air conditioning but more complex) - a main propolsion engine and a small dingy engine - refrigeration....and there’s a ton more.

Those are just some of the onboard systems that require constant maintenance, monitoring, repair and understanding.

On top of all that we (well really my wife) have to have a deeper understanding of weather - how to read charts that one never sees on TV - how to read the sky for a “deck forecast” - knowing what weather programs and applications to monitor.

Our top speed is 12 mph - we usually meader along at 7 mph. The boat is 50’ long - 16’ wide - 30’ high and weighs 99 tons. It’s super solid - capable of crossing oceans - but slow. We can’t outrun bad weather so it’s a part time job for my wife to keep us safe. Plus...she is also responsible for understanding/programming all the navigation equipment...radar, charts, piloting, etc.

I sort of got off my point....which was to say that while there is a huge amount of joy and adventure living/cruising on a boat full time....there is a super huge amount of real work involved. And....one must be a contortionist to fit into some odd shaped spaces to facilitate repairs!

Regardless - we love the life and will be sad when we step off the boat for the very last time.

Life is a book with lots of chapters - we heard about this strange bubble concept that we want to explore in our next chapter!

I’ve dronned on to long about the whole boat thing - but one last tidbit. We can comfortably live for weeks and weeks without touching land and we can travel up to 3,000 miles on one fill up of fuel!

Thanks again everyone for all the insights.

The lifestyle is demanding, but adventurous, as you say. We lived on an Island Packet 40' sailboat for six years with no land base but a mailbox. Husband wishes it had been longer.

[Graspher]

A few photos. Well....hehehe...we named our boat “Gone for Good”.

Carla B - then you know allllll about the dream! That’s a wonderful sailboat no doubt you had a great time.

Long ago (way before we transitioned to live aboard) when attending one of our first boat seminars the speaker ask the audience “raise your hand if you live at 411 walnut street”.

That meant nothing to us - but looking around the room half the audience (about 35) had their hands raised!!!!

How could that be??????

As it turns out that is the “street address” of a forwarding service that caters to boaters, rv’ers etc. Currently there are about 3,600 folks “living” at that address - including us!

[Graspher]

I posted photos/reply over 48 hours ago yet nothing shows. Will investigate

[Graspher]

I submitted two attempts over the last 4 days but nothing shows?

[Graspher]

Ok.. looks like I’m getting action again.

Carla B - that’s a nice sailboat. No doubt you know all about the dream!

Here are some photos of “Gone for Good”