I’ve been a SOWER (Servant on Wheels Ever Ready)for over 16 years. And if you’ve been stopping by for awhile you know I’ve done a myriad of different jobs. From landscaping (yes, I got to use a zero-turn mower) to pool cleaning to inventory counting (everything from T-shirts to airplane parts) to general cleaning to office work to painting. Lots and lots of painting! But somehow, through all of those job assignments, I have never had to paint a ceiling. Until now.
The job assigned (to Gary) was actually changing out the lights in one of the dining halls to LED (from florescent). While that task, in and of itself, was fairly straightforward and my biggest contribution was being there to help get the fixtures up and down, since the new lights were different sized fixtures the ceiling needed to painted before the new lights could go up.

Ah. Ceiling painting. Textured ceiling painting. Full disclosure, I didn’t actually paint the ceiling. I painted the edges of the ceiling which between standing on a ladder and painting over my head and trying to get into all the nooks and crannies was just a bit out of my comfort zone.


Gary brilliantly decided to paint the bulk of the ceiling before we took down the original lights

which meant we could actually see what we were painting. (Which is not to say that a certain edge girl still didn’t miss some of those little crannies. But I digress!)
Finally we were ready to get the old lights down (I did actually help with that),

paint the bare strips in the middle and get the new lights up!


Between the painting and light change-out it pretty much filled up the first half of our project.

In the end Gary also replaced the exit signs and changed out a light fixture in drop ceiling section.

And I worked hard on removing all that blue tape!

In the end, it was all bright and shiny and ready for business – just waiting for the pandemic restrictions to be lifted!

Today we started on another Skill Stretching project – painting metal bunk beds.

Rustoleum oil base bronze paint. We’re working out a system (first step – dissemble the beds!)

and while I’m not sure we’ll get them ALL done, we should be able to make a dent.

Interesting second coat directions – apply second coat within 4 hours or after 7 days. So in other words, whatever we start in the morning we need to finish that day. And that might limit what our final production will be. But we’ll do our best!

So it’s two weeks down, and one two go! This weekend we’re heading to my sister’s for a bit of a get-away since they are less than 2 hours away. And in my book, that’s like around the corner!

Enjoy your weekend, folks!

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