Maybe I should have started a new thread for the "After" photos to make this easier. oh well :) loribee, gsciencechick, msrose: thank you! If others have further advice, I'm all ears. I said no to a rug, but I'm keeping my eyes open if one (that looks easily cleanable) really wants to come home with me. msrose: the floor is a pre-finished, handscraped hickory. With two big dogs, "rustic" was the only direction we were comfortable going with hardwood floors. The floors are from a small company called, "Lewis & Clark." (I think it's only available regionally.) Yes, the floor IS dark enough to show dust in direct lighting (same with my black countertop... I can't tell it is dusty until the sun is setting and the light hits it just right.) The floors show wet paw prints, when they dry, in any lighting! We have a patio cover that eliminates a lot of the direct lighting in our great room, so I rarely can see the floors are dusty. I would use lighter floors if the rooms had direct lighting all day!

Any time you use oil based paint, it must be 70 degrees or higher. Oil based paint takes a long time to dry and even longer to cure. I am curious how humid or damp the room is because the humidity and moisture will affect the drying time. Keep the room warm until the paint cures. Get your second coat on once it is dry enough. Don't wait a week to put your second coat on as the paint will be fairly cured and the surface will have to much sheen to accept the second coat.

1. I had a bucket of water with a little vinegar and wiped a section with a sponge. Then I'd take another sponge, wet it in the sink and wipe over the area and rinse the sponge in the sink again and wipe again. There was no glue that you could see when I started or finished, and I tried to feel if it was gone, but I it was hard to know for sure. 2. I really can't remember how long I waited before I applied Kilz. It was at least overnight, but I think it actually may have been a couple days later. 3. The GARDZ can said to apply it liberally but not too thick or it may sag. I thought I rolled it on thick enough, but who knows. Actually, the stickiest areas are in spots where I would have brushed it on around the door and shower. Does a brush apply it thicker than a roller? 4. It was Kilz 2 white latex sealer, primer, stainblocker. 5. No, a full coat of Kilz wasn't used. I just brushed on Kilz over the GARDZ on about a 3'X3' section of new drywall below the window, and around the window, and in several other very small spots where the orignal primer had peeled off a little. But those aren't the tacky areas - it is tacky where it is just the GARDZ and most tacky where I would have used a brush. What kind of mess have I gotten myself into? Sigh! Why is it risky to just prime back over it and then paint? Thank you all for trying to help!

Raul_in_mexico: Well, I'd prefer to spay non-breeding dogs before first heat to reduce chance of breast cancer from 25% (spaying after 3rd heat cycle) to less than 1%. Although women with genetic markers for breast cancer DO elect prophylactic radical mastectomies and I for one don't see anything wrong with that. And in breeds with high incidence of hip dysplasia I'd screen them with a distraction view radiograph at ~14 weeks so we could discuss doing a juvenile pelvic symphysidesis before the dog had excruciating pain and lameness and required a total hip replacement or FHO. The point being that there is no good predictive test that allows a vet to determine that THIS dog will at some point have GDV and THIS dog will not as with hip dysplasia. I'd love that GSD study cindyxeus posted to help find something that vets could use to determine more accurately which specific dogs are at risk. But until then, all we have is family history when available and breed. You can either wait until the dog is presented as an emergency with all sorts of odd stacked against it (usually older dogs, electrolyte imbalances, +/- stomach necrosis, shock) or do a prophylactic gastropexy while the dog is young and healthy and prevent the whole problem in the first place. Of course, the prophy pexy would have to be based on risk, but until we get a handle on what the risk factors actually are, all we have is breed and family history. I think that if a vet here in the US did not discuss the risk of GDV in at-risk breeds and ALL the preventative options, that the vet can and would be successfully sued for malpractice should that dog bloat. And to respond to the "lining the pockets" comment, it is MUCH less expensive to do the pexy prophylactically than when the dog actually bloats. OTOH, with the numbers you gave it is clear to me why you don't think GDV is a problem. The vet school sees about 12 per month and the animal hospital where I worked in a small NC town had about 9-12 patients per year get GDV, although not all were seen at the hospital. So you are not seeing it nearly as much as we are for some reason. If we were seeing such low case numbers as you are, I doubt we would be even having this discussion because it would be pointless. But we are seeing GDV a LOT, and people with at-risk breeds are intested in preventing it rather than dealing with it, especially considering the suffering to the dog and expense to the owner. But I certainly see your point and if it was as rare here as it is in your practice, I'd 100% agree with you.