I have a booklet that I prepared. I can email it to you at your request. Simply email me. The oak grain can be filled with a grain filler. BM has that. I happen to like the painted oak grain. It's preference, of course. If you're going to go black, alkyd (oil) is the only practical solution. I never recommend oils unles it's black. BM Impervo is available in black. girlwithaspirin did an amazing job on her cabinets..in black. Michael

I decant extra paint (from opened paint cans) into as many tip-tip full canning jars (of varying sizes) as necessary to contain it. Then I clean out the gallon can carefully so the label is intact (or remove it beforehand) and then put the canning jars back in the now-empty can and reseal it. That way I keep all the label info connected to the paint. Drill little holes in the handles of your paint brushes so you can thread in a wire (cut from coat-hanger type wire) and suspend the brushes without the bristles touching the bottom of the container and without the ferrules (metal part of the brush above the bristles) being under the water or solvent when leaving them to soak during breaks or between workdays on the same job. If using solvent as a soak (oil-based paints) have a container with a tight-fitting plastic lid that you pierce with a tight-fitting hole for the brush handle to protrude up through. If you are painting a room with the same color from more than one gallon can, then take the trouble to "box" it all together before starting in order eliminate slight color differences bewteen cans. Boxing means pouring it all together into one pail stirring and re-filling the cans (easiest, but messiest) or removing a good part of the gallon from one can and refilling with part of each other gallon and repeating until all the gallons have been admixed, and re-stirred. This ensures that if you have subtle differences between gallons that even if you start a new can in the middle of a wall, there will be no problem. If you can't do this, then try to start new cans at a wall break, keeping the remainders separate, and then pouring them all together and starting as if that was a new can. Working without boxing will make it harder for later near-invisible touch-ups, which is why boxing it all at the beginning is wisest. If you run out of paint and must buy more then, always re-start at a corner, or wall break. When spinning out roller covers (sorry Faron, I do this with all my good quality ones, especially on multi-day jobs using the same paint) put a large trash bag inside a big trash can and spin away within it. This contains the droplets where they can't get into trouble. Roller spinners are expensive, but worth it. I use them for paint brushes, too, prior to final hand shaping for drying. Save the covers from your brushes to store them in after cleaning and drying. Don't start painting w/o at least a roll (preferably two) of paper towels immediately at hand. These are rescue sopper-uppers in the event of an emergency paint spill. I once overturned a nearly-full gallon of oil-based enamel on an unsealed brick hearth (don't ask how stupid I was that day to allow it to happen!) Because I had the towels right there (and a gallon of solvent) I was able to get it all up with not a bit remaining in the pores of the bricks. But only by the good luck of having a new multi-pack of Bounty in the room. Buy good canvas drop cloths, and wash and store them for re-use. They are safer and will make your painting easier and less fraught. I use these under ladders and by walls I am painting. For other parts of the room and piled-up stuff not near the paint work, I use old bed sheets to cover. Bed sheets will catch little droplets, but only canvas will contain anything more serious. Take the trouble to learn to cut-in by hand. If you can apply eyeliner, you can cut in. It's much, much, faster than taping and makes a better looking job since you can easily fill in tiny little wall squiggles as you go along. It's partly in having good tools (properly sized, well-flagged and angled brushes) and also learning just how much to load it for the paint you are using. (Each new paint will require a bit of observation and trial and error to get the hang of cutting with it.) I like to start a big job with at least two cutting brushes ready for use so if one becomes over-saturated I can set it aside and keep on. Practice cutting with a new paint in an inside corner where both adjacent walls will be the same color, not at the ceiling/wall intersection or along door or window jambs. By using the corner your hand will get the hang of that particular paint, with less need for clean ups as it will all get covered with the same color. The same for trim: don't pratice at the intersection of wall and trim, practice at a place where two surfaces of the trim meet each other. Try not to paint if you are really tired, distracted or under heavy time pressure. That's when mistakes happen. Very good light (high wattage) from two angles makes it easier to cut and roll more evenly. When I was in college in the early 70's the University was trying to increase their Equal Employment numbers by adding female workers to their maintenance crews. I had a part-time job with the painters. Those guys schooled me in the ways of professional work. They insisted that (real) painters didn't wind up with paint all over themselves, even their hands. They heckled me mercilessly until I learned to work clean. They also taught me not to leave "holidays", that's places where the rolling was too thin and the primer or previous paint shows through. HTH, L.

I would paint the ceiling first with a 1/2" nap, semi-rough roller cover. When you cut-in the ceiling line, cut down on to the crown molding with the ceiling paint. This creates a smooth surface for the sage topcoat. Use the brush, a 2" angled sash brush to trim the molding up to the ceiling, pushing the paint up toward the ceiling, then flowing it out with the brush. While painting the molding, overlap on to the wall surface below about an inch. Finish painting the crown molding. When cutting in the wall to the molding, cut up toward the molding, pushing the paint up, then flowing it out evenly with the sash brush. Did I help? Michael

I'd say leave them alone and feed them as normally you should according to the instructions on the label, especially as the trees were recently stressed. If the roots were damaged from the leaf stress, you should not be using high dose fertilizer while they are recovering as they will not be able to take it up fast enough so it will remain in the growing media. If the media dries out the salts from the fertilizer will burn the roots. The fertilizer burns when it is dry not when it is liquid. Roots usually grow really well in air pots once the plant has time to adapt to the repot. You might have to make sure you are watering enough as the media probably is drying fast with the airy, fast draining media and air pots, especially in a hot, dry, sunny, windy, climate. Did you soak the media before you planted the tree in it? It takes a while for the bark to be able to absorb water when it is new. You might have to water every day with those conditions and also more often because the bark is new and has not decayed yet to easily absorb and hold the water. You said the trees got stressed and lost their leaves while you were away. They probably were not watered enough as it would be hard to overwater in your mix in an air pot like you are using. Looks like a Rootmaker pot. The trees are probably just now recovering. The tops look healthy green in the pictures, so I think you should just leave them alone and have patience and the roots will grow to match the tops. Citrus trees grow in cycles with the roots, tops and flowers growing at separate times throughout the year. When they look like they are not growing, that is usually when the roots are growing. Be patient, try watering a little more often, and fertilize per directions until the trees get stronger and used to their new growing conditions. The higher dose fertilizer may also be causing them to push new growth too fast with the high level of nitrogen you are giving them resulting in weak growth. Slow it up and let this new growth harden up. Also, if the cutting was taken from a sideways growing branch rather than a verticle growing branch, it's growth will have more of a tendency to grow more horizontally and weepy rather than more upright. Good luck. I think you will have great success in the Rootmaker pots. Cory