This thread has reminded me of one of my many nightmare stories about fire ants. These ants are simply a part of life in much of the warmer parts of this country. I was living in S. Carolina at the time. I got into my car, backed down the driveway, and started down the road. After about two or three minutes, I felt a sharp sting on my calf. Immediately, I felt stings all over, including down my blouse. A huge swarm of the ants had entered my car at some point from the time I had driven it earlier in the day till the moment they all tried to sting me at once. The nurses counted dozens and dozens of stings from my toes to the top of my head. I was bothered by 'phantom' ant stings for months after that, lol.

I am in the Twin Cities area and I agree with the knockdown/texture being popular. However...don't confuse popular with desirable. Knockdown is "popular" because it hides imperfections, so a less than stellar job can be covered, which contractors LOVE. If you do a quick glance through your MLS, you will see that houses for sale that have smooth ceilings and walls are advertised as such, it's seen as a plus. Nobody brags about the knockdown. When I got my 70's popcorned ceilings scraped, the contractor tried to talk me into knockdown. I held my ground fast and now I have lovely smooth ceilings that look higher than before when they were textured. Which is a strong plus when the ceilings are only 8 ft to begin with :-) If you actually have a choice, I strongly urge you to go with smooth. Nobody is going to say "look at that lovely knockdown/orange peel!", but if you have smooth walls that you paint with a gorgeous full spectrum paint or a soft suede finish, now that's the kind of texture that will elicit oohs and aaahs. Joanna

Rough up the painted surface first, then skim coat,sand where needed, prime and topcoat. You might look into primer recommendations from the mfgr of the chalk board paint as well as if two top coats are necessary over the primer.

Granted, smooth walls are very hard to do well, and every little nick or wave in the drywall shows. But when done well, and painted well, it's pretty amazing. And it makes the room look bigger because you lose a visual sense of where the wall actually is, especially if you use a flat finish. I just got so tired of 11 years of that knock-down collecting so much dust and dirt. Another alternative is that with each successive painting of your textured walls, the pattern disappears as the paint builds up. When we bought our house, I immediately painted the bedrooms and noticed a huge difference, especially since I used 2 coats. I didn't do the common areas, and you could see the ridges and plateaus much more easily. To each his/her own.