I'm back

Sorry for no post last night. I was on the bike at 6:00 a.m. and didn't stop moving until I got home about 9:30 p.m. Anything I would have written at that point would have been nonsense or worse.
The portion of the day spent at the clinic resulted in some mudding of spots that needed a third coat and getting the counter top installed. Once I set the it on the cabinets I saw how uneven the back wall was. That meant sanding the back splash to make it fit snugly against the wall.
I went from the clinic to the double wide where I installed all the vinyl. She had a few small things she needed fixed and about 6 burned out light bulbs. She's 88, has limited mobility, and couldn't begin to stand on anything to reach a light bulb. Kind of sad, actually, that she has to pay someone to change her light bulbs when she has family in town.
I met the kids for dinner at Chick-Fil-A and then we went over to the clinic so Josh could show me where the swings should go. I'll explain later, but I've figured out that he spends his day playing with children and calls it Occupational Therapy.
From there to our council meeting. We're asking the guy to make a few minor changes to our NEW WEB SITE including the "Contact Us" page. We talked about some other things too. Mostly I'm very pleased with our progress of late.

I have a love/hate relationship with textured walls. The jobs I did in Michigan all had untextured walls, the standard there. That meant I had to do a careful job of mudding - three coats, sanding and sometimes additional work - to get a smooth, flat surface. That took a lot of time, and sometimes, after the paint went on, I'd see areas where imperfections showed. Drat!
Here all the walls are textured in one way or another. Orange peel, splatter, knock-down. Mix up the mud and water to the right consistency, put it in the hopper, crank up the compressor and blow it all over the wall.
The upside is that the texture covers all but the most major imperfections. I can get away with two layers of mud and very little sanding. That's the whole point; cut down on labor time and reduce job costs. Think of the savings for the builder putting up hundreds of homes.
Two problems. First, it's a messy wrestling match for one person. Even after I taped up plastic sheeting everywhere I still have plenty of cleanup for tomorrow.
But more than that, texture is one more nail in the coffin that holds craftsmanship. We've sacrificed it in the name of speed and cost effective methodologies. After I get these walls painted everyone will think they look great. I'll know otherwise - that under all that blown-on spatter are middling seams and unsanded ridges.
Which would I rather do - sweat over a 12' wall flat and smooth or slap on two coats of mud and a layer of splatter?
Maybe the real problem is that I'm inclined to say the latter.