Honoring our dead relatives. Every November 1, it has been a family tradition to visit and pray for our departed loved ones. We have a small and cozy mausoleum that houses the graves of our deceased relatives. Our family has always been in charge of cleaning it up a couple of days before Nov.1. These past years, I've been very busy with work and stuff that we usually just hire someone to clean it. But fortunately, I was able to free up some time this year to do it myself.
Usually, it's just a matter of dusting the place and mopping the floors. Since we buried my uncle early this year, his grave had raw cement that needed a coat of paint.
In fact, the whole place needs to be repainted ( the walls used to be cream but has since turned yellow over time).
We asked around how much it would cost to have it done and found out that labor costs around 800-1,000 pesos (2 workers for 1 day) excluding the materials. To save up on costs, I decided to DIY it! :)
First rule when painting, make sure the surface being painted is clean. It would have been nice to just hose done everything but water is such a rare commodity at cemeteries (goodluck finding a faucet). It costs 10 pesos to have a bucket of water delivered to you unless you're willing to fill up your bucket from the deep well located at far side of the cemetery. The thought of hauling 2 buckets full of water it under the scorching sun seemed to make the 10 pesos worth it. :) After sweeping the place, time to wipe down everything.
We had to conserve the buckets of water that we've ordered since it took a good 20 minutes to have it delivered and we're trying to save some money right? :)
I will be using Welcoat latex paint for this project (costs around 500 for a gallon) . This type of paint is commonly used with cement walls and costs cheaper than enamel.. We will paint everything white to make it look nice and clean.
I'll be using paint roller for the walls and brushes for the nooks and crannies. Paint rollers are really time savers. I've heard of people saying that using paint rollers consume a lot of paint, I'm not a professional at this but I think it's just the same. The real advantage is that you can cover a large surface with just 1 stroke. The biggest brush that I have is a 4 inch brush and what I bought is a 9 inch roller (104 pesos with the tray at handyman) - given its size, so I think it can cut my worktime in half :)
So creamy! It will be harder to apply paint if it is too thick so we need to thin it out.
What's good about latex paint is that it is water based - you can dillute it with water plus clean up is such a breeze - I don't have to worry about getting paint on me since I can just wash it away with water :)
I started painting at the farthest wall and worked my way out.
Dip the roller in the tray and roll it a couple of times in the tray's ridges to avoid wasting paint on drips and splatters.
The first coat is always not that encouraging but it will look better once the succeeding coats are applied.
The paint dried quickly and by the time I was done first coating everything - the ones I painted first was dry and ready for the next coat. I applied three coats of paint for this project - mixing a new batch with a little less water for each coat.
The gravemarkers or the "lapida" (in tagalog) needed some TLC as well. I tried to paint the details and markings with black enamel. Unfortunately, it was time consuming and given that we have shorter days in the "-ber" months, we had to pack up early and I was unable to finish retouching all the black markings.
It started getting dark at around 5PM and we didn't want to still be there (with all the other graves) once the sun completely sets. (freaky)
Back at home, I had an idea of using permanent markers (pentel pen) instead of black paint. When we got back on November 1, I decided to put my theory to the test. My favorite niece helped out and the results were surprising.
It was so easy and effective. I'm sure that the black paint will last longer than the pentel pen ink but that's okay. We'll just do a retouch next year.
Not bad for half a day's work. I hope that the paint doesn't fade next year but given that this is a budget paint job - I'm not keeping my hopes up. Maybe I'll start cleaning up earlier next year :)
To our Lolo's and Lola's, Uncles, Aunt, Cousins, and friends who's already gone before us - please continue to guide us and pray for us up there and say hi to the Big Man and his Son for us :)
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