Oh, that was confusing, wasn't it? The first set of cabinets I used the STIX, which I really like. When I got 22 cabinet doors, I thought I was going to lose my mind painting them in 104 F heat. I sucked it up and went to Duron and got the Spray Zinzer. You know how it's recommended to sand between coats? With the spray can, I definately had to. It was definitely rough. However, after an actually light sanding, it was just fine. The STIX was far smoother (and thicker from the brush application) and also only needed a light sand. I think I kind of cheated. On the 2nd coat of primer for the doors, I used the STIX around the frames where they'd get the most use. Particularly on the uppers and base drawer fronts where I might kick it shut. I wasn't concerned about the flat panels because I live alone and was (practically beaten silly as a child) trained not to touch the cabinet doors, but to use the handle. I also am incapable of touching the car windows, glass screen doors, or make finger or lip prints on a glass. Hmm.. I think I just discovered yet another aspect of not only my OCD, but from where it stemmed. Hmmm.... The thing I stand firm on, actually is the Cabinet Coat. I will use it on every trim and cabinet in my house. [she cried out, pointing finger in the air!] Anyway, just do it. It's just paint.

If you're near a C2 dealer, I'd recommend the C2-One primer. It's a great stain-blocking Int/Ext Latex. To ME, it's VERY low odor. Lotsa nice comments from customers about it too. They designed it to be better than "123". OPTIONAL: If you're real fussy about smoothness, you can apply 2 coats of any of these primers. It'll give you slightly more "sanding-cushion". Wait a good half-day or more for primer to harden-off enough to sand well. C2 does have a higher-build primer called SAP...Sandable-Acrylic-Primer. It's ~ $30/gal., and sands real nice. This works good under "leveling" paints like Cabinet-Coat, & ACE's Cabinet & Trim paint. Faron

First...with this new design you will have a lot of counterspace...so I think you can easily give up 30" for a tall oven cabinet for either a double oven setup or a MW + single wall oven. Second, lower island counters...be sure you have enough room under a lower counter for the plumbing for a sink...check with a professional on this. IIRC, there are minimum lengths for some pipes...but I'm definitely not an expert! Also, be sure you have a deep enough overhang for comfortable seating. The NKBA recommendations for seating overhang are a minimum of: 18" for table-height seating (30" high) 15" for counter-height seating (36" high) 12" for bar-height seating (42" high) If your island will be lower than 36", then I recommend an overhang of 15" to 18"...the lower the counter, the larger the overhang. Pantry cabinet...if you have a good sized walk-in pantry, then I would not get a tall pantry cabinet. They aren't the most efficient storage for pantry items b/c they're so deep. Even with roll out tray shelves things can get lost. Think about a 24" x 24" raised surface with things stacked on it...easily seeing and getting to those items in the middle (or even the back) can be iffy. I think the better idea is the tall oven cabinet. If you need to store a few pantry items in the kitchen proper, use a drawer. You might even consider a drawer for storing baking supplies if you bake often enough to take up prime storage real estate for them. Refrigerator...if your refrigerator is a counter-depth or standard-depth, you will need to be sure the doors of your refrigerator extend out past the counters on the side...that is, if you want to be able to open the doors fully! So, you can recess only up to the refrigerator carcass (box). Also, plan for a 36"W x 72"H refrigerator even if you don't have one now. Refrigerators narrower than 36" and shorter than 72" or so are become less and less common. Plan for the future since refrigerators, unfortunately, no longer outlast remodels. You will most likely need a new refrigerator 10 years or so from now, even if you're buying it new now. So, make the recessed area that size as well as build the "surround" for the refrigerator with an alcove that size. If you are not going to have any upper cabinets on the wall with the refrigerator, then consider building in the refrigerator with walls instead of finished end panels. When you have upper cabinets, I think finished end panels look better, but when the refrigerator is "stand alone", I think dry-walled walls look better...they don't make the refrigerator stand out and scream "refrigerator". However, walls are approx 4.5" wide, so you will need 9" of space for those walls. Remember, too, that counters are actually 25.5" deep, not 24"...they extend approx 1.5" past the cabinets so they cover the doors and a little bit more. This is to protect your cabinets & doors from spills...the overhang directs spills past the...

You know, back in my new construction days, we painted plenty of garages with no primer and never had problems. It's important to know that if you skip priming and just use the paint, this doesn't automatically mean paint failure. You could just have some bad drywall there that paint just isn't going to stick to for whatever reason. I will say though that when you have a special situation like this where you are having a hard time getting paint to adhere and you apply Kilz2 as your problem solving primer, you haven't really made an attempt to solve the problem. That's how bad of a primer Kilz2 is. I'm not saying that if you use Stix or some other high quality bonding primer that your problems will be solved for sure because I don't know and this situation seems really strange to be having mass paint failure in a garage like this when moisture isn't the culprit. All I'm saying is that it's not hard to get paint to stick to drywall...like you said, all the other garages in your neighborhood are fine. One other thing comes to mind here though....what if the original paint was frozen and used after the paint thawed or the paint was applied when the temps were too cold? That could screw up adhesion for sure.