Hi all. Thanks for the help. Antss, I found the technical specs you mentioned and now see that yes, of course, it is available in all bases for mixing. The BM site is a bit confusing on that, as for the waterborne satin impervo they specified not only what premixed colors are available but also which bases for custom made colors. On the alkyd base one there is no mention of the bases being available, only the premixed colors, leading me to conclude that the company had phased out the alkyd based custom colors. As for my contractor...I'm pretty sure that this is yet another case of combining incompetence with cheapness. BM paint is sold only in two places in the Baltimore area...by Ace hardware stores and one paint store that's inconveniently located. I've used my local Ace to buy all the BM paints for walls and trim elsewhere in the house and they've been great. But I guess they aren't as knowledgeable about the lesser used lines, such as the alkyd Satin Impervo. So, when the contractor went to the Ace store, I suspect he was genuinely misled. What I really fault him for was for not calling me and asking what I wanted to do rather than proceeding to paint with the latex. Had he asked, I would have explored other options, including asking here sooner....and hopefully found out that I COULD get what I wanted. Boxer, what is on the cabinets now is latex. The yellow cabs are BM waterborne satin impervo and the green is the Ace Brand. And, as I said, I can't imagine extending this nightmare any further, so I am stuck with it. I'm not at all happy with the quality of the doors and drawer fronts in other ways as well...they are poplar, rather than birch or maple...so soft and dent easily. But I'm resigned to living with them for a few years. Then, I hope to have new fronts made in a harder wood. When that happens, I may go through the effort of scraping and priming the exposed frames and side panels to repaint all in the oil/alkyd base BM I wanted in the first place. Till then, the photos will look good...but no one should look too closely!

It's discouraging that a paint store would give out advice that you don't need to sand. I don't think that an oil based primer is going to grip any better than a latex one either. If we were really going for adhesion, we would use BIN which is shellac based. Also, priming the oil based paint layer before painting with latex is not nearly as important as sanding it. I paint latex over oil all the time without a primer, but I do that because I know how to sand. Some homeowners may not know how to sand properly, so using a bonding primer is just an added safeguard. The best thing you can do is sand, then dust away the sanding dust and prime, then apply two topcoats. I would not mess around with the oil based priemr either. Just use a good bonding all acrylic primer like Fresh Start, Zinnser 123, C2 One, etc.

Yes that primer should work fine.

This happened to us as well. Owners painted all of the trim in a white latex over oil. Long process but it will work. We first peeled, and what we couldn't we used a scraper like these. Of course put on a mask for lead paint and gloves. Make sure you have plenty of air ventilation and a vacuum. After you scrape all latex paint you LIGHTLY sand with 120 grit or 100, the object of the whole thing is to create a matte surface or a surface where the primer and paint will adhere to. Once you remove all the latex the oil should be shinny, the object is to remove the shine. A lot of elbow grease but it worked wonders for us. Don't go crazy just lightly sand enough to take the shine off. Vacuum and clean up everything so particles won't be in the air and before you wipe with water and sponge. Change the water often. After that you clean up the surface with a sponge. Do this at least 3x until no debris is left. Run your fingers, if you still see a white powdery substance do a dry wipe with a painter cloth. Once the surface is dry and prepped you add your primer. We used this one. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Zinsser-Cover-Stain-1-gal-White-Oil-Based-Interior-Exterior-Primer-and-Sealer-4-Pack-3501/202058888 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Zinsser-1-qt-B-I-N-Shellac-Based-White-Interior-Primer-and-Sealer-00904/100398380 Either one is fine. We applied it with a small roller to cover the large areas and a brush on the small areas. We did 2 coats to make sure the oil paint did not bleed through. After you leave it to dry for about a day you can paint. We used semi-gloss. Looks great now. The work is all worth it. We have been doing a room at a time as our Tudor house is full of trim. Gotta be honest, I curse the old owners every time we work on a room! Good luck!!