You will get the best results by thoroughly loosening what you have to a depth of at least 6"-8". The reason for this is: with a loose base, the grass roots can grow down deeply into the soil and form a strong grass plant that is far more tolerant of heat and that can get really thick and keep weeds out. Just a shallow inch of fresh stuff on top, and the roots stay in that shallow inch. When the roots are just in that shallow inch, the grass needs a lot more water, is weaker and more easily stressed by our hot weather. Deep loosening of the soil is really more important than amending the soil. Grass will grow in anything in Southern California, given sufficient water and fertilizer.

We had to have a very large portion of the floor in our new home removed and replaced TWICE, and it was a mess both times. The floor was wide plank engineered wood glued to a cement substrate. This is what I learned. The dust was insidious and was everywhere. If possible, I suggest turning off your HVAC and covering the registers so dust does not go inside. Also, place towels along the doorways so dust doesn't get underneath into other rooms. My husband and I covered almost everything with plastic sheeting held with painter's tape. (The tape did remove some paint from the ceilings but it wasn't too bad). We tried to hang the sheeting from ceiling to floor to block off areas where the floor wouldn't be replaced. This was difficult as our first floor is very open. It took a long time to cover everything, but it did help. I hope everything goes well.

sonal, I don't know the condition of your kitchen. Only you would know that, so here are a few things you might examine as far as prep. Are your walls subject to moisture, where does the moisture when cooking something on the stove go to? Do you have good ventilation? Are your walls subject to grease splatters or food splatters? Most of the time kitchens as we all know them can be a little more messy than our other rooms. Yes, I like chloe's suggestions for cleaning your walls if they consist of any of the above. Make any necessary repairs if needed, sand, make sure all dust is removed, prime with a medium gray primer(battleship gray); let dry and then paint with one of your chosen colors. 2 coats . Question: Have you painted with the Aura paint before? It starts to set up a little quicker than the typical vinyl acrylics do, so just know when you roll on the Aura, just roll and keep moving. Don't keep rolling back and forth or do not go back into the paint once you have brushed or rolled. Pick up any holidays,etc on the second coat. Watch the temperature in the room also. good luck. :) finished color should look great.

I would stop scrubbing. Just use the tsp alt, warm water, and sponge or rag. I live in California, so oil based paints are not accessible to me. BM Alkyd Advance paint is waterborne, not oil. I'm not a expert but I think their Satin Impervo is the oil based cabinet paint. In any case, I used BM Advance with great success on my cabinets and all my trim and molding. Primer is subjective. Everyone has an opinion on which is best to use. Your best bet if you are painting over questionable or different surfaces (water/oil) is to use a Shellac based primer like Zinsser BIN. You can use whatever after that. Here's the rule: Don't apply oil-based paint over latex; but you can put latex paint over oil-based, as long as you prepare the surface properly first. Start by finding out if the existing paint is oil or latex by rubbing the surface with denatured alcohol on a rag. If some of the paint comes off on the rag, it's latex.