Shoot any dark stains with a Kilz rattle can (white shellac type) then roll on a coat of oil-based primer like Fresh Start quick dry. Wear a respirator. There will be no stains in the finish coat, and adhesion is guaranteed over any previous coatings.
Casey

Clean and dull is the important step on walls. Wash the walls with Dirtex, then sand with a #120 drywall sanding screen on a sanding pole (after all patching is dry). Be sure to remove all sanding dust. Be sure to wash prior to sanding. This may seem counterproductive, but sanding before washing embeds the surface dirt and grime, decreasing paint adhesion.

Since it's been years, and the walls have been neglected, I recommend a prime coat prior to paint. Fresh Start acrylic primer is fine on walls after cleaning and dulling.

If Zinsser Smart Prime is available in your area, you may use that primer for all surfaces, ceiling, walls, trim, etc. It blocks and seals just like alkyd primers. If you're more comfortable with oil to block stains, Zinsser Cover Stain spray will give you the best results.

There are many options of paint products, but the most important steps are preparation and attention to details.

Thank you both for your replies. I'd actually rather not use oil paints if possible, soap and water is a much easier clean-up. I also don't have a respirator and would like to avoid purchasing one if possible.

Time is my biggest problem since I will be working on this project after work and on weekends. (And the holidays are coming and she wants to move in by the end of the year!) Nonetheless, I'll definitely wash with Dirtex and lightly sand after.

There's a Benjamin Moore in town so my wall finish coats will probably be in Aura, since I've used that before and reallly like how it goes on. Unfortunately, the helpfulness and knowledge level of the local BM staff varies, but I'll try to talk to someone about the benefits of Fresh Start Quick Dry vs Acrylic primer.

The goal is to do our best making the place clean and liveable within our time and budget constraints, not super perfect at this point since further renovations will probably be done down the road as time and $$ permits. (But since she's only 23 and doesn't make a lot of money, those improvements will be far between.)

Thanks for the help, I'm sure I will have a lot more questions as this project goes on.

At 23 you are blessed that she is making ANY $$ at all!!!

You are not going to be able to kill real stains with latex or acrylic primer though. They will just bleed right through. Just use the spray can of Kilz on the stains at least. The smell doesn't linger for long and there are no tools to clean if you are spraying.

You are not going to be able to kill real stains with latex or acrylic primer though.

Brush says that Smart Prime works.

christophern, you're right, we are proud of her and feel very blessed. Although we didn't agree with buying the house at first, she convinced us that buying makes more sense than renting. Plus, she has a good friend who will move in and pay 1/2 of the mortgage as rent.

I did pick up a spraycan of original kilz and will hit the bad spots prior to the smartprime. We did have some stain bleed into the new texture - at least I hope it was stain bleed instead of a roof leak since it did rain while we were on vacation! I'll be doing the GI Joe crawl in the tiny attic to check it out this weekend.

Still looking for Dirtex since they only had TSP at Lowe's. Did stock up on buckets and sponges and sandpaper and putty and spray texture and ........

Thanks again for all the input!

Sounds like you are on the right track and your'e daughter sounds like she has her head on straight (:-)

If you use the TSP , make sure you rinse well, then do it again

and again

I was unable to find Dirtex at the recommended (and fairly local) sites, so I ordered mine from Amazon. While I did have to pay for shipping, the total was still a very small amount of $, and it seemed worth it not to have to worry about repeated rinsing.

Thanks - we just poured in a bit of windex and a pinch of oxyclean and washed with that. May not have been perfect, but we got a lot of dirt and all the drywall dust off the walls.

I've been spending time carving old drips off the wall and flaring out old patches - who spackles and just paints without sanding first!! Who touches up with shiny paint and leaves deep brushmarks!! (LOL) I am spackling and hitting all my weird areas with a spray orangepeel texture to blend better with the stippled walls. We'll see how well I did later when I primer over everything.

I ended up buying Aqua Lock since it was on sale and recommended by the owner of the local Ben Moore store - he told me the Fresh Start would be overkill (?). I did have a small amount of bleed through from a water stain, but I hit it with a better layer of Kilz spray and re-primered, now it looks great.

We tinted a few gallons tan for the walls, so I'm off to start cutting in the living/dining room.

Question: It seems like the top half of the hallway was painted over wallpaper sometime in the past. Some (1/4") is peeled out at the ceiling, so my plan is to cut the loose strip off with an exacto knife and caulk the edge. Sound OK?

. Some (1/4") is peeled out at the ceiling, so my plan is to cut the loose strip off with an exacto knife and caulk the edge. Sound OK?

While you are at, caulk ALL the edges to keep it from happening again

Will do, that's the project for tonight when I get off work. Thanks for the feedback!

any time

Just an update: Things are going well and I'm happy with all my patching, texturing and priming. Most of my fixes blend right into the wall. (Not that it's perfect, just oh so much better than it was.)

Now I need some tips on painting the ceiling, but I'll start a new thread for that.

Thanks!