Ppbenn, thanks for the response. Paint is so funny. I look at it and look at it...on the wall...on my painted boards...day and night. I am so sympathetic towards you for having painted all of those times in your kitchen, but I can understand the need for color perfection. The soapstone sink will be new. I got the idea to make it myself after I fashioned my own soapstone counters (with the help of my DH for the heavy lifting and strategic planning). NOBODY wanted to help me so we were on our own. I loved working on the stuff so I will make my own sink for the bathroom. I think I am a natural sculptor. After I get back from a retreat at the end of April I will start on this remodel and the sink build. The carpenter will build my sink cabinet sort of like I've drawn. I want the sink to function as a nice bathroom sink and a laundry sink. This room is a hard working room in our home. Hope it all works out. The faucet will be a Hansgrohe wall mount Montreux, in chrome. The spout actually adjust from 6-8" from the wall, which is perfect for me since I will be building my own sink and lord knows where the drain will end up :) Initially I wanted to go with brushed nickel for the warm look, but I got a good deal on the bath filler in chrome, so chrome it was. I am happy with this cause I like the shine. Here is the faucet for the sink:

I am a builder: In June of 2009 we received shipment of interior MDF doors from Holzkraft. The doors arrived pre-primed from the manufacturer. Being a LEED project, zero VOC latex paints were used. The painter lightly sanded the pre-primed doors, used a tack cloth to remove any loose paint and applied a Benjamin Moore paint, Eco Spec. product directly to the door. The paint did not stick to the door and could easily be removed with a light scratch. We called the paint store who lined up an on-site meeting with the Eco Spec. representative who confirmed the techniques being used by the painter were part of the correct process for his product. He suggested we use a primer to go over the manufacturers primer. The painter then primed all the doors before applying the final coat. The finish paint adhered to the new primer. Two years later the homeowner has noticed several areas were the paint has been removed with the least amount of effort. The confusing part of the equation is the painter used the same process on the MDF baseboards and casing through out the house and the home owner is seeing no signs of problems. I am in the process of hiring a surface engineer who has assured me that his firm will find the problem. I will post the results.

Thanks for the feedback so far. Yeah, my bad, I just did some more research and realized there are various meanings of prep, etc... for drywall. I had initially been thinking that in order to be paint-ready, the drywall had to be mudded all over. I now realized just the joints, screws, etc. need to be mudded. My contractor did in fact do that, and tells me the only thing left to do (that he doesn't do) is sand it and prime it, which I assume(???) is simple to do. So aside from sanding, priming and painting is there anything else I'm missing as far as being 'paint ready'? And if sanding is not as easy as I hope (especially for an entire basement area), is this something someone might do for me (or is it still too small of a job for them unless they do the painting as well)? On a related note, if I do decide to hire a painter for the basement, do they charge a lot more because they'll need to sand/prime, as opposed to just paint (I assume they do, just wondering how much more). We're just using regular paint (probably Benjamin Moore Aura) in an eggshell finish. Sorry if I sound like an idiot with any of this, I've just never dealt with new drywall (I've painted many walls over the years, but never 'unfinished' drywall). Thanks again.

I am a huge fan of 2 tone kitchens, but I am also biased as I have had this in my kitchen for about 8 years now. I was worried I might tire of it or it would become overly trendy, but hasn't happened yet. I also love the quarter sawn oak. I grew up in a huge old farmhouse and many of the built ins were the big old oak. I think the two would go very well together. Would it go with the rest of the house? Is your other woodwork painted? what about floors? Also meant to add that my lowers are stained charcoal, but another member here had stained wood lowers in her old kitchen that looked lovely. Maybe she will post some pics. This post was edited by daisychain01 on Thu, Jan 8, 15 at 7:34