If you prime the existing paper with Shieldz or other wall covering primer that will stick to the vinyl then you will not need the VOV. Vov is mainly for applying borders over existing vinyl paper.

The siding was installed in November and was caulked at that time. Unfortunately the temperatures dropped from 70 to 30 overnight and didn't warm up again until April. We live in Iowa so the siding has seen its share of rain & snow and now finally warm sunlight. It seems to look the same as the day it was installed other than being a little muddy near the foundation. Every painter that has been out to look at it has said that they will clean it well and apply two coats of paint. The only major discrepancy between the bids is whether they prime the whole thing or just spot prime the areas that are caulked or cut plus the cedar porch rails. Only one painter has wanted to prime the whole thing and his bid is $2100 more than the next guy. Money is definately tight right now as we just finished building and are still in the process of closing on our mortgage. I'd love to save the $2100 but then again its not worth it if it results in an inferior paint job and we end up having to redo it in a few years. Thanks for any advice you can give me.

@dilly_dally & Homebodymom - Thanks for the compliments. According to the neighbors, the house used to be cranberry red with green furniture and the kitchen had an Elvis theme - wood counters with glass overlay on an Elvis decoupage! The fireplace is in our current family room and the television is over the fireplace. I get a lot of compliments on my orange wall but I think it doesn't mesh well with my couches: This is the Olympic Antique Red in the dining room: This is my wall when it was Pumpkin Butter (Christmas time with my niece): In a perfect world, my couches would look like this: I'm not crazy about the wall color in that photo. My sofa is a sleeper sofa so I don't want to use a slip cover on it. I have thought about covering the loveseat though. Hubby has ruled out painting the living room blue. If you can ignore the mess, this is the family room view from the sunroom: The bookshelf normally isn't there. I've thought about moving the sleeper sofa to other side of the wall and bringing this one into the family room with the loveseat: I also have this picture that was on the Pumpkin Butter wall behind my niece: Another goal of mine is to use whatever trim color from the living rooms in the kitchen on the ultra white cabinets. They were not painted well (someone just ran a paintbrush over the doors so when they're open, you can see the original off-white color the cabinets use to be) and I'd like to tie rooms together that way. The black granite countertops are kind of throwing me off though since there isn't black anywhere else in the house - just the countertop and the appliances. We're also hoping to get rid of the awful cherry laminate in the kitchen. I will also be redoing the ugly white and maroon backsplash. Maybe a white tile with some black accents - something along these lines: Sorry if I've rambled. When I try to talk to my husband about all of this, his eyes kind of glaze over. :)

Sammy- thanks! I've heard about Gardz- wasn't sure if it was the right stuff for my situation but the pictures you included of both products were helpful as they clearly state that they "seal and penetrate" porous surfaces like joint compound. Excellent! The Roman Rx35 says to NOT use it over oil-based paint :( So I guess that is out. (https://images.homedepot-static.com/catalog/pdfImages/cb/cb15eea9-b75f-4261-ac3a-3bdcd59a0c09.pdf ) Gardz product info says it CAN be used over oil-based paint provided the paint is "slightly sanded" and cleaned first. Yay! That would solve most of my conundrums!!! though sanding such a huge surface area isn't a step I'm looking forward to..... the "nice" wall without all the JC/patches/drywall is pretty big. But I'll do it. One remaining question is about the areas where there are holes/gaps at the edges of the large drywall patch--should the first step be to patch these (using JC/tape etc), or should I paint Gardz over, apply some JC, then paint a second coat of Gardz....I'm guessing, apply the JC/tape first? Final set of Qs for now: when patching the holes where the phone line used to be. is patch compound ("Easysand 5") better than either the pre-mixed JC or the powdered EasySand 45? will any or all of these adhere to the oil-based paint? or better to patch after the area's been painted with the Gardz? I can't wait to get some Gardz and get this project moving along!